Feindflug [GERMANY]
[website] [myspace] [Blackrain Records] North american first!

The project FEINDFLUG was founded between the years 1995 and 1996. The two creative heads Banane and Felix met by accident. Banane was doing DJ jobs together with Beam but had his own musical imaginations and Felix had the required equipment to realise their musical wishes in form of danceable industrial music. So the first steps were taken. At this time, Nico was part of FEINDFLUG, but due to musical differences FEINDFLUG and Nico quickly went different ways. For quite a long time Beam had been supporting Feindflug as a live drummer but due to several incidents FEINDFLUG split up with him.

The name FEINDFLUG consequently stands for the need, that people think about deplorable state of affairs in this world! And this is, of course, not bound to the fact, whether you produce music which is danceable or not. It is up to you to question everything instead of going along with everything that is said. With this in mind: Use your brain and think about it! (...although it seems that for a lot of contemporaries this phrase is too much to handle!)

Concerning musical aspects it is obvious that FEINDFLUG went it's own stylistic way by mixing Electro/EBM and Industrial and therefore created an own genre: Electro-Industrial. This new term often is referred to as reference for other projects. Especially MARITA SCHRECK and FEINDFLUG are considered to be the founders of this special genre because hardly any other bands or projects could manage such a perfect symbiosis of these two genres. Many tried to copy, none of them had such quality.

For more than one year one had been thinking about releasing a picture vinyl. This has finally been realised in August of 2004, which contained among exclusive remixes and one track from the forthcomming album the very rare Speed Mix of "Leitbild" from 1997.

Three years after "Hirnschlacht" "Volk und Armee..." was released in October 2005 and this again started some big FEINDFLUG hype. Critics said it to be a mixture of "Hirnschlacht" and "Feindflug [4.V]", but one has to draw special attention to the musical variety as well as to rhythm and sound issues. Some tracks even come up with an orchestral character. Again FEINDFLUG managed it to create an exciting piece of music without losing the typical FEINDFLUG sound and without copying themselves

In the last years one could recognize a constantly growing influence of FEINDFLUG on the dark-music scene. Numerous bands, even established ones (!), used samples of FEINDFLUG sounds, stole complete melodies, used the same word samples (how innovative!) and so on. It even became fashionable to use the famous FEINDFLUG strings. It is even more interesting that a lot of these bands were exactly the same bands which had always tried to defame FEINDFLUG or disassociated from the project before.

FEINDFLUG is not a regular live band. Due to job, studies, ..., each live gig has to be planned carefully. In addition to this, each musician knows, that it is quite impossible to reproduce this sound with 100% of quality on stage, so the involvement of the members of FEINDFLUG has to be seen in a different light. The new fulminant line up with Clemens, Patric, Matze, Soli and Kay, which was introduced in 2005, goes along with a new concept of live performances and the need for a change. Due to the familiar atmosphere, the tour with Aslan Faction was the one FEINDFLUG liked most of all, as well as the encounter with the Argentinian bands Lamia and Kutna Hora in 2004 (again with Aslan Faction). First of all, one has to say a big Thank You to all organisers that have prepared shows with FEINDFLUG, now and in former times, although there have been more than once harsh criticism and even threats from the outside.


SONAR [BELGIUM]
[website] [myspace] [Daft Records] First Montreal show!

SONAR is Dirk Ivens ( Dive / Absolute Body Control / The Klinik / Blok 57 ) and Eric van Wonterghem ( Monolith / Absolute Body Control / ex- Insekt / ex – Klinik ), with the aim to create rhythmical noise and dark soundscapes. A combination between analogue and digital instruments ,the rhythms remind to working machines, the soundscapes to droning planes. The sound of SONAR is made to make you move in another way, to tune you into a hypnotic beat. It is a straight forward sound, wich goes further on « classic » industrial but never without an extra dimension of powerfull dynamics and tuned electronics. SONAR is looking for a definition of danceable industrial and tries to discover this by controlling electronic devices. Headcrushing releases, a U.S tour with NOISEX and HOLOCAUST THEORY, a U.S tour with CONVERTER, a European tour with BLACK LUNG, a Benelux tour with ELECTRONICAT, followed by gigs on several festivals with highlights like Pfingster Wave Treffen (Germany), Dour (Belgium), Mera Luna (Germany), EuroRock (Belgium) and Infest (UK) has proved the potential of the band.


This Morn' Omina [BELGIUM]
[website] [myspace] [Ant-Zen] First Montreal show!

This Morn' Omina started as a one-man project in 1996. Stylisticly the band has been described "ritual trance" and "tribal industrial" in style, as well as noise. Over the first 4 years while continuously putting out records this style was further explored and perfected until the year 2000 in which the band got its first break towards a larger audience.

