Front 242

Front 242 were a Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. Pioneering the style they called electronic body music, they influenced the electronic and industrial music genres.

History

Formation 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 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 Hill's Music musical instrument shop in Brussels at the time. Bressanutti was sufficiently impressed to ask Codenys and De Meyer to join Front 242. Recordings...