Front 242
Encyclopedia
Front 242 is a pioneering Belgian
electronic music
group that came into prominence during the 1980s. They are known for being the premier pioneer of electronic body music
and as a major influence on the electronic and industrial music genres.
developed in England in the mid-1970s with Cabaret Voltaire
and Throbbing Gristle
, these groups used electronic instruments, percussion with found objects, and looped samples of "found" soundbites, elements later taken up by Front 242. These techniques can be seen as an extension of the use of electronic sources of sound as musical instruments and percussion with found objects by composer Edgard Varèse
.
Front 242 was created in 1981 in Aarschot
, near Brussels
, Belgium
, by Daniel Bressanutti and Dirk Bergen, who wanted to create music and graphic design using emerging electronic tools. The first single, "Principles", was released in 1981. The front part of the name comes from the idea of an organized popular uprising.
Patrick Codenys and Jean-Luc De Meyer
had separately formed a group called Under Viewer at about the same time, and the two duos joined together in 1982. Bressanutti, Codenys and De Meyer took turns on vocals at first, until they settled on De Meyer as the lead vocalist (early recordings with Bressanutti on vocals were subsiquently released in 2004). De Meyer came to write most of the lyrics and Valerie Jane Steele also wrote several tracks including "Don't Crash". They decided not to use the regular waveform settings on their synthesizers, arguing that creating the waveform for each note was part of the creative process.
Their next single, "U-Men", was released in 1982, followed by the band's first album Geography that same year. These first releases were cited as influential to other artists in the genre; however, they were not strong and hard-hitting as the group's later efforts. In 1983, Dirk Bergen left the band to pursue graphic design, and Richard Jonckheere
, referred to as Richard 23, joined as vocalist.
, released in 1984, was the first to introduce the term "Electronic Body Music
" in association with their sound. Front 242 signed with the Wax Trax! label in 1984, and started their first tour in the United States with Ministry
. This tour led to the creation of Revolting Cocks
by Richard 23, Luc Van Acker
, Alain Jourgensen of Ministry and others.
In 1987, Front 242 signed with Wax Trax! Records
in the U.S. and Red Rhino in Europe, and released Backcatalogue and Official Version,.
In 1988, Front by Front
was released, and in December of that same year, "Headhunter
" (with a video by Anton Corbijn
), became the band's first club hit, reaching #13 on the Billboard Dance/Club Play Songs chart.
A broader public was exposed to Front 242's music in 1992 in the film Single White Female
, starring Bridget Fonda
and Jennifer Jason Leigh
. In the film, obsessed roommate Leigh ties Fonda to a chair but leaves her with the television remote control. In order to attract attention, Fonda tunes in to a music video channel and turns up the volume. The video playing at the time is Front 242's "Rhythm Of Time", from the album Tyranny >For You<. Also in 1992, the television commercials for the film K2
were set to the Front 242 song "Moldavia", from the same album.
In 1992, Bressanutti returned to combining graphic arts with music, taking his lithographs on tour to three U.S. galleries. Bressanutti also composed a solo half-hour atmospheric recording called Art and Strategy (or The Art Corporation) to play during viewings of the lithographs, and released it in a limited edition of 1,000 CDs.
Front 242's style shifted abruptly with each of their next two albums, released in rapid succession in 1993 on Epic's sub-label RRE (originally planned as a double-CD): 06:21:03:11 UP EVIL and 05:22:09:12 OFF (the numbers correspond to letters, spelling "FUCK UP EVIL" and "EVIL OFF"). The band describes the two albums as "based on the duality of good and evil." However, strains were emerging, with the band members apparently having different artistic views. Despite these tensions, they performed on the main stage of the 1993 Lollapalooza
tour.
Neither of these albums had significant input from Richard 23, and 05:22:09:12 OFF only included their lead vocalist, Jean-Luc De Meyer, on a remixed track originally from Up Evil. On the other hand, a variety of new contributors were listed as members of Front 242 on these albums: Jean-Marc Pauly and Pierre Pauly (of the Belgian electronic group Parade Ground) on Up Evil, and 99 Kowalski and Eran Westwood on Off.
99 Kowalski is the stage name of Kristin Kowalski, making a tradition out of Richard 23's idea of number-as-name. Kowalski and Westwood were originally members of a New York City
band called Spill who Bressanutti and Codenys had brought to Belgium to produce their debut album. After the recording sessions fell apart, they contributed to Front 242 on the Off release.
After the release of 06:21:03:11 Up Evil and 05:22:09:12 Off, there was no new material from Front 242 under any lineup. Instead, the band released a stream of live recordings and remixes. However, this period also saw a proliferation of side projects, an inordinate number of which involved De Meyer.
Earlier, Richard 23 played in the Revolting Cocks
, and De Meyer had a side project doing vocals for Bigod 20
for their single, "The Bog" in 1990. In 1995, De Meyer met Marc Heal
of Cubanate
at a Front Line Assembly
concert, and the two of them collaborated along with Ged Denton and Jonathan Sharp, to record as Cyber-Tec Project for the new (and short-lived) Cyber-Tec record label.