The international clubhit 'one-eyed man' from the album '7 Years of Famine' made tmo a household name. The band got signed to one of leading industrial labels in europe called ant-zen and from point on it went up and even more up. No performances were made before the year 2001 but changed in that same year. Sal-Ocin (nicolas spelled reverse) was added as a permanent livemember and now even the live-shows were turning legendary. In conjunction with the release double albums Le Serpent Blanc / Le Serpent Rouge and Les Passages Jumeaux more tracks into 'clubhits' resulting into high tension concerts where the tribal live percussion was literally 'beating' against the machinery. The stage packed with live-percussion showed the audience how important the 'tribal' aspect of tmo was. Each show pushed up the level of performing and it did stop there. A second percussionist was added , namely 'spike' (tom) and the story continues.

Both live-members are now also part of the studiowork of the band. Currently called 'the essense of infite light is the great divide' to be released in 2008.

Xotox [GERMANY]
[website] [myspace] [ProNoize] [Protain] North american first!

xotox was founded in 1998 as a solo-project by andreas davids. adequately described as "industrial for hyperactive people" - the xotox sound is characterised by hard beats, catchy melodies and merciless noise-attacks.the debut-album "stückgut" developed a small cult following, which eagerly anticipated the following releases "epos" and "monolith". with the release of "disinhibition" xotox started performing live around germany, winning more fans and attracting media attention for the first time. the following albums "normalzustand: angst" and "rhythm of fear (live in jena)" got a variety of great reviews.in 2002 "silberfieber" and the minialbum "nothing" were released featuring the hits "eisenkiller", "nothing", "null" and "zweischicht", which went on heavy rotation in many clubs in germany.both releases had this success resulted in xotox being picked up by industrial label pronoize, which in turn led to xotox getting a much higher profile in part through their contributions to high profile compilations such as "industrial frequencies vol.5" and "industrial highlights vol. 1" - both put together by the german scene magazine orkus - and "dark awakening vol. 3". in 2003 the first album on pronoize was released - "lichtlos" managed to establish itself on nearly every german dancefloor.

"eisenkiller" became the club anthem of winter 2003/04 and "lichtlos" the benchmark album. for the very first time an industrial-act managed to reach number 1 in the german alternative charts (dac) and held on to the top spot for several weeks. but xotox has not been lazy and so in june 2004 the follow-up to "lichtlos" was released also on pronoize. "die unruhe" contained 15 new tracks, including the clubhits "nasse wände" and "mechanische unruhe" as well as remixes by absurd minds, mindware, heimataerde and other established acts.but there was more: "die unruhe" had a play time of nearly 70 minutes for the price of an ep, a special gift for loyal xotox fans. no surprise then that "die unruhe" sold out before the actual release date just on account of the pre-orders.in 2005 the next album "[PSI]" was released in two different editions (jewelcase-edition and a limited double-cd-digipack containing an extra disc with remixes by KieW, [S.I.T.D.], Jean Bach, Mechanical Moth, Noisuf-X , exclusive tracks and 2 video-clips)."[PSI]" reached number 2 in the german alternative charts (dac) and hold on to this position for several weeks.

To celebrate the headlining position of the first pronoize-festival on april, 16th 2006 xotox released his first live-album called "dokumentation I: Ton".

Recorded in november 2005 at the BPM-club, Leipzig (Gemany) it contains all clubhits like "eisenkiller", "winterblut" or "nasse wände" in powerful live-versions. "Dokumentaion I: Ton" is limited to 1000 pcs. and contains also 4 previously unreleased bonustracks which were created in cooperation with X-Fusion, Spiritual Cramp and Missratener Sohn


Terrorfakt [NYC, USA]
[website] [myspace] [Metropolis Records]

Out of the sludge filled sewers and scrap metal heaps of New York comes TERRORFAKT

Acidic and harsh, the music of TERRORFAKT is unavoidable. This hard hitting industrial band based out of NYC blazed onto the scene in 2001 with their self released album titled, We Know Pain. Having been influenced by bands such as Controlled Bleeding, Neurosis, Merzbow, Manufactura and Synascape, TERRORFAKT describes their sound as ranging from powerful dance-floor anthems to ambient sound-scapes and pure experimental noise structures.

After releasing several albums on their own, TERRORFAKT was signed to Tinman Records and released the album, Deconstruction, in 2003. The album was a huge club hit in the United States as well as in Canada and the band attributed this success to the loyal DJs who enjoyed the album and played select songs from Deconstruction in clubs and over the airwaves.

In order to build up a strong fan base, TERRORFAKT has been touring relentlessly, performing well over 250 times in the U.S. and Canada since mid 2002. The band has opened for such bands as E-Craft, Das Ich, Funkervogt, Manufactura, KMFDM, and Hocico.

