Archive for the ‘Front 242’ Category

My fifth favorite Belgium EBM act. Also Blondie.

Sunday, August 12th, 2012

I guess NBC borked the Closing Ceremonies, cutting out Muse, The Who, Kate Bush and a ton of other amazing performances. I didn’t even bother watching it, because  I knew that would happen. I’ll just download the BBC’s broadcast in a few days. Once I do that, I’ll probably convert the whole thing to audio and then make MP3s out of the best songs. I probably can’t share them here though, because I hear the IOC cracks down pretty hard on any blogs that put up that stuff.

…

You guys know I’m on Twitter right? I mean…you should totally follow me on that.

*whistles innocently and walks away*

Front 242
Rhythm Of Time (12″ Remix)
Rhythm Of Time (Anti-G Mix)
Rhythm Of Time (Victor The Cleaner)
I’ve been trying to get into Front 242 for a long time, and will occasionally buy a 12″ single when I see one used, hoping it will be the track that finally gets me to appreciate them, but it’s always been to no avail. That is, until now, I think I finally found the song that will get me to dig into their actual records. Of course, it’s “Rhythm Of Time,” the closest thing the band ever had to a hit, so I guess that makes me a mainstream-leaning poser, but whatever, I like my hardcore industrial electronic body music to have a slight pop edge. Blame Nine Inch Nails.

Blondie
Call Me (The Ben Liebrand Remix)
Backfired (Remix)
I was going to start this description by saying that it would be impossible to find any connection between the Front 242 tracks and these Blondie remixes by producer Ben Liebrand, but then I went and found one. Liebrand is from the Netherlands. Front 242 is from Belgium. They are literally connected, sharing a border. So there you go.

These remixes are from 1989, several years after Blondie called it quits, and several years before they eventually reformed in the 90s. I think that Chrysalis Records just occasionally put these things out whenever they needed a quick buck. Still, I guess there are worst ways to pay the bills. At least they scored some great producers to have a go at these tracks. Ben Liebrand is a stellar producer/remixer who has worked with Genesis, TLC and Grace Jones, to name a few,  the fact that he’s still making and releasing mixes shows that he’s doing something right. As for the “Backfired” mix, that was done by Bruce Forest, a DJ who did mixes for The Soup Dragons, OMD and a ton of other great artists from the late 80s and early 90s. It’s good, but of the two I think I prefer Liebrand’s take on “Call Me,” thanks to its extended synth sections that really work to Moroder it up in a great way.

Posted in Blondie, Front 242, remixes | 12 Comments »

I am a Champion of Justice

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

I wrote this post Sunday night and then forgot to hit the “Publish” button. I think that’s the first time I’ve done that sober.

Björk
Joga (Alec Empire “Empire State Of Emergency” Remix)
I had a ton of Atari Teenage Riot lined up for tonight’s post. But you can get all of it on iTunes and Amazon apparently, so there went that plan.

I wanted an excuse to talk about the group though. They have a new album coming out soon, and you can currently download two excellent new singles from it here. They are one of my favorite bands from the 90s, and I cannot wait for their new album to blow new holes in my eardrums.

Thankfully, I was able to find this remix of Joga by digging around my music library. I’ve posted this twice before, but I do not care. It’s an amazing mix. And it’s shockingly not in print anywhere at the moment, so I’m going to run with it.

This is NOT the “Alec Empire Mix” or the “Alec Empire Hardcore Mix” this is a separate, different mix. I know its been on a few different Bjork singles, but I found it on an odd comp in the late 90s called Y2k. Other cuts from that gem? “Busy Child” and Apollo Four Fourty’s remix of the “Lost In Space” theme. It’s a weird little CD.

Röyksopp
Poor Leno (Sander Kleineberg’s Northern Beach Mix)
I try to lump all the artists with umlats in their names together, makes it easier. I’m not particularly fond of this track. It’s good, but held up next to other Röyksopp singles like “Remind Me,” “Happy Up Here,” and the fucking incredible “Girl And The Robot” it just kind of pales in comparison. That, and it makes me think of Jay Leno. Fuck that guy. This remix is from a 12″.

Front 242
Tragedy â–ºFor Youâ—„ (12″ Vox)
Tragedy â–ºFor Youâ—„ (Neurodancer)
Tragedy â–ºFor Youâ—„ (Punish Your Machine Mix 12″)
Tragedy â–ºFor Youâ—„ (Slo Mo Mix)
How did I create the triangle symbol? I didn’t. I cut and pasted it from Wikipedia. It took me forever to find a place that had that thing in the fucking title of this song.  I’m not a fan of random punctuation in band/song names. Random macro characters are just too much. These mixes are from a 12″ single. Listen to them while punching something.

Tomorrow (or later today) I will have a new post. In it there will be a song that can save the world.

Posted in Front 242, Röyksopp, remixes | 4 Comments »

Constructive Criticism is a Pain in my Ass

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

So if you read my last post you probably figured out that I’m not a fan of Black Devil Doll. I stand by my comments about the movie, it is the worst, least entertaining movie I have ever seen, and the fact that anyone out there likes it kind of makes me feel bad about the human race.

HOWEVER, I do agree with some of the comments made in that I kind of went too far with my “personal” attacks on the filmmakers. Wishing horrible things upon people isn’t exactly a classy move on my part, so I issue a retraction. I don’t wish death, dismemberment, whatever on the makers of Black Devil Doll. They made a movie, I hated it (a lot) but that doesn’t make them horrible people. They’ve actually been very classy in their response to my horribly evil review of their horrible film. I was kind of being a troll (on my own site no less!) for attention and hits. It was overkill and not needed.

There’s another review of Black Devil Doll that brings up a point that I wish I had (even though they liked the movie), and that’s the fact the movie is incredibly lazy. There was no real effort put forth to make the film once they got the idea. They didn’t bother to find talented actors, they didn’t bother to make the film look good, they didn’t really bother to do much of anything. That’s the main problem with the film, it gives off an air of apathy upon the filmmakers, and if they didn’t care about the movie, why should you care enough to see it?

Damn I hate eating crow.

Now here’s some industrial music.

Front Line Assembly
Millennium (1,000 Years of Decay Remix)
Millennium (Left in Ruins Remix)
Transtime
Millennium (Until Death Remix)
I always get these guys mixed up with Front 242, which makes sense. These are from a 12” single.

Front 242
Work 242 N.Off is N.Off
Agony [Until Death]
Work 242
Never Stop! V 1.1
I always get these guys mixed up with Level 42, which does not make any sense in the least. Just had an awesome idea though; how about a Front Line Assembly, Front 242, Level 42 mash-up? That would be awesome. These are also from a 12” single.

Laibach
Sympathy For The Devil
Sympathy For The Devil (Anastasia)
Sympathy For The Devil (Who Killed The Kennedys)
Only one of these versions is technically by Laibach, the other two are credited to Germania and 30,000 VK. But since both those bands are just different incarnations of Laibach I figured that’s just splitting hairs. The (Who Killed The Kennedys) version is the only one that sounds remotely like the original. But all are very…interesting. From a 12” picture disc.

Posted in 000 VK, 30, eating crow, Front 242, Front Line Aseembly, germania, laibach, remixes | 2 Comments »