After the departure of Sharp and the demise of the Cyber-Tec label, the remaining group continued working under the name C-Tec
. De Meyer also took over as vocalist for Birmingham 6
for their 1996 album Error of Judgment. 1996 also saw the debut album Elemental from Cobalt 60
, which De Meyer formed with Dominique Lallement and Frederic Sebastien of Reims
, France, members of Kriegbereit. This was the start of a number of releases from Cobalt 60
, which also did the soundtrack for the video game Wing Commander V
. Meanwhile, Richard 23 recorded with the groups Holy Gang, and later, LaTchak.
The four core members of Front 242 regrouped in 1998 to compose radically reworked versions of many of their songs, which they then performed on their first tour in five years, appropriately called the Re:Boot tour. They acknowledged the influence of The Prodigy
and their Fat of the Land album in crafting the new, more techno style of Re:Boot.
The new tour material was the subject of Front 242's new recording contract in the U.S. with Metropolis Records
. Front 242 also indicated at this time that they were recording new material. However, they had little activity after 1998, making occasional appearances in Europe and Mexico, while Codenys recorded under the name Gaiden
with Steve Stoll in 2001.
Several months later, the first release from Male or Female, also known as Morf, a new project for Bresanutti and Codenys along with vocalist Elko Blijweert. In 2002 and 2003, Morf released an album, an E.P., a double album, and a DVD/CD two-disc combo, on the Belgian record label Alfa Matrix
, and went on tour through the U.S.
Then, 2002 and 2003 also saw the release of the new material from Front 242 in a decade: the E.P. Still and Raw and the album Pulse, released on XIIIBis Records in Europe and Metropolis in the U.S. These represented another iteration of Front 242's explicitly stated goal of reinventing itself. The style of the two new releases is more mellow than some of their past work, using more "glitchy" and "bleepy" sounds. As well, it uses the manipulated voice as a musical instrument. The new releases have a much more emotional style from De Meyer, which was presaged in his later recordings with C-Tec
and particularly Cobalt 60
on its album Twelve.
Front 242 promised a new U.S. tour to perform new material from these releases. They have made occasional appearances in Latin America and Europe, even being rejoined by Dirk Bergen for a reunion concert in Aarschot (De Klinker club) in 2004 under the original lineup of Bresanutti, Bergen, Codenys and De Meyer. This performance was kept secret until two days before the show but when the scene magazine Side-Line
and the band's label Alfa Matrix
launched the news, tickets were quickly sold out.
The band has now also set itself to re-release its entire back catalogue both as a normal CD and as a limited edition consisting of a 2CD set holding previously unreleased material. For this the band is working together with the Belgian label Alfa Matrix
that already took care of releasing the albums of the Front 242 side-project Male Or Female. The first re-release is their debut album Geography, this time newly remastered personally by Bresanutti to surprisingly powerful effect and including 3 extra tracks (two hidden ones) on the normal CD format.
Meanwhile their enthusiasm for side projects has continued, as Patrick Codenys started appearing with a new group called Red Sniper, Bresanutti started recording with a new group called Troissoeur, and Codenys and Richard 23 formed a quasi-DJ project called Coder23 which toured in late 2004 and early 2005 as the opening act for VNV Nation
. Jean-Luc De Meyer contributed vocals on two studio tracks for the Glis
album Nemesis in 2005. The lyrical content of the two songs ("The Irreparable" and "La Béatrice") were based on the poems of Charles Baudelaire
.
Front 242 toured through twenty venues in North America in November 2005, their first tour as a full band since 2000. The band performed at the Roskilde Festival
in 2006. The band's sold out two day performance at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels has been recorded for a future release via Alfa Matrix
.
In December 2006, Front 242 announced from their MySpace page that they were writing music for a video game called Cipher Complex
and provided a link to a teaser trailer with a short sample of one of their scores.
In 2007 Jean-Luc Demeyer announced a new project: 32CRASH via the Alfa Matrix label. The band is preparing for an album release in October 2007 after the release of the EP Humanity. Early audio previews show that the project is very much electro(clash) minded.
In August 2008, Front 242 played live at the Infest Festival
in Bradford, UK.
In October 2008 Front 242 performed for the first time ever in Finland, at the Alternative Party 2008
media arts festival.
s, WAV
, FLAC
, and M4A formats. Contrary to what fans and some media speculated, the two-track download was not new studio material. Instead, First Moments consisted of two previously unreleased live tracks, "U-Men" and "Im Rhythmus Bleiben", in rather stunning sound quality. It is rumored that over 20,000 people downloaded the tracks within hours of being made available. The label later confirmed that over 25,000 people downloaded the free tracks.
On June 4, 2008, Alfa Matrix announced the imminent release of Moments... The album was a live recording encompassing the very best of Front 242's compositions. The album was shipped in several formats including limited CD box sets, vinyl in different colors including 300-copy limited editions, and as a one-disc CD release.
