LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Front 242
built 643 days ago
One of the most consistent industrial bands of the 1980s, even though they regularly pursued a more electronic variant of the sound that swept into vogue during the '90s, Front 242 were the premier exponent of European electronic body music. Initially, the group was just a duo when formed in October 1981 in Brussels; programmers Patrick Codenys and Dirk Bergen recorded "Principles" and released the single on New Dance Records. A year later, programmer Daniel Bressanutti (aka Daniel B. Prothese) and lead vocalist Jean-Luc de Meyer joined as well; dubbed Front 242 because of the name's universal meaning and united connotations, the quartet debuted in 1982 with the single "U-Men" and album Geography, recorded for Red Rhino Europe Records (RRE).
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By the end of the decade, Front 242 were on the cutting edge of the experimental industrial dance groups, combining political sound bites with their dance samples and beats. Their 1988 club hit, "Headhunter," cemented their reputation and provided a good example of their aggressive style. MTV ... picks up the aggressive Belgian band as the single Headhunter has an interesting video-clip by the internationally renowned Anton Corbyn.
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After Sony dropped this Belgian quartet for poor album sales in 1993, Front 242 remained unusually dormant and its various members focused on side projects. No after five years of silence, the band returns with a live album recorded in Brussels and Kortrijik during their European tour. Aptly titled "Re:Boot", this live album crosses five albums and a decade worth of material all rearranged, remixed, and remastered. Diehard fans will notice the IDM/Techno edge added to each track as well as wonder about the lack of new material. It seems that the band decided to tour with tried and tested material with more of a Techno bent before making an eventual comeback. Overall the sound quality is quite excellent with little or no crowd noise except at the end and beginning of each track.
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By 1987, Front 242 had gained an American contract through Chicago's Wax Trax!, the home of a diverse group of mostly European aggressive synthesizer acts later lumped together as exponents of industrial rock. Wax Trax! reissued much of the group's recordings (including the rarities collection Back Catalogue) and released a new album, Official Version. The first Front 242 LP to coalesce as a consistent recording, the album contained several cold-wave club hits ("Masterhit," "Quite Unusual") and, for the time, excellent production values. Released in 1988, third LP Front by Front was undoubtedly the group's best yet, with more emphasis on song structure than loose mechanistic grooves. Besides the alternative club hits "Headhunter" and "Never Stop," the record was Front 242's most consistent.
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Definitely a voyage away from the perceived world as you know it, Front 242 does not disappoint on their new long player. In fact, they don't even have to move from their throne to run circles around the new crop of industrial/ electro acts in the genre today. This band will always wear the crown of innovation in this genre, and the rest of the knob twiddlers out there will have to scramble to catch up...again.
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The wildly popular 1988 "Headhunter" single (with a video by Anton Corbijn) and its accompanying album Front By Front would prove to be among the most commercially successful and enduring records in the entire history of industrial music and EBM. By this point, Front 242 had developed a style of strong backbeats, slices, samples, and ominous vocals. The band drew on militaristic samples, mock-evangelism, and television images, but without clearly defining a message. The band stated instead that they were merely presenting the world around them as it was.
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Front 242