Artist: Front 242
Genre(s):
Rock
Electronic
Industrial
Rock: Pop-Rock
Rock: Electronic
Alternative
Pop: Pop-Rock
Discography:
Geography
Year: 2004
Tracks: 12
Headhunter 2000 (CD2) CD2
Year: 2001
Tracks: 8
Headhunter 2000 (CD1) CD1
Year: 2001
Tracks: 9
Headhunter CD2
Year: 1999
Tracks: 8
Headhunter CD1
Year: 1999
Tracks: 9
Headhunter 2
Year: 1999
Tracks: 8
Headhunter 1
Year: 1999
Tracks: 9
Reboot Live
Year: 1998
Tracks: 14
Re:boot: (L.Iv.E'98)
Year: 1998
Tracks: 14
Mut@gE.Mix@ge
Year: 1995
Tracks: 12
Up Evil
Year: 1993
Tracks: 13
Religion
Year: 1993
Tracks: 4
Angels Vs. Animals
Year: 1993
Tracks: 8
Angels Versus Animals
Year: 1993
Tracks: 9
06-21-03-11 Up Evil
Year: 1993
Tracks: 13
05:22:09:12 Off
Year: 1993
Tracks: 16
Live Target
Year: 1992
Tracks: 13
Tyranny For You
Year: 1991
Tracks: 11
Mixed By Fear
Year: 1991
Tracks: 8
Tragedy For You
Year: 1989
Tracks: 3
Front By Front (Extended)
Year: 1988
Tracks: 16
Front By Front
Year: 1988
Tracks: 10
Official Version
Year: 1987
Tracks: 11
Backcatalogue
Year: 1985
Tracks: 17
No Comment
Year: 1984
Tracks: 11
One of the most logical industrial bands of the 1980s, fifty-fifty though they regularly pursued a more than electronic variance of the intelligent that swept into trend during the '90s, Front 242 were the prime minister exponent of European electronic eubstance music. Initially, the chemical group was hardly a duo when formed in October 1981 in Brussels; programmers Patrick Codenys and Dirk Bergen recorded "Principles" and released the undivided on New Dance Records. A year by and by, coder Daniel Bressanutti (aka Daniel B. Prothese) and leading vocalizer Jean-Luc de Meyer linked as well; dubbed Front 242 because of the name's universal proposition signification and united connotations, the quartette debuted in 1982 with the single "U-Men" and album Geographics, recorded for Red Rhino Europe Records (RRE).
Non unalike to Depeche Mode and other synthesizer bands at the time, Front 242 began playing live subsequently that year, adding percussionist Geoff Bellingham but later replacement him with an ex-roadie, Richard 23 (born Richard Jonckheere). (Dirk Bergen as well left the functional isthmus, just stayed on to direct management.) The group's sound began to grow more aggressive with 1984's No Comment EP, placid resonant of synth pop only with harder-hitting rhythms and added jeopardize from de Meyer's vocals. By 1987, Front 242 had gained an American compress through Chicago's Wax Trax!, the home of a divers group of by and large European aggressive synthesist acts of the Apostles later lumped together as exponents of industrial john Rock. Wax Trax! reissued a lot of the group's recordings (including the rarities collection Back Catalogue) and released a new album, Official Version. The get-go Front 242 LP to blend as a consistent recording, the album contained several cold wave clubhouse hits ("Masterhit," "Quite an 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 accent on birdcall construction than loose mechanistic grooves. Besides the alternative baseball club hits "Headhunter" and "Never Stop," the record was Front 242's about consistent.
By the end of the tenner, Front 242 had become the get-go Wax Trax! artist to make the jump to a mainstream label; Epic Records picked up the band's compress, reissuing each yesteryear album with new artwork and incentive tracks. The individual "Cataclysm (For You)" became another alternative club hit, and picked up rotary motion on MTV as well. Though the following album, Despotism (For You), couldn't touch Front by Front in footing of quality, it made big strides for the grouping in the minds of audiences -- by the time of its liberation in 1991, Front 242 was, with Ministry and Skinny Puppy, one of the about long-familiar industrial acts in music.
With nary a batting order modification in the past ten-spot years, however, Richard 23 last left the group in 1993 after an American enlistment with the Lollapalooza festival (the trio replaced him with lyricists Jean-Marc Pauly and his buddy Pierre). That same year Front 242 released two LPs, 06:21:03:11 Up Evil and 05:22:09:12 Off, the get-go closer to pop music than anything the grouping had recorded ahead, and the second gear more abrasive than previous recordings. In the inflame of industrial music's improbable mainstream success -- which pushed unrestrained angst and angry guitars in the venous blood vessel of Nine Inch Nails -- the Front 242 LPs were not well received. Vocalist De Meyer left the group in 1995 to whistle with versatile projects, including Cobalt 60 and Bio-Tek. Front 242 released a hot LP (Hot Code) and a remix album (Mut@ge.Mix@ge) but for the most share remained quiet while flocks of industrial bands invaded the mainstream charts during the mid to belated '90s. In 1997 the group again toured and issued the live album Reboot a class later. Pulse, a studio album of new material, was released in CD and DVD formats in 2003.
