Manufacture (band)

Manufacture was an electronic body music group from Boston, Massachusetts, who released two albums on Nettwerk between 1988 and 1991.[1] They are best known for their 1988 debut single "As the End Draws Near", a collaboration with labelmate Sarah McLachlan.[1]

The band was formed when Brian Bothwell, a video artist and student at Boston's School of the Museum of Fine Arts heard a song by electronic musician Perry Geyer on the radio and contacted Geyer to offer to make a video.[1] They began performing around Boston with a show that consisted of instrumental electronic body music with experimental video projections.[1]

After signing to Nettwerk, they met McLachlan soon after beginning to record their debut album in Vancouver, British Columbia;[1] she was recording her debut album Touch for Nettwerk at the same time. After being invited to contribute vocals to a track they were working on, she returned the next day with the lyrics to "As the End Draws Near".[1] The song was included in its original form on the band's 1988 debut album Terrorvision, and on a 12" single featuring an extended remix which was later included on McLachlan's 1996 compilation album Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff.[2] The band's original proposal for the video would have featured McLachlan portraying the sole survivor of a nuclear apocalypse; however, Nettwerk did not have the budget to fly McLachlan to Boston for filming, and so a different video concept was pursued.[1]

The band released its second album Voice of World Control in 1991,[3] but subsequently broke up.[1]

Bothwell went on to direct music videos for other artists.[1] Geyer became a member of The Sky Dwellers, a trance group which also included Greg Hawkes of The Cars.[4] He bought The Cars' SynchroSound studios, and continued to operate it as CyberSound Studios.[1]