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
group that came into prominence during the 1980s. They are known for being the premier pioneer of electronic body music
Electronic body music
Electronic body music or industrial dance is a music genre that combines elements of industrial music and electronic dance music...
and as a major influence on the electronic and industrial music genres.
Formation
When industrial musicIndustrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
developed in England in the mid-1970s with Cabaret Voltaire
Cabaret Voltaire (band)
Cabaret Voltaire were a British music group from Sheffield, England.Initially composed of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson, the group was named after the Cabaret Voltaire, a nightclub in Zürich, Switzerland that was a centre for the early Dada movement.Their earliest performances...
and Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
, these groups used electronic instruments, percussion with found objects, and looped samples of "found" soundbites, elements later taken up by Front 242. These techniques can be seen as an extension of the use of electronic sources of sound as musical instruments and percussion with found objects by composer Edgard Varèse
Edgard Varèse
Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, , whose name was also spelled Edgar Varèse , was an innovative French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States....
.
Front 242 was created in 1981 in Aarschot
Aarschot
Aarschot is a city and municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. The municipality comprises the city of Aarschot proper and the towns of Gelrode, Langdorp and Rillaar. On January 1, 2006 Aarschot had a total population of 27,864...
, near Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, by Daniel Bressanutti and Dirk Bergen, who wanted to create music and graphic design using emerging electronic tools. The first single, "Principles", was released in 1981. The front part of the name comes from the idea of an organized popular uprising.
Patrick Codenys and Jean-Luc De Meyer
Jean-Luc De Meyer
Jean-Luc De Meyer is a vocalist and lyricist who is best known as the lead vocalist of the Belgian EBM group Front 242.He started singing in the experimental group "Under Viewer" with Patrick Codenys...
had separately formed a group called Under Viewer at about the same time, and the two duos joined together in 1982. Bressanutti, Codenys and De Meyer took turns on vocals at first, until they settled on De Meyer as the lead vocalist (early recordings with Bressanutti on vocals were subsiquently released in 2004). De Meyer came to write most of the lyrics and Valerie Jane Steele also wrote several tracks including "Don't Crash". They decided not to use the regular waveform settings on their synthesizers, arguing that creating the waveform for each note was part of the creative process.
Their next single, "U-Men", was released in 1982, followed by the band's first album Geography that same year. These first releases were cited as influential to other artists in the genre; however, they were not strong and hard-hitting as the group's later efforts. In 1983, Dirk Bergen left the band to pursue graphic design, and Richard Jonckheere
Richard Jonckheere
Richard Jonckheere , aka Richard 23 or Richard JK, is an Industrial and EBM musician. He is a member of Front 242 and was a founding member of Revolting Cocks...
, referred to as Richard 23, joined as vocalist.
Rising Popularity
Front 242 became a popular musical group in Belgium. Their next album, No CommentNo Comment (album)
-Red Rhino CD version :-Wax Trax! CD version :-Wax Trax! Cassette Version :-Epic CD version :The 1992 Epic Records rerelease of No Comment slightly changed the EBM reference, which read "Electronic body music recorded on 8 tracks"...
, released in 1984, was the first to introduce the term "Electronic Body Music
Electronic body music
Electronic body music or industrial dance is a music genre that combines elements of industrial music and electronic dance music...
" in association with their sound. Front 242 signed with the Wax Trax! label in 1984, and started their first tour in the United States with Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
. This tour led to the creation of Revolting Cocks
Revolting Cocks
Revolting Cocks, also known as RevCo, is an American–Belgian industrial rock band and sometime supergroup that began as a musical side-project for Richard 23 of Front 242, Luc Van Acker, and Al Jourgensen of Ministry.-History:...
by Richard 23, Luc Van Acker
Luc Van Acker
Luc van Acker is a musician from Tienen, Belgium. He began writing and releasing solo material in 1982, and worked with a few other bands and with Anna Domino over the next few years. Then in 1985, he met Richard 23 of Front 242 at the DNA Club in Brussels, Belgium, and thereby became a founding...
, Alain Jourgensen of Ministry and others.
In 1987, Front 242 signed with Wax Trax! Records
Wax Trax! Records
Wax Trax! Records was an independent record label in the United States. Wax Trax! began as a record shop in Denver, Colorado opened by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher. They sold the store in 1978 and, in November of that year, opened a new one under the same name at 2449 North Lincoln Avenue in...
in the U.S. and Red Rhino in Europe, and released Backcatalogue and Official Version,.
In 1988, Front by Front
Front By Front
-1992 reissue:These tracks were originally released on the Never Stop! EP, except for "Headhunter v1.0" which was originally released on the Headhunter EP.-Personnel:* Daniel Bressanutti* Patrick Codenys* Jean-Luc De Meyer* Richard Jonckheere...
was released, and in December of that same year, "Headhunter
Headhunter (song)
Headhunter is a song by the Belgian EBM band Front 242. It was released in 1988 on the album Front By Front, in two versions . Version 1.0 was then released as a single, with Version 2.0 as one of the b-sides...
