About Front 242
Front 242 is a Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. Pioneering the style they called electronic body music, they are a profound influence on the electronic and industrial music genres.
Front 242 were formed in 1981 in Aarschot, near Leuven, Belgium, by Daniel Bressanutti and Dirk Bergen, who wanted to create music and graphic design using emerging electronic tools. Prior to forming Front 242, Bressanutti worked on a music project called Prothese that had already produced several one-off tracks. The front part of the name comes from the idea of an organized popular uprising and the fact that the word can be translated in many languages while retaining the same meaning. The number "242" could have been chosen in tribute to United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 which formally established the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State can live in security". The first single by the duo, "Principles", with b-side "Body To Body," was released in 1981.
Patrick Codenys and Jean-Luc De Meyer had separately formed a group called Underviewer at around the same time. The groups merged in 1982 after Underviewer had given their demo tapes to Bressanutti who was working at a music instruments shop at the time ) Daniel was so impressed he asked Patrick and Jean-Luc to join Front 242.
Recordings by the band were initially created in Daniel's apartment studio, where the entire band and their equipment were packed into a 2.5m x 2.5m room. The band incorporated as an artistic association in Belgium which allowed them to access government assistance and made it easier to afford better studio equipment.
Bressanutti, Codenys and De Meyer took turns on vocals at first, until they settled on De Meyer as the lead vocalist . De Meyer came to write most of the lyrics, although Valerie Jane Steele wrote several tracks including "Don't Crash." Despite falling into specific roles, however, the band sought to project a more anonymous, mysterious image, replete with dark sunglasses and militaristic uniforms so that they could not be easily identified. Bressanutti took this anonymity to the extreme, leaving stage entirely to run live shows from the sound board behind the audience.
The band self-released their first album, Geography, in 1982 and shortly after signed to the Belgian indie label consortium Les Disques du Crépuscule who later re-released the album. Their next single, "U-Men", was released the same year as was the band's first music video, produced by Marcel Vanthilt and played on the program RoodVonk on VRT . The video proved a challenge, not only conceptually given the band's insistence on anonymity, but because of the small budget; ultimately the video was shot on location in Daniel's bedroom.
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