TERRORFAKT returned with their second release on their new label, Metropolis Records. Released in August of 2004, Cold Steel World contained brutal rhythms designed to turn any dance-floor into a war-zone like frenzy.

For the first several weeks after the album's release, the label had difficulty keeping it in stock. The band also played over 70 live dates in 2004 alone!

For 2005, TERRORFAKT presented the world with a remix CD packed with over the top remixes and five tracks not on CSW. Cold World Remixes plays smoothly from start to finish like a new studio record thanks to help from the remixing talents of Imperative Reaction, E/Craft, Angel Theory, Cervello Elettronico, and Life Cried.

TERRORFAKT’s third release on Metropolis, Teethgrinder, is a myriad of torment, anger, confusion, hatred, and pain. Aggressive is too mild of a word to describe the pummeling beats, explosive rhythms, critical state melodies and self-destructive tempo. With the most raging album you all hear for 2006, TERRORFAKT has reached unprecedented levels with the seething Teethgrinder.

TERRORFAKT is also signed to Industrial Strength / Industrial Movement, the label run by the famous Hardcore techno pioneer Lenny Dee. Industrial Strength has released several TERRORFAKT 12 inch vinyl records as well as a Double CD, all of which are near sold out and out of print.

TERRORFAKT is currently working on a 4th release scheduled for sometime in late 2008.



Mono No Aware [GERMANY]
[website] [myspace] [Hands Production] First Montreal show!

Mono no Aware was born as a rhythmic noise project of Leif Kuenzel in 1995, accompanied by Stefan Boehm as a co-member for a short period and today working as a one-man project of Leif Kuenzel only.

Mono no Aware has released four very successful albums - "Kitanai Yatsu" (2000), "Kika No Sekai" (2002), "Kikai no Sekai" on vinyl in 2003 and "Kataku" in 2005 - as well as many exclusive tracks on various compilations. This year Mono no Aware is presenting the next step, the new album "Ketoujin". Every single release serves a new interpretation of the term of "mono no aware".

During years Leif has also formed side-projects, such as Norm and MsMoNo, both of them are active up to now. Whilst Mono no Aware has become one of the best known projects from German cult label Hands Productions, it is also considered to be one of the brightest rhythmic noise acts on the scene today, highly valued live-performer and fascinating noise-art composer.


Empusae [BELGIUM]
[website] [myspace] [Hands Production] First Montreal show!

If you imagine a melody that sounds like an escape of a madman from the asylum or vibrating momentum and a journey through unusual , magical soundscapes or a meditation then you may have an idea what Empusae's music is like. Eclectic, a bit ephemeral and very dynamic; the music that appeals to mind , pacifies and yet stimulates by the power of electronics and industrial. Great project, quaint music - indeed, Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe knows how to steer sounds to achieve extraordinary effect. With the complexity of the music, it may surprise you to find that Empusae is actually a project created by a single man, Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe aka Sal-Ocin.

Empusae exercises a surreal science of structure that throbs and pulsates in an almost obsessive manner. The music is almost suggestive of a mechanical assembly line in its clock work clunks and clangs. It builds into a tense, yet haunting soundscape and rivets itself into the memory and refuses to be forgotten. It is serious music who's architecture has formed for itself a solid foundation, rather than sounding as if its trying to tear itself apart! When listening to Empusae's music, you're lost in dark melancholy, tribal electronic athmospheres and scarefull ambient rituals. It's music is not easy to categorise, some say ambient, industrial, electro and other...

but Sal-Ocin describes his music as a sountrack for the listeners personal fantasies. Being a member of various other project such as This Morn' Omina, Tzolk'in, Project Arctic, a split with Oil10 and a live member of Ah Cama-Sotz, Sal-Ocin isn't afraid of working together with other artists. He puts his fascination of surrealistic science into Empusae epitome and hypnotizes the audience with it. Musical darkened melancholy, gloomy ferrous atmosphere and frightening ambient rituals based on a solid sound matter absorbs not only the sensitive hearers. There is no suprisre that Sal-Ocine was chosen to cooperate with such authorities as Ah Cama-Sotz, This Morn’ Omina or Tzolk’in. Let yourselves get dragged into a suggestive world of Empusae – you will be surprised of what you’ll find inside.


Iszoloscope [MONTREAL, CA ]
[website] [myspace] [Ant-Zen]

Yann Faussurier underwent a lot of introspection before arriving at the sinister, squalling noise he now produces as Iszoloscope. Dismissive of any mainstream music ("it always has been a real joke to me"), Faussurier found his place on the vast musical continuum through videogames, of all things. A fervent gamer, he says he derived a lot of his aesthetic direction from games like Doom¸ Nocturne and Unreal Tournament and a sci-fi shooter called R-Type, all of which combine moody action and eerie soundtracks. After becoming acquainted with the menacing atmospherics of artists like The Future Sound of London, Coil and Scorn, Faussurier began DJing at CHUO 89.1 FM (the University of Ottawa's radio station) with friend François Bénard.

