OMG! It's 9:30 AM And I'm Listening To Front 242!

(Still, can't complain, it's better than still having What Katie Did jammed in there, argh.)

xpost

I opted to not partake in any Morrissey this morning. It's too sunny outside. Instead I put on a good Current 93 mix tape that someone from the old Swans e-mail list was kind enough to tape me years ago. (Thanks, Bradley Bee!)

A friend in high school made me a mixtape containing two of their records that I used to play incessantly, back right after I'd gotten into NIN. No idea where the tape is now. Don't know whether or not I'd even want to hear it, because the friend who made the tape (and was also HUGE into Enigma and Lords Of Acid) killed himself senior year.

I just got the best (to me and probably no one else that i can think of) album of sad-boy light industrial new wave rock the other day and you'll never guess who put it out. Equal Vision. The punk label. I'm digging it. Some of it sounds like hurting-era TFF. The band has a horrible noo-metal name though: Codeseven. (Dancing Echoes/Dead Sounds is the album)

Dan correct about KMFDM though I have all the albums through Money (after that, nothing changes...ever). A good singles comp would work, though.

Track Listing:

Cadillacs - Hey Bob E Re Bob
Ron Moody & The Centaurs - The New Breed
Googie Rene - Look At Your Girl
Karen Kelly - Susie's Toys
The Sherrys - Pop Pop Pop-Pie
The Pipe Dream - Mrs.Brown's Limousine
Phil McLean - Small Sad Sam
The Electric Junkyard - L.David Sloane
Dave Clark Five - All Night Long
The Hollies - All The World Is Love
Cook E. Jarr - Red Balloon
Dolphin - Let's Get Together
Dyke & The Blazers - Shotgun Slim
Leslie Gore - Off & Running
Ben Peters - Downtown U.S.A.
Willie White - 99 Beef Steaks
The Continental Cousins - Dang Dang
Bill Dana - Teenage Problems
The Caravelli Orchestra - Wig Wam
Barrabas - Mr.Money
Flash & The Pan - Hey St.Peter
The Enoch Light Singers - Hello, I Love You
Ramos - Housebroken
Junior Mance - Maria
Mantronix - Scream
Buffy St.Marie - Cod'ine
Monie Love - I'll Drive You Crazy
Etoile De Dakar - Jalo

I don't know what possessed me to put Mantronix & Ramos on the tape. I musta been drunk. I don't even think I made this tape for maria even though there is one of those obligatory name-check songs on it. And Cod'ine is such a dusty warhorse. And you probably don't even have a tape-deck anymore. Anyway, lemme know.

Actually, I do. Send it along if you like! Thanks!

i went on a 242 downloading spree on the *gulp* gothic.industrial.mp3 newsgroup. someone posted more-or-less everything.

tho - seriously get the Geography 2xcd release. has allsorts of goodies on it - pre 242 tracks, odd versions and unreleased early tracks. it's fantastic.

they were fantastic live in 89. and can i get any takers for signed front by front and back catalogue cd's ? can i heck. best not mention the nitzer ebb...

Scott I haven't listened to Dewdrops In The Garden for ages, but I remember really liking it, especially after their disapointing 2nd album. I say open it!

Yes you do. Especially someone who has the original pressing with all the samples that were later removed. I wonder who that person could be.

oh, and stirmonster to thread

the words "blue" and "moon" spring to mind.

Attention DJP...

They're on tour in the US right now! http://www.front242.com/live.html

(without Daniel B who is 66, he's not out of the band, just not touring anymore - the rest are 58-64) and they're even playing a couple of new songs! (first one is Funkhadafi/Generator (new) )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQuXmCdsVW4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuNZieQdGLo

I caught the Philly show a couple weeks ago and had a lot of fun though the specter of COVID seemed to take the wind out of really enjoying myself.

Just need to stop in from vacation and say that “Pan Dhemihk” from Pulse (2003) is mind-blowing.

What’s a good place to start with these guys if I love the funkiness?

Just listen to their big three albums: Official Version, Front By Front and Tyranny For You, plus the Backcatalogue compilation. That's all you need.

Every once in a while I remember that Front 242 had an album named "06:21:03:11 Up Evil", and I think what an innocent time it still was in 1993.
When "Closer" by NIN started getting major radio play a few months later, they must have realized their album might have done better if they'd just spelled it out.

Utilising a simple alphanumeric conversion from numbers to letters, i.e. 1=A, 2=B, 3=C, ..., 26=Z, the title can be interpreted as:

06 = F
21 = U
03 = C
11 = K
Which gives a full album title of Fuck Up Evil.

i think "No Comment" and "Geography" are the ones with the most funk, "Politics Of Pressure" EP too. For me, by the time it got to "Tyranny For You" they had programmed all the funk out of the music.

I had tickets to see them in March 2020 which has been rescheduled and rescheduled. Now looking like being Feb 2022.

