The Basics

Electronic/techno/industrial band, formed in the early 80's (disputes still rage as to whether it was 1980 or 81), and first released Geography in 1981.

The founder members and illustrious Belgians are Patrick Codenys, Richard23, and Jean-Luc DeMeyer, who have all worked on spin-off projects in their time (C-Tech for one). Mixing techno elements with rough-edge industrial electronica, they have been likened in their time to Kraftwerk, and you can see why in their earlier releases.

Discography

Geography (1981)
Official Version (1987)
Backcatalogue (1987)
Front by Front (1988)
Tyranny For You (1991)
06:21:03:11 Up Evil (1993)
05:22:09:12 Off (1993)
Live Code (1995)
Mut@ge Mix@ge (1996)
Angels Vs Animals (?)
Re:Boot Live (1998)
Headhunter 2000 (disc 1 and 2) (1998)

Blag your way through 242

Headhunter (which appears in 9 versions over the albums and 24 on the remixes) has to be the classic 242 track, admittedly the lyrics leave a lot to be desired (not very in-depth, but hey, it's not their 1st language), but despite that it's a killer tune.

Even if you've never heard of 242, you must have heard of some of the bands they collaborated with: KMFDM, the Orb, Prodigy, Front Line Assembly, Haujobb, Noisex, Apoptygma Berzerk, Laether Strip, Funker Vogt, Empirion, Galan Pixs, and Underworld.

(sorry to put them all in a list but other than stating what they did together I can't think how else to do it)

To hear some 242 and to see some of the graphics they like to use a lot of as a backdrop to live stuff, go to www.front242.com. The site has been in development for what seems like the past year, hopefully whoever runs it will make it better at some point.

And finally... a quote from Patrick Codenys - "We are like at the Middle Ages of electronic music, there are still so many things to be done."


Just realised there was already technically another 242 node : go there

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