" (with a video by Anton Corbijn
Anton Corbijn
Anton Corbijn is a Dutch photographer, music video and film director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2, having handled the principal promotion and sleeve photography for both for more than a decade...
), became the band's first club hit, reaching #13 on the Billboard Dance/Club Play Songs chart.
1990s
Tyranny >For You<, released in 1991, became the band's highest charting album of all time, reaching #95 on the Billboard 200. Tyranny was the first album they released under contract with a major corporate label, Sony/Epic, after the widespread popularity of Front by Front. Sony/Epic also acquired the rights to the band's back catalog from Wax Trax! and issued re-released versions of the albums with new cover art and bonus tracks taken from singles and EPs.A broader public was exposed to Front 242's music in 1992 in the film Single White Female
Single White Female
Single White Female is a 1992 American erotic thriller based on John Lutz's novel SWF Seeks Same. The film stars Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh and is directed by Barbet Schroeder.-Plot:...
, starring Bridget Fonda
Bridget Fonda
Bridget Jane Fonda is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in films such as The Godfather Part III, Single White Female, Point of No Return, It Could Happen to You, and Jackie Brown...
and Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
. In the film, obsessed roommate Leigh ties Fonda to a chair but leaves her with the television remote control. In order to attract attention, Fonda tunes in to a music video channel and turns up the volume. The video playing at the time is Front 242's "Rhythm Of Time", from the album Tyranny >For You<. Also in 1992, the television commercials for the film K2
K2 (film)
K2 is a 1991 motion picture loosely based on the story of two friends' ascent of the second-highest mountain on Earth, K2. The story is based on a play written and presented as a senior-thesis at Stanford University. These roles were played by Michael Biehn and Matt Craven...
were set to the Front 242 song "Moldavia", from the same album.
In 1992, Bressanutti returned to combining graphic arts with music, taking his lithographs on tour to three U.S. galleries. Bressanutti also composed a solo half-hour atmospheric recording called Art and Strategy (or The Art Corporation) to play during viewings of the lithographs, and released it in a limited edition of 1,000 CDs.
Front 242's style shifted abruptly with each of their next two albums, released in rapid succession in 1993 on Epic's sub-label RRE (originally planned as a double-CD): 06:21:03:11 UP EVIL and 05:22:09:12 OFF (the numbers correspond to letters, spelling "FUCK UP EVIL" and "EVIL OFF"). The band describes the two albums as "based on the duality of good and evil." However, strains were emerging, with the band members apparently having different artistic views. Despite these tensions, they performed on the main stage of the 1993 Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
tour.
Neither of these albums had significant input from Richard 23, and 05:22:09:12 OFF only included their lead vocalist, Jean-Luc De Meyer, on a remixed track originally from Up Evil. On the other hand, a variety of new contributors were listed as members of Front 242 on these albums: Jean-Marc Pauly and Pierre Pauly (of the Belgian electronic group Parade Ground) on Up Evil, and 99 Kowalski and Eran Westwood on Off.
99 Kowalski is the stage name of Kristin Kowalski, making a tradition out of Richard 23's idea of number-as-name. Kowalski and Westwood were originally members of a New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
band called Spill who Bressanutti and Codenys had brought to Belgium to produce their debut album. After the recording sessions fell apart, they contributed to Front 242 on the Off release.
After the release of 06:21:03:11 Up Evil and 05:22:09:12 Off, there was no new material from Front 242 under any lineup. Instead, the band released a stream of live recordings and remixes. However, this period also saw a proliferation of side projects, an inordinate number of which involved De Meyer.
Earlier, Richard 23 played in the Revolting Cocks
Revolting Cocks
Revolting Cocks, also known as RevCo, is an American–Belgian industrial rock band and sometime supergroup that began as a musical side-project for Richard 23 of Front 242, Luc Van Acker, and Al Jourgensen of Ministry.-History:...
, and De Meyer had a side project doing vocals for Bigod 20
Bigod 20
Bigod 20 was a German EBM and electro-industrial band which was formed in 1988 by music producers Andreas Tomalla and Markus Nikolai .-History:...
for their single, "The Bog" in 1990. In 1995, De Meyer met Marc Heal
Marc Heal
Marc Heal is an English musician. He was one of the most prolific and influential Industrial music artists in the 1990s, mixing metal and techno with more traditional Industrial sounds...
of Cubanate
Cubanate
Cubanate is a crossover band from London, founded in 1992 by Marc Heal and Graham Rayner with Phil Barry and Steve Etheridge. The group became well-known known for its early fusion of distorted metal guitars, and techno percussion .-History:Cubanate played their first UK tour in November 1992...
at a Front Line Assembly
Front Line Assembly
Front Line Assembly is a Canadian electro-industrial band formed by Bill Leeb in 1986 after leaving Skinny Puppy. Influenced by early Industrial acts such as Cabaret Voltaire, Portion Control, D.A.F., Test Dept, SPK, and Severed Heads, FLA has developed its own unique sound while combining...
concert, and the two of them collaborated along with Ged Denton and Jonathan Sharp, to record as Cyber-Tec Project for the new (and short-lived) Cyber-Tec record label.