If not for Covid and a vacation I would probably catch this tour.

https://www.front242.com/store/p90/USA_91_DIGIPAK_CD.html Live in the USA 1991, released last year

oh, and there was a live in Europe 2LP too - sold out by now

https://www.front242.com/store/p91/91_DOUBLE_LP_BOX.html

both are great btw

They really know how to put on a show

40th anniversary show in July - they got the whole crew out this time, even Daniel B back on stage, how long ago was that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAt4Czl6bsI

keep watching until the end of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPSwGj45gxM

last time i saw them was on the 'front by front' tour in 1988 - i went to see them at the ancienne belgique in brussels. i thought that could never be beaten but have watched this recent AB gig and it is up there. such a great show! such a great set list! i'm still getting over the fact i had to give away my ticket as i had to work the night they played glasgow a few weeks ago. hopefully they will be back sooner than last time as i don't think i'm going to make waiting another 34 years.

i think it ain't just!

xxpost: that was a live version of Controversy Between where they start fighting at the end. was online for years and the second I link to it it gets set to private. Thanks.

it's a classic. i can never get over how young Jean-Luc De Meyer is there.

this should work -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxvgCc91J_I

this thread led me down the Bandcamp rabbit hole, those remasters sound sweet

thanks! xpost

all four of these are very recommended: (had the first two for a while in box sets but now available digitally too)

https://alfamatrix.bandcamp.com/album/hamburg-87-official-version
https://alfamatrix.bandcamp.com/album/ancienne-belgique-89-front-by-front
https://alfamatrix.bandcamp.com/album/91-live-in-eu
https://alfamatrix.bandcamp.com/album/usa-91-live-in-the-usa

https://alfamatrix.bandcamp.com/album/ancienne-belgique-89-front-by-front

woah! this is the one i was at. so it was '89, not 88! i can still vividly remember losing my shit to lots of this and then to the nth degree when they played "WYHIWYG / U-men".

I listened to 06:21:03:11 UP EVIL, one of their two albums from 1993, this morning. I don't think I'd heard it since it was new. It was pretty good! They were trying a little too hard to write "real songs," and the guitars seemed unnecessary (as they always did when anybody but Ministry used them), but overall pretty solid stuff.

I listened to 06:21:03:11 UP EVIL, one of their two albums from 1993, this morning. I don't think I'd heard it since it was new. It was pretty good! They were trying a little too hard to write "real songs," and the guitars seemed unnecessary (as they always did when anybody but Ministry used them), but overall pretty solid stuff.

agreed. of the 2 albums, these days i listen to OFF a lot more than EVIL.
seemed to remember that OFF was billed as a more ambient album, which i guess is true.

I couldn’t find any posts on ILM about graphic novels about particular scenes or music subcultures, and this one goes across way too many bands, but this post has seen some recent action, so here we go!: my old pen pal Tomas has just published the English edition of the best graphic novel ever written about being a synth-obsessed teen in Sweden in the 80s/ 90s!

Richard 23 even contributed a jacket blurb!

https://synth-kids.com/images/ministry.jpg

More info here: https://synth-kids.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFzT1L0Faos

due to this thread revive, i am currently loving the M✧✧@g✧.M✧✧@ge release.
possibly the first time i have heard this to the end in well over a decade, and yeah, it's not really a F242 release at all, but an excellent mixtape of underworld/orb/prodigy enhanced 90s ambient techno.

other than Pulse (which i seem to recall not being well received by fans at the time), and the never ending live albums,
have the band actually recorded any new material since the era of UP EVIL/OFF + eps/remixes excess ?

guess the use of the 'at' symbol caused trouble.
of course i meant 'mutage.mixage'.

it's 2:41 pm and i'm listening to front 242!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwMdpDsaqW4

i can't believe i started this thread before there was a youtube!

Front 242 have just announced that they'll stop touring after this year. Final dates here...

https://www.instagram.com/p/C3w0JeJNjBZ/?igsh=cWh5MGFpeW14dWd4

rest in peace, brave warriors. your work is done. we salute you.

there should be an old industrial musician home that people can go to.

So... this is it - Today, Tomorrow and Saturday are their final 3 shows, at Brussels' Ancienne Belgique. (Wasn't able to get a ticket, they were sold out ridiculously fast)

I was still hopeful I'd get a last minute ticket but alas, it seems impossible. Heartbroken. Still, I'll always have my memnories of seeing them at Ancienne Belgique twice in 1989.

live stream was incredible!

oh no i forgot that was on!

it's still online

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbwSXVRwKUo

setlist https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/front-242/2025/ancienne-belgique-brussels-belgium-33aa4045.html

Gutted I didn’t manage to get tickets but the live stream is hitting the spot tonight. I’m still hopeful they’ll play the odd gig around Brussels now and then

I have the stream on now, what a treat.