Martin Atkins was one of the key figures in the industrial music scene throughout the 1990s, both in the UK and the USA.

When he left his position as drummer for Public Image Ltd, Martin Atkins adopted the pseudonym Brian Brain and recorded the album Unexpected Noises (Secret, 1980).

A few years later, Atkins revisited the idea for the EP Fun With Music (Plaid, 1985), and especially for the album Time Flies When You're Having Toast (Moving Target, 1987), his official introduction to a universe of danceable noise (sound experiments over a highly propulsive, almost hip-hop-like rhythmic bed). Atkins was in fact inspired by Peter Gabriel and his fusion of funk, electronics, and world music, as shown by Who Hung The Monkey; though he was clever enough to absorb a dose of dark absurdity (Sex For The Sake Of Sex).

After his successes with Killing Joke and a brief stint with Jourgensen in Ministry around 1989, Atkins, now relocated to Chicago, founded Pigface—a kind of industrial supergroup centered around key figures in the genre: drummer Bill Rieflin (Ministry), keyboardist William Tucker (Thrill Kill Kult), bassist Paul Raven (Killing Joke), guitarist Matt Schultz, bassist Andrew Weiss, and a rotating roster of vocalists, including Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks), Lesley Rankine (Silverfish), Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Nivek Ogre (Skinny Puppy), Mary Byker (Gaye Bykers On Acid), and En Esch (KMFDM).

The most appealing aspect of Gub (Cherry Red, 1991) is precisely the alternation of vocalists. While the music itself is not particularly original or diverse, each track features a different voice, keeping the album from ever sounding boring. Among the standouts are Connelly (especially in the dissonant raga of Point Blank and the hard-rock minimalism of Little Sisters), Ogre (in the cacophony of Tapeworm), David Yow of the Jesus Lizard (in the wild Bushmaster), Esch (in the electronic nightmare of War Ich Nicht), and Reznor (in Suck, a psychotic soul track over a sparse instrumental backdrop). The unifying element is the frenzied drumming of Atkins and Rieflin, while electronics serve purely as noise. The album, however, is too ambitious to succeed as a cohesive musical work.

Welcome To Mexico Asshole (Invisible, 1991) is a roughly recorded live album, featuring another self-indulgent and pedantic experiment (Love Serenade, twelve minutes of noise) and a nostalgic imitation of Killing Joke, TFWO.

Pigface became a full-fledged band, not just a studio project, with Fook (Invisible, 1992). This album smooths out the rough edges and pretentiousness of its predecessor and adopts a more rock-oriented format. The core band (Atkins, Schultz, Tucker, Raven, Weiss) was joined by Barbara Hunter (Roundhead) on cello, but the guest vocalists still dominate, elevating the otherwise laborious instrumental parts: Esch (Alles Ist Mine), Byker (Seven Words and Satellite), Esch and Ogre (Go and I'm Still Alive).
Highlights of the album include Hips Tits Lips Power, an infernal industrial-thrash metal dance inspired by Silverfish’s Big Bad Baby Pig Squea, and I Can Do No Wrong, a rowdy, Valpurgian-sabbath track. Nevertheless, this is a producer’s album, valued more for its sound than its individual songs, which are mostly chaotic accumulations of expected sensationalism—ranging from sirens a` la Edgar Varèse to sultry female whispers, from tribal occult rituals to cosmic electronics—all mixed with the skill acquired over years of studio manipulation.

Washingmachine Mouth (Invisible, 1992) is Atkins’ alter ego, a remix album of Fook tracks, except for the previously unreleased Cutting Face.

The 1992 lineup, documented on the live album Truth Will Out (Invisible, 1993), featuring Jim Marcus (Die Warzau), Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV), and especially Hope Nicholls (Fetchin Bones), is arguably the best band Atkins ever assembled.

Atkins also recorded two electronic music EPs under the pseudonym Bizarr Sex Trio.

He then organized Love Interest, featuring Chris Connelly (vocals and keyboards), Mary Lynn Bowling (vocals), and David Simms (bass, of the Jesus Lizard). Their album, Bedazzled (Invisible, 1993), is simply a series of mixes of the soundtrack to Dudley Moore’s film of the same name and is one of the most tedious and banal albums in the genre.

Pigface increasingly became a generic name for Atkins’ studio experiments. Notes From The Underground (Invisible, 1994) includes collaborations with Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Jello Biafra, Mike Gira (Swans), Duane Dennison (Jesus Lizard), Alex Patterson (Orb), and twenty-four other musicians. The effort—flirting with raga in Empathy or country and western in the driving Divebomber (with Rankine in top form)—is still disproportionate to the results, though moments like the violent riff of Steamroller or the languid “Hendrixian” swoon of Chickasaw offer flashes of brilliance. Perhaps the happiest idea is Fuck It Up, which merges hip-hop, African tribalism, and noir film soundtracks. The only spark of life is in Magazine, where Hope Nicholls unleashes one of her wild dances.

Another remix album followed, Feels Like Heaven (Invisible, 1995), where, as before, the remixes often outshine the originals—especially Think, with its galactic riff and Clash-style chorus, and Asphole, a turbulent techno track with Arabic melismas.

Meanwhile, Schultz formed the Lab Report.

Like the Golden Palominos are to Anton Fier, Pigface is essentially Atkins. They deserve credit for cementing a circle of musicians united by a concept of making music, but they also exhibit the worst faults of industrial music: self-indulgence and pretentiousness. The saving grace of Atkins’ projects is almost always the high-profile guest vocalists.

Atkins, a minor kingpin of the industrial scene, is an excellent drummer, producer, and organizer; but lacking ideas, he too often presents neither challenges nor solutions, merely existing in his own style.

As an intellectual, Atkins has stubbornly tried to express anguish and psychosis through music that comes from the mind rather than the heart, but the typical problem of producers persists: their minds are well-fed and far from under stress.

The Best Of (Invisible, 2001) collects the best of Pigface.

Pigface's revolving cast drops a bunch of cute ideas on Easy Listening (Invisible, 2003), notably Insect Suspect, but this is hardly a cohesive album. It is, on the contrary, yet another random collection of tapes that Atkins happened to judge worthy of a release.