Jamaica 12 ch11 About Front 242

             about front 242
            -----------------
            written by iopop


 during the 14 years that front 242 have
existed they have always given something
new to the music, impressing and
inspiring a great part of the synth and
techno genre. in the begining of the
80's they played experimental electronic
music, in the middle of the 80's they
filled the emptyness that existed in the
heavy dance music with tunes like
"commando mix". still in the 90's they
are precursors to the genre. but who are
then front 242?

 FRONT 242 was formed in belgium 1981.
the group had, like today, four members;
daniel bressanutti, patrick codenys,
jean-luc de meyer and richard 23. the
goal from 1981 is still the same, to
live a 100% perfect product and to give
something new to the musicial evolution.

 all in front 242 are interested in
sound research. before they started
FRONT 242, patrick and jean-luc worked
together. richard 23 played in a band
and daniel bressanutti also did some
music. all had the same ideas and
feelings around music, allthought they
where very different as persons.

 when both KRAFTWERK and CLOCK DVA calls
themselfs sound researchers, front 242
doesn't want to do that. they think
it's a part of their work but it's more
than that.

 RICHARD 23 thinks kraftwerk is the best
example of a group who changed the music
and developed something new to the music
history.

  -someone started to compose classical
 music, which became history. then
 someone had to make rock'n'roll which
 still exists because people identify
 themselves with it. when the punk scene
 came, a lot changed. bands like
 kraftwerk, can and neu broke the
 concept of the rock. they used new
 different instruments which were
 electronic. on kraftwerk's first record
 you can hear that they are decomposing
 music more then they are composing.
 during 10 years, kraftwerk was the
 first step in the electronic music. we
 are part of the second. we go further
 by first touch up the sounds and then
 build them up as a collage. then we
 find a concept that fits to our music
 by analysing it. it's not just the
 music that is important, the cover to
 the record is also of big importance.
 after that it's time to find out how we
 want to present ourselves, our image,
 says RICHARD 23.

 the four members in FRONT 242 try to
have the music as a job but mostly it
becomes a part of their life. all have a
strong personal life. that's why they
are wearing black sun glasses. there is
no leader in front 242. no one is more
important then the other. that is why
they always write  -made by front 242-
or all names on the covers.

 they try to work with front 242 as a
company and want to be presented as a
whole. they have an office, a studio of
their own, an organisation with one
person working fulltime. early on, they
also booked their concerts and run their
own record lable. they don't have a
manager.

 the ideas that front 242 has always had
were to reflect the world they live in.
texts should not have obvious messages,
but allow for personal interpretations.
the text should not be more important
than the music.

 on OFFICIAL VERSION and FRONT BY FRONT
they were very inspired by many medias;
the news on tv, movies, radio. they
sampled it, brought it back to the
people togther with music. not with
messages but with different ideas which
you could interpret in your own way.

 on TYRANNY FOR YOU there are tunes like
sacrifice and moldavia. moldavia is
about a human fly, but that has nothing
to do with moldavia, it's just a name on
a track. according to richard 23, the
text and the voice are just instruments
as the mixerboard is an instrument. he
consider the feelings a text creates in
a listener are more important than what
the composer thought when he/she was
writing it.

 during recording of TYRANNY FOR YOU,
less happened in the world. tension
between countries decreased; the east-
west tension decreased. people started
to look inside themselves more than out
into the world. the movies that came,
for example the silence of the lambs,
wasn't about the tension between east &
west but what's inside of us. then front
242 thought:"why not do the same thing
and take a look in the mirror?" they
analysed everything they had done and
tried to create something new. it was
actually the first time that all members
were 100% satisfied with the final
product.

 when they were more then half ready
with the record they realised that it
was the perfect soundtrack to THE GULF
WAR.

 1993 was a big year for front 242.
first came 06:21:03:11 UP EVIL in the
begining of may. in august came
05:22:09:12 OFF and the same autumn
ANGELS VS. ANIMALS, a remix album. the
thought was to release a double album,
where one of the records should have
been a remix of the other. but as the
work continued they realised that they
had so much material that it had to be
two records. the first has a lot of
distortion, guitars, noises and heavy-
ness. it was created in chaos and
confusion. to the other album they used
a female singer and the music is more
like it used to be, more electronic and
ambient.

 front 242 has always used short and
powerfull names for their albums but
the digits to the new records are not so
easy to remeber.

  -each number is a letter in the alpha-
 bet, so 06 is f, 21 is u, and so on.
 the first album will then be FUCK UP
 EVIL and the other one EVIL OFF. if you
 remove the digits you'll still get
 short and easy names. the most
 important is the music, says patrick.


