Front 242
Front 242 were a Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. Pioneering the style they called electronic body music, they influenced the electronic and industrial music genres.
History
Formation
Front 242 were formed in 1981 in Aarschot, near Leuven, Belgium, by Daniel Bressanutti and Dirk Bergen, who wanted to create music and graphic design using emerging electronic tools. Prior to forming Front 242, Bressanutti worked on a music project called "Prothese" that had already produced several one-off tracks. The front part of the name comes from the idea of an organized popular uprising and the fact that the word can be translated in many languages while retaining the same meaning. The first single by the duo, "Principles", with b-side "Body To Body," was released in 1981.Patrick Codenys and Jean-Luc De Meyer had separately formed a group called "Underviewer" at around the same time. The groups merged in 1982 after Underviewer had given their demo tapes to Bressanutti who was working at Hill's Music musical instrument shop in Brussels at the time. Bressanutti was sufficiently impressed to ask Codenys and De Meyer to join Front 242.
Recordings by the band were initially created in Bressanutti's apartment studio, where the entire band and their equipment were packed into a room. The band incorporated as an artistic association in Belgium which allowed them to access government assistance and made it easier to afford better studio equipment.
Bressanutti, Codenys and De Meyer took turns on vocals at first, until they settled on De Meyer as the lead vocalist. De Meyer came to write most of the lyrics, although Valerie Jane Steele wrote several tracks including "Don't Crash." Despite falling into specific roles, however, the band sought to project a more anonymous, mysterious image, replete with dark sunglasses and militaristic uniforms so that they could not be easily identified. Bressanutti took this concept of anonymity to the extreme, becoming a "silent" member who did not appear in photos or videos until the early 1990s, nor did he perform onstage with the band. He did continue to tour, mixing the live sound and controlling pre-recorded or sequenced elements from the sound board behind the audience.
The band self-released their first album, Geography, in 1982 and shortly after signed to the Belgian indie label consortium Les Disques du Crépuscule who later re-released the album. Their next single, "U-Men", was released the same year as was the band's first music video, produced by Marcel Vanthilt and played on the program RoodVonk on VRT. The video proved a challenge, not only conceptually given the band's insistence on anonymity, but because of the small budget; ultimately the video was shot on location in Daniel's bedroom.
In 1983, the band brought on Richard Jonckheere, whom they became familiar with through Richard's own "noise concept" as a percussionist and second vocalist to help boost the band's live presence. Not long after, Dirk Bergen left the band to manage the group and pursue a graphic design career. Also in 1983 the band released the EP Endless Riddance.
Rising popularity
Front 242 became a popular musical group in Belgium, particularly for their "infamous" live performances that involved loud sound, aggressive stage presence, smoke, and bright flashing lights. The music press in Belgium was less receptive, sometimes interpreting their militaristic appearance, dark music, and samples from war especially given the backdrop of the cold war and terror incidents in as being pro-fascist, an interpretation the band firmly rejected.Their second album, No Comment, released in 1984, was the first to introduce the term electronic body music in association with their sound via the liner notes, which stated: "Electronic body music composed and produced on eight tracks by Front 242." The band followed the release with a European tour.
It was around this time that Front 242 began collaborating with Luc van Acker, who was a familiar presence at Hill's Music. On one occasion, Luc brought his guitar and gear to the band's studio where samples of the session were used in composing the track "No Shuffle." Luc was also known to take the stage with the band at times.
Front 242 signed with the American label Wax Trax! in 1984. At the behest of Alain Jourgensen who was working with Wax Trax at the time, Front 242 were invited to be the support band for Ministry during their upcoming tour in the United States. This tour led to the creation of Revolting Cocks by Richard 23, Luc van Acker, and Alain Jourgensen.
In 1985 the band played the Seaside Festival and the first ever Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium. An incident between the band and security at Pukkelpop led to further negative press for the band. That year they also released the Politics of Pressure EP and a 12" for "No Shuffle."
In 1986, Front 242 turned down a contract with ZTT Records and instead signed with Red Rhino in Europea sub-label of Play It Again Samwho released Backcatalogue and Official Version in 1987. Trouser Press credited Official Version with helping Front 242 "emerge from relative obscurity to become a significant cult force, selling records all over the world." In the fall of 1987, Front 242 supported Depeche Mode on the first European leg of their Music for the Masses tour.
In 1988, Front by Front was released, and in December of that same year, "Headhunter", became the band's first club hit, reaching number 13 on the US Billboard Dance/Club Play Songs chart.
1990s
Tyranny , released in 1991, became the band's highest-charting album, reaching No. 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. Two further releases were extracted from Tyranny — Mixed by Fear, which contained remixes of the track "Gripped by Fear", and the single "Rhythm of Time", which included a remix by The Orb.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.
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 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 : 06:21:03:11 UP EVIL and 05:22:09:12 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 on Up Evil, and 99 Kowalski, John Dubs 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, Dubs 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 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. That year 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.