After the departure of Sharp and the demise of the Cyber-Tec label, the remaining group continued working under the name C-Tec
C-Tec
C-Tec was a band originally formed as a side project in 1995 by Jean-Luc De Meyer , Jonathan Sharp , and Ged Denton as The Cyber-Tec Project. The name was taken from Cyber-Tec Records, who released their first album. This EP was also released on Fifth Column Records in the US...
. De Meyer also took over as vocalist for Birmingham 6
Birmingham 6 (band)
Birmingham 6 is a Danish electro-industrial/EBM group founded in 1991 and named after the Birmingham Six, a group of Irish men mistakenly imprisoned for the Birmingham pub bombings. Members include Kim Løhde Petersen and Michael Hillerup....
for their 1996 album Error of Judgment. 1996 also saw the debut album Elemental from Cobalt 60
Cobalt 60
Cobalt 60 is a Front 242 side project featuring Front 242's Jean-Luc de Meyer and Dominique Lallement. They are an electro-industrial/EBM group, though they frequently use guitars, an uncommon feature among artists of the genre...
, which De Meyer formed with Dominique Lallement and Frederic Sebastien of Reims
Reims
Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....
, France, members of Kriegbereit. This was the start of a number of releases from Cobalt 60
Cobalt 60
Cobalt 60 is a Front 242 side project featuring Front 242's Jean-Luc de Meyer and Dominique Lallement. They are an electro-industrial/EBM group, though they frequently use guitars, an uncommon feature among artists of the genre...
, which also did the soundtrack for the video game Wing Commander V
Wing Commander: Prophecy
Wing Commander: Prophecy is the fourth direct sequel in Chris Roberts' Wing Commander science fiction space combat simulator franchise of computer games. The game was released in 1997, produced by Origin Systems and distributed by Electronic Arts...
. Meanwhile, Richard 23 recorded with the groups Holy Gang, and later, LaTchak.
The four core members of Front 242 regrouped in 1998 to compose radically reworked versions of many of their songs, which they then performed on their first tour in five years, appropriately called the Re:Boot tour. They acknowledged the influence of The Prodigy
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s...
and their Fat of the Land album in crafting the new, more techno style of Re:Boot.
The new tour material was the subject of Front 242's new recording contract in the U.S. with Metropolis Records
Metropolis Records
Metropolis Records is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based record label, distributor, and mail-order store specializing in the post-industrial field such as electro-industrial, synthpop, futurepop, darkwave, and gothic musical genres....
. Front 242 also indicated at this time that they were recording new material. However, they had little activity after 1998, making occasional appearances in Europe and Mexico, while Codenys recorded under the name Gaiden
Gaiden
is a Japanese-language word meaning "side story" or "tale", used to refer to an anecdote or supplementary biography of a person. This use of gaiden is commonly used in popular Japanese fiction to refer to a spin-off of a previously published work that is neither officially considered a sequel nor...
with Steve Stoll in 2001.
2000s
2002 saw the beginning of a wave of new material from Bresanutti and Codenys, and then from Front 242. In August 2002 a DVD/CD two-disc set called Speed Tribe was released by Dance.com. The DVD was a collaboration with experimental documentary filmmakers Rod Chong and Sharon Matarazzo, who filmed the 2001 24 Hour Le Mans. In the video, the racecars, clouds, rain and spectators form an impressionistic visual backdrop for the music.Several months later, the first release from Male or Female, also known as Morf, a new project for Bresanutti and Codenys along with vocalist Elko Blijweert. In 2002 and 2003, Morf released an album, an E.P., a double album, and a DVD/CD two-disc combo, on the Belgian record label Alfa Matrix
Alfa Matrix
Alfa Matrix is a Belgian record label. Founded in 2001, the label releases various musical styles including aggrotech, dark elektro, synthpop and electronica....
, and went on tour through the U.S.
Then, 2002 and 2003 also saw the release of the new material from Front 242 in a decade: the E.P. Still and Raw and the album Pulse, released on XIIIBis Records in Europe and Metropolis in the U.S. These represented another iteration of Front 242's explicitly stated goal of reinventing itself. The style of the two new releases is more mellow than some of their past work, using more "glitchy" and "bleepy" sounds. As well, it uses the manipulated voice as a musical instrument. The new releases have a much more emotional style from De Meyer, which was presaged in his later recordings with C-Tec
C-Tec
C-Tec was a band originally formed as a side project in 1995 by Jean-Luc De Meyer , Jonathan Sharp , and Ged Denton as The Cyber-Tec Project. The name was taken from Cyber-Tec Records, who released their first album. This EP was also released on Fifth Column Records in the US...
and particularly Cobalt 60
Cobalt 60
Cobalt 60 is a Front 242 side project featuring Front 242's Jean-Luc de Meyer and Dominique Lallement. They are an electro-industrial/EBM group, though they frequently use guitars, an uncommon feature among artists of the genre...
on its album Twelve.
