S. Alexander Reed

Smith Alexander Reed is an American academic and musician. He was the leader of the industrial music group ThouShaltNot from 1998 to 2013, and since 2013 has led the project Seeming. As of 2026, he is a professor of music at Ithaca College. His academic works include the 2013 book Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music. As described in a review of Assimilate, Reed is an example of a "fan-scholar".^[2]

Reed attended the College of Wooster for his undergraduate degrees. He then studied music under Mathew Rosenblum at the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pittsburgh. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2006, he taught at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University, The University of Florida, and the College of William & Mary.^[3] In 2013, Reed joined the faculty of Ithaca College. Reed founded the Popular Music Study Group of the American Musicological Society,^[4] and served on the board of the US branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.^[3]

In 2013, Reed published Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music, which received coverage in both academic^[5][2] and popular^[6][7] press, and awards from the American Musicological Society^[8] and the Association for Recorded Sound Collections.^[9] In particular, a review in Music and Letters favorably compared his writing to Andy Greenwald and Dayal Patterson.^[2] In 2022, Reed published a book on the Laurie Anderson album Big Science^[10] and later gave an invited lecture at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Anderson.^[11]

Reed has provided media commentary on topics such as industrial group KMFDM and their supposed influence on mass shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold,^[12][13] and on the lives of Genesis P-Orridge^[14] and Ozzy Osbourne.^[15]

Reed has stated that his first exposure to industrial music was as a preteen, from mixtapes that boys had given to his older sister. He eventually became active in the industrial scene as a performer, DJ, promoter, writer, and zine archivist.^[16] Some of Reed's early recordings were released under the name "Thou Flaming Minister".^[17]

Drummer Aaron "Foo" Fuleki, who shared a dorm with Reed as freshmen at Wooster, joined ThouShaltNot shortly after its founding in 1999.^[17] Outburn reviewed their 2000 self-titled album as 91/100, praising its variety.^[18][19] Reed relocated to Pittsburgh in 2001 for graduate school; guitarist Jeremy David Long joined the group after Reed saw him perform with the opening band for a Faith and the Muse concert there.^[17] A second full-length, The Holiness of Now, was released in 2001^[20] and reissued by Dancing Ferret Discs in 2003. They were a featured band at GothCon 2002 in New Orleans.^[21] The 2002 outtakes collection You'll Wake Up Yesterday included a parody of If I Only Had a Brain titled "If I Only Were A Goth".^[22][23] Dancing Ferret also released full-length albums The White Beyond in 2003^[24][25][26] and Land Dispute in 2006,^[27] the latter produced by Chris Moore.^[17]

With Reed's move to Ithaca, New York in 2013, ThouShaltNot disbanded, and Reed and Fuleki formed the new project Seeming. The debut Seeming album, Madness and Extinction, was released in 2014. Pop music critic Ben Rayner of the Toronto Star described its musical style as "cathedral-sized electronic soundscapes consistently whipped to a windblown frenzy."^[28] German music magazine Sonic Seducer called "The Burial" from Madness and Extinction "the darkest pop song you've ever danced to".^[29]

SOL: A Self-Banishment Ritual was released in 2017, with guest appearances by noise artist Merzbow and rapper (and at the time Cornell University doctoral student) Sammus. Author and journalist Kieron Gillen ranked opening track "Doomsayer" as one of his top 40 tracks of 2017.^[30] Sonic Seducer reviewed the album as tension-filled and impactful.^[31]

2020 album The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity was co-produced by Sarah Hennies, who also contributed percussion, and included guest vocals by Bill Drummond of the KLF. The Big Takeover premiered the video for "Go Small" and favorably reviewed the album.^[32]

Within the industrial music community, Seeming's recordings have rated highly. A Model of Control ranked Seeming's three albums tenth, first, and third respectively in their year-end lists for 2014, 2017, and 2020.^[33][34][35] They later named SOL: A Self-Banishment Ritual the best album of the 2010s, describing it as "a release of towering intensity, belief, and scope".^[36] Additionally, they ranked "The Burial" and "End Studies" as the best tracks of 2014 and 2020 respectively, and "Talk About Bones" as the eighth-best track of 2017.^[37][38][39] I Die:You Die listed Madness and Extinction and SOL: A Self-Banishment Ritual as their top albums of 2014 and 2017 respectively, and The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity as the second best album of 2020.^[40][41][42]

• "Upwards of the Hilt" appears on the compilation Transmission Vol. 1 (1996, New World Order Records)
• Remix of "Disevolve" by Zia appears on the Disevolve EP (1998, Zia Music)^[43]
• Excavate cassette (1998, independent; only distributed at their first concert)
• Catalepsy (1998, independent short-run CD-R)

• The Deepest Ice (1999, self-released demo album)
• ThouShaltNot (2000, ADSR Musicwerks)
• The Holiness of Now (2001, ADSR Musicwerks; reissued by Dancing Ferret Discs in 2003)
• The White Beyond (2003, Dancing Ferret Discs)
• Land Dispute (2006, Dancing Ferret Discs)

• You'll Wake Up Yesterday (2002, ADSR Musicwerks)
• Vier Factor No. 1 (split with The Crüxshadows, Paralysed Age, and The Dreamside, 2003, Dancing Ferret Discs)
• The Projectionist (2005, independent release)
• New World EP (2008, independent release)

• Hungry Lucy - Glo - "Telltale Shot," "Stay" (on European version) (2003 Alpha Matrix / Hungry Media)
• Furnace St. - People - "Sunday Driver" (2003, Furnasty Music)
• Alphaville - Crazyshow - "Inside Out" (2003 Alphaville)
• The Last Dance - Reflections of Rage - "Voices" (2004, Dancing Ferret Discs)
• Lunascape - Mindstalking - "Mindstalking" (2005, Dancing Ferret Discs)
• Stromkern - Reminders - "Reminders" (2006, WTII Records)
• Iris - "Imposter" - Electronic Saviors: Industrial Music to Cure Cancer (2010, Metropolis Records)
• Caustic - "Chewing Glass at the Zoo" - Douche Ex Machina (2011, Metropolis Records)

• "Trench Warfare (Midnight mix)" on Only Sorrow (2001, Ellen Claire Lawrence Memorial Scholarship)
• "The Sting (Proto mix)" on Chartreuse Translucent Sampler (2001, Chartreuse Translucent)
• "Cardinal Directions (Directionless mix)" on Asleep By Dawn, vol. 1 (2003, Asleep By Dawn)
• "When Everyone Forgets" on Where's Neil When You Need Him? (2006, Dancing Ferret Discs)
• "Sick" on Electronic Saviors: Industrial Music To Cure Cancer (2010, Metropolis Records)

All music by Seeming is released on Artoffact Records.

• Madness and Extinction (2014)
• SOL: A Self-Banishment Ritual (2017)
• The Birdwatcher's Guide to Atrocity (2020)
• The World (2025)

• Silent Discovery (2014, released on 8-track tape)
• Worldburners (2015)
• Faceless (2017)
• Talk About Bones (2017)
• Monster (2020)

• Better Roads EP (2004, independent release)
• The Gothic (2018, independent release)
• Midnight to Midnight (2020, independent release), written in 24 hours as the first album of 2020

• Reed, S. Alexander (2013). Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-983260-6.
• Reed, S. Alexander; Sandifer, Elizabeth (2014). They Might Be Giants' Flood. 33 1/3. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-62356-915-0.
• Reed, S. Alexander (2022). Laurie Anderson's Big Science. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-092602-1.

• Personal site
• Faculty profile at Ithaca College