The band emerged from the experimental post-punk scene of the early 1980s and, along with other groups such as Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Einstürzende Neubauten, and In the Nursery, greatly contributed to the development of industrial music in the UK.
[1] In 1979, Martin started a xeroxed fanzine called Alternative Sounds to document the Coventry music scene (including such notables as The Specials and Furious Apples).
The fanzine ran for 18 issues until 1981, and culminated in a vinyl compilation, "Sent from Coventry" (on Cherry Red) and a brief appearance on the BBC's Something Else programme.
Attrition's first album release came in the form of Death House, a cassette of two experimental electronic soundtracks inspired by zombie films.
A postal collaboration via exchanges of 4-track recordings with Seattle-based improvisational collective Audio Leter led to Attrition's second cassette album release, Action and Reaction.
1996 saw the release of 3 Arms And A Dead Cert, which showed an increased use of organic instruments, including the first use of live orchestral elements as provided by Franck Dematteis of the Paris Opera.
[2] The following year, Bowes revisited various works from the past decade of Attrition music and recorded new classical string variations of the songs, releasing them as Etude.
Martin taught music technology at City College in Coventry for many years and left in 2011 to work full-time on mastering and production for Attrition and other artists in his studio The Cage.
The latter album Martin made with Anni Hogan (of Marc and the Mambas fame), which explored First World War poetry set to dark ambient scores, including a guest appearance from Wolfgang Flur (ex-Kraftwerk).
Martin Bowes has cited a wide variety of influences on his music, including experimental rock, punk, post-punk, and industrial groups such as The Velvet Underground, Crass, the Sex Pistols, Magazine, Joy Division, and Cabaret Voltaire, early experimental electronic groups like Kraftwerk, classic rock'n'roll (Elvis), and even Beethoven.