I sat down and listened to an album of theirs for the first time a few days ago.
Upon listening to Front by Front, I clearly see where Twitch and Revco must’ve come from.
Cool stuff.
Anything new from these guys as of late?
Well, Front By Front came after Twitch and Big Sexy Land, but in terms of influence, there probably was some 242 influence from the early records. My personal favorite is Official Version, from '87 - a dark, hard-hitting industrial dance album. My problem with Front By Front - while a good album - is that it hasn’t dated very well, and every club practically killed Welcome To Paradise (one of my least favorite 242 songs). Of course, Headhunter was overplayed, but it is a classic song that still sounds great today. If you haven’t heard Official Version, I recommend that one highly, along with the Wax Trax compilation Back Catalogue, which covers most of their early material. Tyranny For You from '91 and Up Evil from '93 are very good albums, too.
They released Pulse and something else a few years ago - very minimalistic-style electronic music. Not their most exciting material, but good background music. Haven’t heard any recent news.
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Their music was definitely an influence, Al can attest to that. Hell, they even had their first U.S. tour with Ministry for With Sympathy in 1984.
I’ve only heard three of their albums (tyranny, up evil, off), and liked what I heard. Although Tyranny is, by far, the best i’ve heard so far. Yet to hear anything else by them, but from what i’ve heard, it’s good.
apparently front 242 are working on a soundtrack for some new game. they did some gigs not long ago so are still around and active, although they also have side projects which seem to have taken over at the moment. there’s 32 Crash (JL Demeyer’s band), Male or Female (Patrick and Daniel’s) and the DJ stuff they do, Coder 23 (Richard 23 and another of them?). all their albums are pretty much great, and the remastered 2cd version of Geography is very cool.
I love “Don’t Crash” - one of my favorite tracks by them!
The first “Industrial” band I got into - went into a record store in Belgium, heard some, bought it and was sold on the whole genre. Then I heard of Ministry as I heard the bands were somehow affiliated together. In fact, one of the first music sites on the net I ever saw (and inspired me to do the Ministry one was):
http://www.waste.org/front242/
There is also a:
(The site used to also live on that server).
Lately, they haven’t been up to much. Check out their project “Male or Female” for some chill electronic music. Background…
I was the same as afra. I actually bought “Official Version” LP, and was looking at the waxtrax flyer inside and saw the revco albums. and thought who in the hell calls themselves this. bought ygdsob - the rest was history.
i too recommend official version.
Tragedy For You is one of my ALL TIME fave tracks.
I think the last album I actually bought of theirs was ‘Tyranny for you’
'91 was practically the ‘mainstream breakthrough’ for industrial bands. 242’s Tyranny was released on Epic, with the Tragedy video getting airplay on MTV. Here in Phoenix, the local alternative station played Tragedy and Rhythm of Time. The JBMHR single came out (and outsold Madonna), and releases such as Too Dark Park and Ebbhead got Puppy and Nitzer Ebb some radio airplay as well (Tormentor, I Give To You, and Godhead). NIN was also touring that year with Lolapalooza, making Pretty Hate Machine even more popular.
1002
Official Version is still my favorite 242 album, I don’t play Front By Front that much anymore, but Circling Overland is a cool song. Don’t Crash though is in my opinion the best song they ever did.
Some good stuff in the 80’s and early 90’s. Also a good live show. Saw them on the Tyranny for You tour as well as Lollapalooza 3.
apparently front 242 are working on a soundtrack for some new game. they did some gigs not long ago…
I went to see them live two months ago. They played here (Strasbourg, France) with Fixmer / McCarthy, the side project of Nitzer Ebb’s singer, Douglas Mc Carthy (http://www.fixmermccarthy.com/).
Very good show by the way…
Am I really posting here again?..
Thanks, everyone… I’ll definitely check this out.
Thanks, everyone… I’ll definitely check this out.
Any luck yet? I might throw some F242 into rotation on Soulseek for awhile.
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Thanks, everyone… I’ll definitely check this out.
Any luck yet? I might throw some F242 into rotation on Soulseek for awhile.
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Yeah, I picked up Tyranny (For You) and Official Version.
Nice.
Very.
Official Version was my introduction to 242, back in '87. I played the living crap out of that CD. Favorite tracks are “Red Team”, “Rerun Time”, and “Masterhit”. The “Aggressiva” remix found on the Interception EP (and the OV reissue) is really good, and, for me, superior to the original. After Official Version, I picked up Back Catalogue, which pretty much caught me up on their old material. I was already a die-hard fan a mere year later when Front By Front came out. I went apeshit over “Headhunter”, and remember thinking how cool it was that it was getting played at clubs (back when I had to go to all-ages after hours). The Tyranny Tour in '91 was amazing, but the more recent tours have been slightly disappointing, as the songs were heavily remixed, some nearly beyond recognition. The last 242 show I saw, Richard 23 came out onstage in a shiny silver hip hop suit and yelled out “242’s in the house!!!” sigh Yep.
1002
The last 242 show I saw, Richard 23 came out onstage in a shiny silver hip hop suit and yelled out “242’s in the house!!!” sigh Yep.
1002
ouch. what tour was that?
It was after the Re:Boot '98 tour…hmm, I think it was in 2000 or '01. It was a strange event - they were the headlining act at a fetish ball in Tempe, AZ. Basically 2 hours of freaks and goths decked out in leather, bearing breasts, hanging from fish hooks, eating fire, all that subcultural wackiness, then 242 played. I had to ask my friend a couple of times what song was playing (I remember one of them was No Shuffle, which was completely unrecognizable!). I was so disenchanted, I didn’t stick around for the encore. Can’t believe I left a 242 show early, but it was pretty bad.
1002
Wow.
Headhunter does kick some serious ass.
I think it’s one of the only times I’ve enjoyed so many cowbells in a song, albeit digital.
“I’M LOOKING FOR THIS MAN!!!”
bip, bop-bip