Front 242 promised a new U.S. tour to perform new material from these releases. They have made occasional appearances in Latin America and Europe, even being rejoined by Dirk Bergen for a reunion concert in Aarschot (De Klinker club) in 2004 under the original lineup of Bresanutti, Bergen, Codenys and De Meyer. This performance was kept secret until two days before the show but when the scene magazine Side-Line
Side-Line
Side-Line is an online music magazine specialising in electronic music, and electro-goth/industrial in particular. It was founded in 1989 as a print publication, and had a circulation of 6,000 in Europe and America...
and the band's label Alfa Matrix
Alfa Matrix
Alfa Matrix is a Belgian record label. Founded in 2001, the label releases various musical styles including aggrotech, dark elektro, synthpop and electronica....
launched the news, tickets were quickly sold out.
The band has now also set itself to re-release its entire back catalogue both as a normal CD and as a limited edition consisting of a 2CD set holding previously unreleased material. For this the band is working together with the Belgian label Alfa Matrix
Alfa Matrix
Alfa Matrix is a Belgian record label. Founded in 2001, the label releases various musical styles including aggrotech, dark elektro, synthpop and electronica....
that already took care of releasing the albums of the Front 242 side-project Male Or Female. The first re-release is their debut album Geography, this time newly remastered personally by Bresanutti to surprisingly powerful effect and including 3 extra tracks (two hidden ones) on the normal CD format.
Meanwhile their enthusiasm for side projects has continued, as Patrick Codenys started appearing with a new group called Red Sniper, Bresanutti started recording with a new group called Troissoeur, and Codenys and Richard 23 formed a quasi-DJ project called Coder23 which toured in late 2004 and early 2005 as the opening act for VNV Nation
VNV Nation
VNV Nation are a British/Irish electronic music band originally from Dublin, Ireland and Essex, United Kingdom and now based in Hamburg, Germany. They combine elements of electro-industrial, trance, synthpop and electronic body music . The members are Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson...
. Jean-Luc De Meyer contributed vocals on two studio tracks for the Glis
Glis
Glis is an Electronic / Industrial music project founded in 2001 by Shaun Frandsen of Seattle, WA . The band has experienced several lineup changes and guest appearances, with frontman Shaun Frandsen acting as the primary producer, vocalist, songwriter, and instrumentalist...
album Nemesis in 2005. The lyrical content of the two songs ("The Irreparable" and "La Béatrice") were based on the poems of Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
.
Front 242 toured through twenty venues in North America in November 2005, their first tour as a full band since 2000. The band performed at the Roskilde Festival
Roskilde Festival
Roskilde Festival is a festival held south of Roskilde in Denmark and is one of the six biggest annual music festivals in Europe . It was created in 1971 by two high school students, Mogens Sandfær and Jesper Switzer Møller, and promoter Carl Fischer...
in 2006. The band's sold out two day performance at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels has been recorded for a future release via Alfa Matrix
Alfa Matrix
Alfa Matrix is a Belgian record label. Founded in 2001, the label releases various musical styles including aggrotech, dark elektro, synthpop and electronica....
.
In December 2006, Front 242 announced from their MySpace page that they were writing music for a video game called Cipher Complex
Cipher Complex
Cipher Complex is an unreleased stealth action video game that was being developed for the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 systems by Edge of Reality...
and provided a link to a teaser trailer with a short sample of one of their scores.
In 2007 Jean-Luc Demeyer announced a new project: 32CRASH via the Alfa Matrix label. The band is preparing for an album release in October 2007 after the release of the EP Humanity. Early audio previews show that the project is very much electro(clash) minded.
In August 2008, Front 242 played live at the Infest Festival
Infest (festival)
Infest is an annual three day music festival held at the University of Bradford Union in the United Kingdom, featuring alternative electronic music acts from genres including industrial, EBM, futurepop, synthpop and power noise...
in Bradford, UK.
In October 2008 Front 242 performed for the first time ever in Finland, at the Alternative Party 2008
Alternative Party
Alternative Party is a demoscene and art event in Finland. It was first organized in 1998 in Turku and since 2000 in Helsinki. The event is organized by Alternative Party ry, a non-profit association....
media arts festival.
Moments
On June 1, 2008, the Alfa Matrix label announced that Front 242 would make an ultimate statement towards abusive audio compression by releasing the free two-track download, First Moment. By June 15 the same year, the tracks were made available for free on Alfa Matrix's site in medium and high bit-rate MP3MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
s, WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
, FLAC
FLAC
FLAC is a codec which allows digital audio to be losslessly compressed such that file size is reduced without any information being lost...
, and M4A formats. Contrary to what fans and some media speculated, the two-track download was not new studio material. Instead, First Moments consisted of two previously unreleased live tracks, "U-Men" and "Im Rhythmus Bleiben", in rather stunning sound quality. It is rumored that over 20,000 people downloaded the tracks within hours of being made available. The label later confirmed that over 25,000 people downloaded the free tracks.
On June 4, 2008, Alfa Matrix announced the imminent release of Moments... The album was a live recording encompassing the very best of Front 242's compositions. The album was shipped in several formats including limited CD box sets, vinyl in different colors including 300-copy limited editions, and as a one-disc CD release.