The two started composing original music together in 1999. Caustic and experimental, the work they created under the esoteric Iszoloscope moniker consisted of heavily processed ambience and bristling noisy beats. The duo's first full-length, Coagulating Wreckage, was released on Belgium's Spectre label in September 2001; by then, however, Bénard had already quit the project. That suited Faussurier just fine. After gathering field-recorded samples, he manipulates them with all sorts of effects. Faussurier has no preconceived ideas of the result; the processed samples end up sounding nothing like the source material, which is what makes albums like Aquifère (2002) and Au Seuil du Néant (Ant-Zen, 2003) sound so alien. A lot of electronic music tends to be bold and shimmering; Iszoloscope's sound is more jagged and elusive.


Displacer [TORONTO, CA ]
[website] [myspace] [M-Tronic]

Michael Morton, the prolific Toronto, Ontario-based musician had his start on Mute Records' Pre-Set New Electronic Music (2003). Selected from the best demos received during that year, the experimental track "Deep" showcased emerging talent and garnished the attention of Paris, France-based M-Tronic Records.

Displacer has since gone on to remix the likes of Monstrum Sepsis, Converter and Architect amongst many others from labels including Hymen, Ant-Zen, n5MD, Wax Trax, & Metropolis Records. Not only did these remixes prove Displacer's ability to write his own music and give new vision and unique perspectives to each remix, it also led way to his second album Arroyo (M-Tronic, 2004) –a moody, dark personal journey with past influences of Richard H. Kirk, Boards of Canada and San Francisco's Gridlock.

Amongst the remixes, collaborations and new material, Displacer struck a relentless live performance path playing several concerts around the world. M-Tronic also invited Displacer to perform his very first gig in front of 350+ people at the famous French event Industrial Impact --playing alongside artists such as Implant, the Legendary Pink Dots, and Haujobb. This was quite an experience for Displacer –inspiring him to further establish a presence in his hometown of Toronto, Ontario.

Returning home with a new musical outlook, Displacer brought back fresh ideas into the Toronto industrial scene, again gaining attention from the Toronto Industrial Kollective to headline concerts and collaborate on local events around the city. From Toronto with Converter, to Copenhagen with Fixmer/McCarthy, Displacer is always a crowd inspiring show filled with vivid sculptures of sound, radiating waves of ambience and fluid fragments of percussive rhythms.


Tonikom [NYC, USA]
[website] [myspace] [Hymen Records]

Tonikom is worlds, atmospheres, a narrative. A project born out of curiousity, creativity and a need for expressing a sound that wasnt heard, Tonikom continues to defy genres and explore various styles of electronic music. Countless influences, both sonic and visual, help Tonikom perpetuate its evolution. IDM, Industrial, Techno, Drum n Bass, Electro, Trance, Power Electronix, Ambient and Tribal all combine to weave Tonikom's sound


Sorehead [QUEBEC, CA]
[website] [myspace] [Hive Records]

Sorehead is a Canadian act that delivers a brutal blend of harsh electronics, hiphop, breakcore and rythmic noise influences. Based in QC, the band's line-up presently consist of Ghostdog (a.k.a DX) and AD (both members of electro industrial band Corrupted Suburbs), plus D3 and MATH6.

Still a fairly young formation, Sorehead succeeded to cumulate some interresting bookings during the last year, including Montreal Coma 3 festival, Rhode Island Noise Fest 2006 and Qc's biggest annual rave party, Intense X. Recently approached by Force of Nature, a Rhode Island based label, Sorehead will soon release a first official ep consisting of a split vinyl with Scrape.edx.


PerfectionPlastic [MONTREAL, CA]
[website] [myspace]

Montreal brewed(2000), PerfectionPlastic is an eclectic electronic act whose main influences gravitate around industrial, hardcore/hardtek, ambient and noise. We live in a world where technology is taking more and more responsibility; erasing god from our collective minds, thus humans have more and more time to enjoy life and rise to higher understanding. Yet capitalism continues to grow and human behaviour is not maturing in any way. This is our answer to a world unaware of its crumbling disease. Man finally taming the machine.


Dj S.alt [GERMANY]
[website] [myspace] [Ant-Zen]

stefan alt has been known since the mid-nineties as the driving force behind the germany-based record labels ant-zen and hymen, which are well-known themselves for both experimental electronic music and fantastic design and packaging. an accomplished dj and musician with a strong background in electronics and communication design, his artwork and photography are organic, streamlined and expressive.