Portion Control are one of the Bureau's foundational Tier-I entries in this archive's pre-1985 electronic-industrial cluster. Formed 1979 in South London by John Whybrew + Ian Sharp + Dean Piavanni (Piavani), the catalogue predated and influenced the post-1985 EBM / industrial-rock release through the early-1980s method of pre-MIDI / pre-digital voltage-control-triggering and Greengate DS3 sampling. The band is cited as a direct influence on Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy, Orbital, Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode; per S. Alexander Reed's Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music, the early sound "blends innocuously with the moodier moments of Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle," and at times "demonstrated a gift for gritty, teethgrinding distortion, not unlike Esplendor Geometrico." The Bureau files Portion Control at Tier I for the 45+ year arc, the template-setting I Staggered Mentally (1982), its influence on the post-1985 industrial cluster, the pioneering sampling-and-sequencing method, and the three phases (the 1979–1987 trio; the Solar Enemy 1990–1995 inter-period; the post-2002 Piavanni + Whybrew reformation that continues to the present).
The founding configuration was the trio of Whybrew (electronics, visuals), Sharp (instruments, visuals) and Piavanni (vocals from 1981 onward) in South London. The band took its name from Whybrew's time in catering college, presuming the name to be not particularly pretentious or associated with a particular style; per the catalogue's later reception the catering-school origin set the deliberately understated naming convention that characterised the catalogue's working approach. The early-period gear configuration was affordable home-studio infrastructure: ARP Axxe synthesizer, Roland CR-78 drum computer, hand-drawn artwork, direct-to-cassette recording. The catalogue's début cassette A Fair Portion (1980, Ladelled Music) included Andy Wilson of The Passage on bass; the later three In Phaze cassettes - Gaining Momentum (1981), Private Illusions No 1 (1981), With Mixed Emotion (1982) - documented the early-1980s cassette-culture DIY working approach that the catalogue emerged from.
I Staggered Mentally was released 22 November 1982 by In Phaze Records as the band's first full-length vinyl LP. The album's later reception positions it as one of the very first albums to meld punk aggression to electronic sequences and rhythms - genuine dance beats fighting against the manic shouts and yelps of frontman Dean Piavanni. Per the post-2010 reissue reception text the album "laid the template for the harder edged rhythmic industrial sound of the 80s and 90s" and is "as raw as electronic music gets," with Piavanni's anguished vocals the lone human element amid the catalogue's electric drones, metallic beats and alien analog flickers. The album was notable for its use of the distinctive Roland TB-303 many years before the sound became popularised by acid house and techno music.
The catalogue's structurally distinguishing technical feature is the use of the Apple II computer-based Greengate DS3 sampling and sequencing system across the mid-period catalogue. Portion Control pioneered the use of sampling and were acclaimed for the Greengate DS3 method across 1983–1986. The Greengate / Apple II infrastructure anticipated the post-1985 sampler-based industrial release by about five years.
After the cassettes the band signed with Illuminated Records in 1983, opening the mid-period vinyl catalogue across Hit the Pulse (1983 mini-album), Raise the Pulse (1983 single, released both 12 inch and 7 inch formats), and Step Forward (1984 LP). The mid-period 12 inch singles Rough Justice and Go-Talk later became underground dance-floor hits; the catalogue's working manner across the post-1983 catalogue shifted toward more-melodic and more-commercial directions while retaining the hard-rhythmic-electronics method. Around the time of the 1984 Step Forward the band gained support slots with then-mainstream Depeche Mode on the 1984 European tour plus support slots with Blancmange. Per the catalogue's later reception the decision not to release a single from Step Forward apparently halted the band's drive toward commercial success.
The catalogue's late-1980s position included Psycho-Bod Saves the World (1986, Dead Man's Curve) - the computer-game-inspired record that shifted the working palette to a "frenetic mess of funk, punk, electronics and the occasional genuine pop tune" per the later reception - plus the late-1980s commercial-industry position involving music manager Tom Watkins and a London Records signing. The band enlisted producer Arthur Baker for a remix; as the work began to culminate the label "went cold," objecting to the "gruffness of Dean's vocals." The relationship effectively ended after about two years of wasted work. After the London Records debacle the band contemplated a name change as a means of deflecting the apparent two years of inactivity; the three founding members later reorganised in 1990 as Solar Enemy.
Gary Levermore of Third Mind Records (who had previously desired to sign Portion Control to his label) took the opportunity and signed Solar Enemy; the band immediately released the single Techno Divinity. The Solar Enemy working mode was different from Portion Control, with less emphasis on the vocals and harshness that had characterised the Portion Control method. The Solar Enemy phase closed across the mid-1990s before the eventual 2002 reformation under the original Portion Control name. Piavanni + Whybrew reformed Portion Control in 2002 (Ian Sharp not part of the reformation; Ian Hicks, also known as Baron Mordant, member from 2002 to 2006). The reunion album Wellcome was self-released in 2004; later the catalogue continued through to the present-day position across post-2010 release including Crop (compilation of 2004–2008 material released as two-disc six-page digipak with bonus CD EP), Pure Form, Head Buried (Progress Productions CD with cassette edit on the Greek label Kinetik Records), and the recent Seed EP3.1 (digital EP on Artoffact Records).