Band members
- Jean-Luc De MeyerJean-Luc De MeyerJean-Luc De Meyer is a vocalist and lyricist who is best known as the lead vocalist of the Belgian EBM group Front 242.He started singing in the experimental group "Under Viewer" with Patrick Codenys...
- vocals - Daniel Bressanutti - keyboards, programming, live mixing
- Patrick Codenys - keyboards, programming, samplers
- Richard JonckheereRichard JonckheereRichard Jonckheere , aka Richard 23 or Richard JK, is an Industrial and EBM musician. He is a member of Front 242 and was a founding member of Revolting Cocks...
, often credited as "Richard 23" - percussion, vocals - Tim Kroker - electronic drums
Occasional Band Members / Collaborators
- Dirk Bergen - credited as keyboardist on Geography
- Jean-Marc Pauly - credited for writing and composing vocals on 06:21:03:11 Up Evil
- Pierre Pauly - credited for writing and composing vocals on 06:21:03:11 Up Evil
- Kristin Kowalski - credited as writer, composer and vocalist on 05:22:09:12 Off, Animal, and Angels Versus Animals
- Eran Westwood - credited as writer, composer and vocalist on 05:22:09:12 Off, Animal, and Angels Versus Animals
- John Dubs - credited as writer and composer on Animal and Angels Versus Animals
- Jean-Marc LedermanJean-Marc LedermanJean-Marc Lederman is a Belgian keyboard player and producer. He has worked with numerous bands including Fad Gadget, The The, Gene Loves Jezebel, The Weathermen, Belgian rock band Streets, and Front 242, and with other artists including Julianne Regan and Alain Bashung.His main projects are The...
- credited as remixer on Angels Versus Animals.
Discography
- GeographyGeography (album)GEOGRAPHY - VINTAGE REISSUE - LIMITED EDITION -Samples:...
(1982) - No CommentNo Comment (album)-Red Rhino CD version :-Wax Trax! CD version :-Wax Trax! Cassette Version :-Epic CD version :The 1992 Epic Records rerelease of No Comment slightly changed the EBM reference, which read "Electronic body music recorded on 8 tracks"...
(1984) - Back Catalogue (1987)
- Official VersionOfficial VersionOfficial Version is the third studio album by Front 242, released in 1987 and re-released in 1992.-LP version:-CD version:The compact disc edition of the album contained the single mixes of "Quite Unusual" and its B-side "Agressiva".-1992 reissue:...
(1987) - Front by FrontFront By Front-1992 reissue:These tracks were originally released on the Never Stop! EP, except for "Headhunter v1.0" which was originally released on the Headhunter EP.-Personnel:* Daniel Bressanutti* Patrick Codenys* Jean-Luc De Meyer* Richard Jonckheere...
(1988) - Tyranny (For You)Tyranny (For You)-Releases:*RRE/Play It Again Sam: RRE LP 11 - 12" Vinyl-Personnel:* Daniel Bressanutti: keyboards, programming* Patrick Codenys: keyboards, programming* Jean-Luc De Meyer: vocals* Richard Jonckheere: vocals, percussion...
(1991) - Live TargetLive TargetLive Target is a 1992 live album by the electronic group Front 242.-Track listing:...
(1992) - 06:21:03:11 Up Evil06:21:03:11 Up Evil-Album Title:Utilising a simple alphanumeric conversion from numbers to letters, i.e. 1=A, 2=B, 3=C, ..., 26=Z, the title can be interpreted as:* 06 = F* 21 = U* 03 = C* 11 = KWhich gives a full album title of Fuck Up Evil...
(1993) - 05:22:09:12 Off05:22:09:12 Off05:22:09:12 Off is an album by Industrial/EBM group Front 242. It was released by Sony on 2 November 1993 . The album's title is a simple substitution cipher for the word "evil"; where each letter is represented by its equivalent numerical position in the alphabet.The album was unusual in that it...
(1993) - Angels Versus Animals (1993)
- Live CodeLive CodeLive Code is a live album by Front 242, released in 1994...
(1994) - Mut@ge.Mix@geMut@ge.Mix@geMut@ge.Mix@ge is an album by Front 242, released in 1998, a collection of both previously released and new material, some remixed by notable Electronica bands of the genre.-Track listing:-Personnel:...
(1995) - Re-Boot: Live '98 (1998)
- Pulse (2003)
- Moments ... (2008)
U.S. Billboard 200
| Title | Peak | Peak Date | # of Weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tyranny For You | 95 | February 23, 1991 | 13 |
| 06:21:03:11 Up Evil | 166 | June 12, 1993 | 1 |
Singles
| Year | Title | UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
US Dance Hot Dance Club Play The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs... |
US Modern Rock |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | "Headhunter" | - | 13 | - |
| 1989 | "Never Stop" | - | 21 | - |
| 1990 | "Tragedy for You" | - | 11 | 18 |
| 1991 | "Rhythm of Time" | - | 11 | - |
| 1993 | "Religion" | 46 | 43 | - |
Side Projects and Guest Appearances
- 32Crash - Jean-Luc De Meyer
- The Art Corporation - Daniel Bressanutti
- Art & Strategy - Daniel Bressanutti, Patrick Codenys. Single-track CD included with book 'Art & Strategy 92'
- Bigod 20Bigod 20Bigod 20 was a German EBM and electro-industrial band which was formed in 1988 by music producers Andreas Tomalla and Markus Nikolai .-History:...
