New trend: ‘Silent Industrial’ becomes the next big thing
New trend: 'Silent Industrial' becomes next big thing
Read our exclusive interview with silent industrial pioneer DJ Nullstille, founder of […] Recordings
In Brussels a new imprint for silent industrial has launched, simply called […]. Did we say Silent industrial? Yes, we did, because industrial music, known for its mix of noise and pounding aggression, has entered an unexpected phase: total silence.
This new anti-genre replaces the beats with complete auditory void. No speakers. No headphones. Just artists performing as if they’re unleashing mechanical chaos – while producing absolutely nothing. “We’re weaponizing the absence of sound,” says DJ Nullstille, founder of the […] label. “When you remove noise, all that’s left is raw intent.”
![DJ Nullstille, founder [...] Recordings](http://sideline.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Dj-nullstille-founder--recordings-scaled.jpg)
The label’s first release is an 11-track compilation which includes – among the 11 tracks – also the performance of Reverb, a live goldfish sealed in a vacuum chamber.
The full compilation is called “Feel the silence” and is out now via Bandcamp. “It symbolizes the existential tension between ambient noise and aquatic isolation,” according to label owner DJ Nullstille.
You can preview the tracks below, the full album is a free download, the separate tracks are €1.
Table of contents
Silent Industrial Festivals
The first Silent Industrial Festival is also a fact: Noize Nullpunkt. Location: Berlin, but the exact location remains undisclosed (attendees will be blindfolded and driven there). Tickets are €150 and include a blank wristband, a pamphlet of the imagined tracklists, and dried fish jerky shaped like the Ministry logo.
Venues across Berlin, Vienna, and even Ghent of all places have already started incorporating gigs into their club nights. At the Berlin-based club Club Beton for instance, a headliner ‘played’ a 30-minute set using unplugged gear and theatrical scowling during a Sunday set at the packed venue.
On X an attendee posted: “The crowd responded with interpretive stomping in total silence. Some wept. Others vaped. Others were too drunk, and were escorted out for making noise during the gig.” Apparently not many attendees demanded a refund of the €45 ticket.
Labels respond to Silent Industrial
Apart from the aforementioned Belgian [...] label, also the influential Mute Records is again taking the lead. Mute Records already released “STUMM433”, a compilation album honoring John Cage’s composition “4’33”. This project features 58 Mute artists, including Depeche Mode, New Order, and Moby, each offering their interpretation of the silent piece. The album is available as a five-CD box set and a deluxe vinyl box set, each signed by Mute founder Daniel Miller. Proceeds support the British Tinnitus Association and Music Minds Matter.
Here’s the Laibach track for instance.
Spotify changes position and joins the silent industrial movement
The silent industrial movement is not a new phenomenon if you think so. In 2014, the American band Vulfpeck released “Sleepify”, an album consisting of ten silent tracks, each approximately 31 to 32 seconds long. They encouraged fans to stream the album on repeat while sleeping, aiming to generate royalties to fund a free concert tour. It resulted in approximately $20,000 in earnings before Spotify removed the album for violating content policies.
However, more recently Spotify again allowed these silent albums, impressed by the streaming numbers of the “Is this what we want” album which already raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. Even more, the streaming platform will give priority to these releases and will even offer an easy to use platform to produce these silent releases. The offer comes with just $25 in mastering costs, a bargain.
Critics and imitators
Not everyone is sold. One techno producer dismissed the genre as “an excuse to charge €18 for standing still in a basement while a bald man adjusts imaginary dials.” Others accuse Silent Industrial of elitism, sonic nihilism, or “performance art gone feral.”
Some critics point to its growing resemblance to ritualized boredom, with one reviewer describing a recent gig as “what it feels like to be stuck in a Windows loading screen — but with fog and a strobe.”
Back in the Silent Industrial camp, things aren’t all zen either. One artist, Tinnitus ZERO, voiced a deeper worry: “I’m scared of plagiarism… how do we know some amateur won’t just rip our tracks and release them as their own? I mean, silence is hard to watermark. Maybe track length is the only way to catch it.” Another artist reportedly installed a hidden watermark tone at 0 Hz – “just in case.”
On top, rumors swirl of AI-generated silent albums flooding Bandcamp. To combat this, the Auditory Collapse Collective has proposed a new DRM format: .mutez, which prevents playback entirely.
So far, no one has cracked it.
A rival movement emerges
Meanwhile, a counter-scene has begun to take shape. Called Scentwave, it replaces audio entirely with timed bursts of industrial-grade aromas. Artists now perform olfactory sets using pressurized scent canisters synced to BPM triggers. The genre’s pioneers claim smell is “the most neglected frequency.”
Their debut festival, OdörFest, is set to take place in a decommissioned pig barn in the Dutch countryside. Earplugs will be optional. Gas masks are not.
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