 RELIGION was the first single from
fuck up evil and as usual a video was
made on it. quite surprising was that
jon klein did it and not anton corbijn.
another quite surprising thing was the
remixers that where chosen, THE ORB,
PRODIGY and JIMMY THIRWELL. why those
were chosen was because they wanted to
see what they could do with their music.
they mean that there is no idea to make
dance mixes when the music is so far
away from todays dance music. other
mixers that where discussed where NINE
INCH NAIL and ORBITAL.

 ANDY WALLANCE mixed on up evil. andy is
an experienced mixer which has worked
only with guitar based bands like
NIRVANA and SONIC YOUTH. they wanted to
try something new.

 front 242 LIVE has always been to show
power. in the begining of the 80's,
front 242's concerts were very hard and
aggressive. they often ended up in big
fights between group and public. today
they have calmed down a bit.

 the militant image they had on stage
was because front 242 always tried to
reflect what was going on in the world.
during the 80's, lots of action and war
movies like rambo were released. there
was a feeling of war in the world. war
has a strong image. because of this and
that front 242 always made music that
could be interpreted in many ways, they
got blamed for being nazis, something
they never where.

 front 242 is never strict on stage, it
is more like a street war full of chaos.
still they have also mixed sports into
their image.

 on the question if it isn't hard to go
up on stage and be real aggressive and
then go off and be those calm and
disciplined men they really are, answers
patrick:

  -no, it's exciting. the music must
 be really live. on the record you'll
 just see the technic, the brain, but
 not the body. it is the same in sports.
 an icehockey player may be aggressive
 on the rink during play, while after
 the game he goes back to normal again.

 RICHARD 23 thinks it's both positive
and negative to be on tour. what is
positive is that you could present an
unusual band on stage. to break the
rock's live concept but also the cold
concept many synthbands had before. like
HUMAN LEAUGE and DEPECHE MODE had with
one singer and the rest of the group
behind the machines.

 what's negative is to be out too long.
we are no rockband that drinks and take
drugs, means RICHARD 23.

 even if they try to avoid the rock
branch they often plays on the same
places as other rock bands. preferably
they want to play on a theatre or any-
thing similar, just to give the public
something new.

 when they play live the have all music
recorded and daniel b is mixing.

 patrick has said that in the first part
of the tour the music is industrial, in
the middle it's electronic and in the
end just boring. :-)

 during the tour 1993 they saw help from
NAHN, know for being in NITZER EBB some
years ago, who played percusson. this
way front 242 got two singers so richard
23 could help jean-luc, something that
made the music even more aggressive and
powerfull.

 sometimes you've seen front 242 as a
support act for both MINISTRY (in usa)
and DEPECHE MODE (101). but it's seldom
that front 242 has a support act of
their own. the reason for this is that
they don't think they can give the bands
the good conditions they deserve, so
they prefere to play on their own.

 when a member in front 242 has an idea
that they don't think fits to front 242,
they have helped other groups.

   DANIEL BRESSANUTTI produced some of
  a;grumh...'s records. he has also
  produced and taken part in dual
  perspective by PARADE GROUND.

   PATRICK CODENYS has worked with
  colin newman on some records. he
  helped parade ground together with
  daniel.

   JEAN-LUC DE MEYER sang on BIGOD 20's
  maxi singles the bog and carpe diem
  with the tune, the bog.

   RICHARD 23 formed REVOLTING COCKS
  together with al jourgenssen and luc
  van acker. made the records
  no devotion, big sexy land and you
  often forget before he quited the
  group becasue al started to flip out
  with drugs.

   ART & STRATEGY is a company, or a
  wide creative working unity as patrick
  want's to call it, where daniel and
  patrick and now also jean-luc is in
  center. art & strategy is also a
  record company. but the only thing
  they've released is a single with
  JASON RAWHEAD, a rock band. TIME
  STOPPED DEAD, an ambient cd with only
  one 28 minuits long tune. the record
  was made for the art exhibition which
  was arranged when front 242's whole
  backcatalouge was rereleased. there
  you could see enlargments of covers
  from records during the tyranny for
  your time.

   unfortunately the show only visited
  new york, chicago and los angeles in
  1992-93.

 the front 242 of 1994 is not opti-
mistic about the future and what's going
to happen. the pollution is a constant
nightmare for front 242. but as
humanists they belive that the younger
generation will win over the
destruction.

 patrick compares the politicians in the
top of the new europe with children who
try to put the square pieces in the
triangle shaped holes.

 "like the greek culture and the roman
empire, the western civilasition will
fall apart. the human being is the only
creature who came to earth with capacity
to destroy it. and she's on her way to
succeed."


 discography:

  geography                      1982
  no comment                     1984
  official version               1986
  backcatalouge (compilation)    1987
  front by front                 1988
  tyranny for you                1991
  06:21:03:11 up evil            1993
  05:22:09:12 off                1993


 singles, mini albums and bootlegs not
included.





          the moment of terror

         is the begining of life