- Jean-Luc De Meyer, on track "The Bog" - Birmingham 6Birmingham 6 (band)Birmingham 6 is a Danish electro-industrial/EBM group founded in 1991 and named after the Birmingham Six, a group of Irish men mistakenly imprisoned for the Birmingham pub bombings. Members include Kim Løhde Petersen and Michael Hillerup....
- Jean-Luc De Meyer - Cobalt 60Cobalt 60Cobalt 60 is a Front 242 side project featuring Front 242's Jean-Luc de Meyer and Dominique Lallement. They are an electro-industrial/EBM group, though they frequently use guitars, an uncommon feature among artists of the genre...
- Jean-Luc De Meyer - Coder 23 - Patrick Codenys, Richard 23
- Cyber-Tec ProjectC-TecC-Tec was a band originally formed as a side project in 1995 by Jean-Luc De Meyer , Jonathan Sharp , and Ged Denton as The Cyber-Tec Project. The name was taken from Cyber-Tec Records, who released their first album. This EP was also released on Fifth Column Records in the US...
/C-TecC-TecC-Tec was a band originally formed as a side project in 1995 by Jean-Luc De Meyer , Jonathan Sharp , and Ged Denton as The Cyber-Tec Project. The name was taken from Cyber-Tec Records, who released their first album. This EP was also released on Fifth Column Records in the US...
- Jean-Luc De Meyer - Front Line AssemblyFront Line AssemblyFront Line Assembly is a Canadian electro-industrial band formed by Bill Leeb in 1986 after leaving Skinny Puppy. Influenced by early Industrial acts such as Cabaret Voltaire, Portion Control, D.A.F., Test Dept, SPK, and Severed Heads, FLA has developed its own unique sound while combining...
- Jean-Luc De Meyer - Guest Vocals on track "Future Fail", Artificial Soldier Album - GaidenGaidenis a Japanese-language word meaning "side story" or "tale", used to refer to an anecdote or supplementary biography of a person. This use of gaiden is commonly used in popular Japanese fiction to refer to a spin-off of a previously published work that is neither officially considered a sequel nor...
- Patrick Codenys - GlisGlisGlis is an Electronic / Industrial music project founded in 2001 by Shaun Frandsen of Seattle, WA . The band has experienced several lineup changes and guest appearances, with frontman Shaun Frandsen acting as the primary producer, vocalist, songwriter, and instrumentalist...
- Jean-Luc De Meyer - Guest Vocals on "The Irreparable" and "La Béatrice" ("Nemesis" Album) - Grisha Zeme - Daniel Bressanutti, Patrick Codenys
- Holy Gang - Richard 23
- Implant - Jean-Luc de Meyer, on track "The Creature"
- thefucKINGFUCKSThefucKINGFUCKSthefucKINGFUCKS is an underground Belgium industrial rock performance art group that began as a musical side-project for controversial visual artist Kendell Geers, Patrick Codenys of Front 242 and Choreographer / Performer Ilse Ghekiere from Charleroi Danses...
- Patrick Codenys - LaTchak - Richard 23
- Male Or Female - Daniel Bressanutti, Patrick Codenys
- MinistryMinistry (band)Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
- Richard 23, background vocals on track "The Nature Of Love" - Modern Cubism - Jean-Luc De Meyer
- Parade Ground - Patrick Codenys on Album "Rosary"
- Prothese - Daniel Bressanutti, Dirk Bergen
- Punish YourselfPunish YourselfPunish Yourself is a French electronic rock band best known for their stage theatrics and innovative style of industrial/punk music. They describe their style as "Fluo Cyber Punk".-Current members:...
- Jean-Luc de Meyer, on Track "Voodoo Virus" - Red Sniper - Patrick Codenys
- Revolting CocksRevolting CocksRevolting Cocks, also known as RevCo, is an American–Belgian industrial rock band and sometime supergroup that began as a musical side-project for Richard 23 of Front 242, Luc Van Acker, and Al Jourgensen of Ministry.-History:...
- Richard 23 - Speed Tribe - Daniel Bressanutti, Patrick Codenys
- Troissoeur - Daniel Bressanutti, as Remixer
- Under Viewer - Patrick Codenys, Jean-Luc De Meyer
External links
- FRONT 242 official website
- Front 242 FAQ
- / FRONT 242 remixes by the producer Ivo Draganac
- Hellelujah - an audiovisual coproduction between Front 242 and Design Is Dead
- Cipher Complex teaser with Front 242 score
- SHOUT! Online interview with Patrick Codenys (Front 242) (March 2005)