Season four of the BBC/HBO show Industry collided and colluded its financial amoral market players with the worlds of UK government cabinet shady dealing, Russian spy corporate infiltration, old money Euro-technfascists, African shell companies, corporate audit dodging and characters that reference Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking and kompromat on more than one level.
Industry’s main players – Harper and Yasmin – are not good people – we have known this from the start – but how low these narcissists can go, and the line they will or not cross are the main preoccupations of this season – as the stakes become more global and no longer confined to the desks of an market investment bank. There are more than a few comeuppances, wild drug-fuelled night club debaucherous nights out and personal reckonings.
Along with the eminently-sculpted electronic arpeggio score by Nathan Micay throughout the show – hearing the song needledrops, as chosen by music supervisor Ollie White are the series’ parallel sidequest, and season four had great choices in spades – drawn from club, ’80s, Italo, folk and vintage gems.
Here are 15 of my favourites from this season.
New Order – ‘True Faith’ (The Morning Sun Extended Remix) (Episode 1)
Episode 1 of Season 4 (Paypal of Bukkake) opens with a very recognisable New Order song but with the slight twist of using this alternative remixed version – that gives it more of a Pet Shop Boys feel (more on that later) and sets a propulsive scene for the show’s return.
Tenashee – ‘Tell Me Something (feat Gaia Weiss) ‘- (Episode 1)
This serene breakbeat-featuring collaboration between DJ Tennis and Ashee soundtracks Harper putting on a strap-on and admiring herself in the mirror in Tender CEO Whitney Halberstram’s before taking a call from a frantic journalist with a tip off about his company that sets the main plot in motion.
Company B – ‘Fascinated’ – (Episode 2)
This Italo-tinged banger reverberates around Henry and Jasmin’s argument in their house (Ep 2: The Commander and the Grey Lady) where the latter is trying to get the eminent Muck to get dressed for a big party, foreshadowing their relationship tumult to come.
An excuse to mention Jordan Nocturne’s edit of the track.
Pet Shop Boys – ‘Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You)’ (Episode 2)
Yasmin and Henry ride off from the Muck country estate after Henry’s dark night of the soul and their car bonnet sex on the lawn. The Pet Shop Boys calls back to the Andy Williams’ version of ‘I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ played just before they do.
Tei Shi – ‘Bassically’ (Episode 3)
An under-rated pop classic from 12 years ago by Argentinian-born NYC-based singer Valerie Teicher gets a new lease of life to soundtrack Yasmin, Henry and Hayley’s icky power-playing threesome in a fascist German castle. Habseligkeiten indeed.
Molly Nilsson – ‘Happyness’ (Episode 4)
Swedish alt-pop singer-songwriter Molly Payton pops up with this track from her 2015 album Zenith, and its breezy chillwave production comes after Henry’s Tender CEO speech.
Paris Angels – All On You (Perfume) – Episode 4
Madchester-adjacent electronic indie pop that soundtracks journalist Jim and Rishi’s drug-fuelled night. Eek.
Robbie Dupree – Steal Away (Episode 5)
Never pass up a chance to mention a Yacht Rock classic.
Kwabena sings this in Karaoke in Ghana when he tags along with Sweetpea on their Tender sleuthing trip.
Judy Collins – ‘Both Sides Now’ (Episode 6)
A great cover of a Joni Mitchell classic plays as Whitney creepily spies on Henry in the shower who is singing Gillbert and Sullivan’s ‘He Is An Englishman’. Dear Henry indeed.
Daft Punk – ‘Veridis Quo’ (Episode 7)
A wistful Daft Punk classic soundtracks Yasmin and Henry’s Tender unravelling at the start of the show and again at the end with Harper and Yasmin’s we-only-have-each-other big night out.
When In Rome – ‘The Promise’ (Episode 7)
Oof. Needledrops don’t get much better than this cult ’80s British synth-pop band banger. Previously used in Napoleon Dynamite, it’s used twice in this episode.
Big Ben Tribe – Heroes (Episode 7)
An Italo disco cover of David Bowie. Majestic.
A Flock Of Seagulls – ‘I Ran (So Far Away)’ (Episode 7)
Maybe often used and obvious but a banger is a banger.
Turnstile – Magic Man (Episode 8)
A song from the Baltimore punk band of the moment soundtracks the police arriving to take Henry away.
Nathan Micay – Blue Spring (Episode 8)
The original and best – the Industry theme – so evocative and beautiful.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
