Christmas Island.

If I had to choose my favourite era of Depeche Mode (and I had a gun to my head, natch), I'd probably choose their "industrial" phase; the one they went through during the mid- to late-'80s. Construction Time Again, Some Great Reward, Black Celebration, and Music For The Masses rank as my favourite works of theirs -- and frankly, it wasn't just the A-sides of the singles that got my blood flowing. Often times during those years, they'd release the single, and then on the B-side there'd be two or three live tracks from a 1983 show at the Hammersmith Ballroom in London, and a "throwaway" instrumental that somehow didn't make it on the album. In 1986, when they released the 12" maxi-single of "Question of Lust" off of Black Celebration, they included for the B-side a most curious track: "Christmas Island," a very odd instrumental penned by both Martin Gore and Alan Wilder (which in itself was very odd; Gore was famously stingy about sharing songwriting credits with anybody).


Beginning with a background television set tuned to some kind of revolutionary recording, with a menacing throbbing synth building up in the distance, "Christmas Island" then proceeds to bust out some serious industrial EMB rhythms, filled with the brim (as was their norm back in those days) with sampled percussion, found sounds, and a distinctly dark overview. Christmas Island itself has been in the news quite a bit these last few months (over twenty-five Iraqi boat-people died horrifically in an incident off the northern coast of Christmas Island just under two weeks ago and set off in the Australian government a major rift over the laws of amnesty to asylum seekers from the Middle East and Asia), and the song is written about the island; but that's one of the things that make this track so listenable. What does it all mean? I'll tell you what: It's certainly not about tinsel and holiday trees.


Here's "Christmas Island" from our favourite boys from Basildon in 1986. Enjoy.

depeche mode

"christmas island"

a question of lust 12"

Wax Trax!: Front Line Assembly.

Choo choo, the Wax Trax! reminisce machine rolls along like a well-oiled EBM locomotive, spreading aggressive beats, growled vocals, and icy synths with the furiousness of an AK-47 spitting musical bullets. Welcome! Today I thought I'd head up north to Canadian soil and extend a hearty hello to the one and only Front Line Assembly. 


Hailing from lovely Vancouver, British Columbia, FLA began in 1985 when leader Bill Leeb, then a supporting musician for Skinny Puppy, decided to strike out on his own and assume more creative control as his own man. Having already learned the tricks of the trade with SP, he managed to wrangle up like-minded musicians who also preferred the darker underbelly of electronic music and industrial metal. After the releases of The Initial Command and State of Mind, they were picked up by Wax Trax!, who distributed their third album, the sublimely deranged and ferocious Corrosion (WAX 038). By this time, FLA consisted of Leeb, his good friend Rhys Fulber, and Michael Balch. Two more releases under Wax Trax!'s banner followed: 1988's Disorder and 1989's Gashed Senses & Crossfire. I would like to take the time to showcase a phenomenal track from GS&C; the one and only "Digital Tension Dementia."


My goodness, what an epic piece of industrial triumph we have here. Sonically, I'd have to say that "DTD" rests in an interesting spectrum of EBM geology, sporting the rhythmic beats of a Front 242 album with Leeb's antagonistic lyrics waxing philosophically about brutality, powerlessness, fear, and hopelessness with the spite and venom of Nivek Ogre. There's an inherent meanness present - but my god is it danceable, or what?


Check it out by all means. And turn up that there volume to get the full effect - let the force of this shit wash over you!

front line assembly

"digital tension dementia"

gashed senses & crossfire

Wax Trax!: A Split - Second.

Wax Trax! Week (but is it really a week? Let's not cage it to a specific time period, shall we?) continues, and it's back to Belgium as we check in on A Split - Second, who recorded two albums with our favorite Chicago-based (and extinct) dance label: 1988's A Split - Second (WAX 50) and ... From The Inside (WAX 062), and 1989's The Colosseum Crash. 


Marc Ickx and Peter Bonne (who recorded under the nom de stage Chrismar Chayell) bring back some fond memories of clubland in the late 80's and early 90's with their aggressive yet still glossy form of electronic body music (which the Belgians are certainly quite good at - in fact, I think they invented that particular genre of music, truth be told). I remember way back in 1989, when I'd sneak out of my house (even under grounding!) and be picked up a block away by my friend and his old beat-up Volkswagen Bug to be taken to a roaming club known as Club X. Needless to say, a good sized chunk of the Wax Trax! collective were played on those freewheeling evenings (even having the occasional beer, feeling quite rebellious!), and A Split - Second was no exception.


Such precision with their heavy beats and practically pushy synths! Very polished, but still sporting an aggro attitude that got sweaty flesh out on that dirty wooden dancefloor and fucking moving. Hell, I feel like dancing right now! Anyway, here's a remix of "Flesh" that I found (from A Split - Second's 1991 Flesh Remixes EP) - the official video seems to have been cut quite short ... like, only two and a half minutes long!

a split - second

"flesh"

a split - second ep

 

And, I'd also like to play for you today their remix of "The Colosseum Crash," which was the last single released by them on the venerable Wax Trax! Label. In 1991, Peter Bonne began a side-project called Wasteland and, finding it to be more artistically pleasurable than A Split Second, called it quits on Mr Ickx - who now helms A Split - Second as a solo project. But for those halcyon days of 1988-1991, when A Split - Second was under the Wax Trax! banner; oh, how brightly they shone! Here's "The Colosseum Crash." Enjoy, my good friends, and keep dancing!

a split - second

"the colosseum crash"

the colosseum crash ep