ARTIST: Front 242
TITLE: Angels Versus Animals
GENRE: Electronic
LABEL: RRE
BITRATE: 232 kbps avg
SIZE: 101 MB
TRACKS: 9
ENCODER: LAME 3.90.3mod
SOURCE: CD Maxi
LENGTH: 56:03
RIP DATE: 2005-08-03
TRACK LIST:
1 Animal (Radio) 3:29
2 Angel (Wipe Out) 5:00
3 Serial Killers Don't Kill Their Dog Either 5:06
4 Modern Angel (KMFDM Remix) 4:22
5 Animal (Extended) 4:00
6 Break Me (Female) 4:03
7 Der Verfluchte Engel 6:36
8 L'Ange Moderne 5:31
9 Born To Breathe 17:56
RELEASE NOTES:
Front 242 was created in 1981 in Aarschot, Belgium by Daniel
Bresanutti and Dirk Bergen, who originally went by the name
Prothese. They were interested in creating both music and
graphic design using emerging electronic tools, and
reportedly decided on changing their name to Front 242
because the name had greater potential as a subject of
graphic design. The first single to be released was
Principles, late in that year. Patrick Codenys and Jean-Luc
De Meyer had separately formed a group called Under Viewer
at about the same time. Codenys said his father received a
lottery winning and shared enough of it with him so that he
could buy a car, but he bought his first synthesizer
instead. Contact between Bresanutti and Codenys led the two
duos to join together in 1982. Bresanutti, Codenys and De
Meyer all took turns on vocals at first, until they settled
on De Meyer as the lead vocalist; only recently have early
recordings with Bresanutti on vocals been widely released.
De Meyer also came to write almost all of the lyrics. They
also decided during this formative period never to use the
regular waveform settings on their synthesizers, saying
instead that creating the waveform itself for each note was
part of the creative process.
In 1983, Dirk Bergen left the band to pursue graphic design
full time, and Richard Jonckheere was admitted to the group
as a loosely backing vocalist and charismatic stage
presence. Jonkheere was usually referred to by the name
Richard 23. Front 242 was becoming the most popular musical
group in Belgium; their next album, No Comment would cement
the group's place in electronic music, and was the first to
introduce the term "Electronic Body Music" in association
with their sound. Front 242 signed with the legendary 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, Alain Jourgensen of
Ministry and others.
Front 242's style shifted abruptly with each of their next
two albums, released in rapid succession in 1993 (originally
planned as a double-CD). 06:21:03:11 UP EVIL and 05:22:09:12
OFF were brilliant releases musically and once again showed
that Front 242 did not need to follow existing trends to
stay fresh and original, even using a female vocalist. (The
numbers correspond to letters, spelling "FUCK UP EVIL" and
"EVIL OFF".) However at this point there were strains
emerging, with the band members apparently having different
artistic views about how to progress. Neither of these
albums had significant input from Richard 23, and
05:22:09:12 OFF only intermittently included their lead
vocalist, Jean-Luc De Meyer. 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 and Eran Westwood on Off. 99 Kowalski is the
assumed name of Kristin Kowalski, making a tradition out of
Richard 23's idea of number-as-name.
Front 242 seem to be getting increasingly schizophrenic
these days, their style disappearing off in different
directions with alarming frequency. Tyranny >For You< added
noise to the basic EBM ingredients they'd been using up
until then, 06:21:03:11 Up Evil saw them introducing guitars
and ambient instrumentals, 05:22:09:12 Off added female
vocals and a more obvious techno influence while exploring
instrumentals further. Now this new EP, Angels Versus
Animals combines both, careening madly between techno, metal
and anything else they can lay their hands on.