Covenant. It’s a name that implies extraordinary commitment, a certain grandiosity, and a bond stronger than blood. As a name, Covenant—with its biblical overtones—was perhaps a bit ambitious for an upstart band of teenagers from southern Sweden armed with rudimentary electronics, but it ended up being extraordinarily fitting. Whether or not life subsequently imitated art or art subsequently imitated life is debatable, either way the band’s moniker ended up perfectly summing up the vision, grandeur, and brotherhood that is the band itself.
Beginning, as most bands do, as teenagers fiddling with instruments in their
parents’ basement, the earliest incarnations of the band featured, astoundingly, six members. Over time the line-up trimmed down to a cast of three: vocalist and songwriter Eskil Simonsson, keyboardist and lyricist Joakim Montelius, and keyboardist Clas Nachmanson. Their first song written as the contemporary incarnation of Covenant was “Replicant”, a track which, Simonsson notes, was such a quantum leap forward for the band that he was certain it would be the last one he’d ever write. Little did he know, a deal with Swedish label Memento Materia and an entire album’s worth of material would soon follow. That album would be Covenant’s first release, Dreams of a Cryotank, which would spawn an important early club hit for the band, “Theremin”, a track which can still be heard on dancefloors today.
By this point Covenant was already making a name for themselves through their live shows. Their connection with early audiences would garner influential recruits. One of these would be Stefan Herwig, then manager of German record label Off Beat. By early 1995 Covenant would have its first record deal outside of their native Sweden. Their second Album Sequencer would launch them onto the international forefront. It would result in the band embarking on their first European tour—opening for Steril and Haujobb—and their first foray into North America, while “Stalker” and “Figurehead” were conquering the clubs Their third effort “Europa”, as well as the successors “United States Of Mind” and “Northern Light”, established Covenant as a major act at the top of the electronic dance music. Hits like “Der Leiermann”, Call The Ships To Port” and “Bullet” became their trademarks. With a spate of headlining performances at major festivals in Europe Covenant also redefined their already impressive reputation for stellar live shows.
Shortly after the release of their sixth studio Album Skyshaper, Nachmanson amicably parted ways with the band and was replaced by Haujobb’s Daniel Myer. At first brought in exclusively for live shows, Myer was, in short order, asked to join the band permanently. Naturally, extensive touring followed, this time covering Europe, Russia, North America, South America, Australia, and finally, the Far East.
As the decade closes, Covenant embarks on yet a new direction as they place the final finishing touches on their seventh studio album, Modern Ruin. At one atmospheric and anthemic, deeply disconnected and yet deeply personal, Modern Ruin is seemingly an apt title for the maelstrom of beats and emotion it contains. Modern Ruin also marks another first for the band—the debut of now permanent member Daniel Myer’s songwriting collaborations. Where it will take the band is unclear, but one thing is certain—it will be no smaller than the world.
Rotersand is a German electronic music act, formed in September of 2002 by Gunther Gerl (Gun) and Rascal Nikov with producer Krischan Wesenberg joining shortly after. Prior to working in Rotersand, Rasc and Gun had collaberated together on other projects. Rotersand’s music can generally be described as futurepop but with influences from styles such as progressive trance and techno.
Releases by Rotersand have reached high positions in the German Alternative Charts, the Nordic Alternative Charts and the Dutch Alternative Charts. The band has also toured with Assemblage 23, has played at Dark City Festival and is scheduled to play Infest in 2006. They also accompanied Covenant on their Skyshaper tour, also in 2006. In 2009, they went with VNV Nation on their Of Faith, Power and Glory tour.
From Moscow to Washington, from Buenos Aires to Tel Aviv – Melotron are Germany’s most successful export when it comes to German-language electro pop; and have been for a full 6 years, actually. What nobody would have dared to believe, never mind propagate, is happening at last: German music is on its way to gaining international acclaim and acceptance again. While sceptics still suspect that German is only important on a national level, Melotron have probably just boarded yet another plane to perform one of their legendary shows somewhere on this globe.
Melotron are an exceptional band, not only on the electro scene. They switched genres for a month only recently, working up the audience for German pop chanteuse, Marianne Rosenberg, revealing that the grande dame of German pop is a major Melotron fan at heart. Only two weeks later, Melotron were the only German act on stage with Howard Jones in Gothenburg, Sweden at the annual SAMA festival, and another two days later they headlined the Wave Gotic Treffen in Leipzig, where they were celebrated enthusiastically by the audience. There can be no doubt about it – Melotron inspire their fans.
Founded by Andy Krüger, Edgar Slatnow and Kay Hildebrandt in a small town in Germany’s East, they started their musical career at an early age. But unlike many of their colleagues, the three decided early on to communicate their message in their mother tongue, and while English-language bands sprang up like mushrooms all over the country, Melotron set about paving the way for German lyrics. Record companies soon started to take note, and offers began to pour in from various quarters. But Melotron took their time, waiting until 1998 before signing a deal with Zoth Ommog, a label run by none other than techno icon Talla 2 XLC.
The release of their debut album, «Mörderwerk», which caused a stir on the music scene, earned the band their first success. They toured with EBM heroes Front 242, supporting their 1999 tour. 2000 saw the arrival of their second offering, «Fortschritt», and the EPs «E.p.sode 3» and «Brüder», out on the newly founded indie label, Bloodline. The first European shows followed! The band signed with SPV in 2002, releasing their «Weltfrieden» album, on which Melotron discovered other musical genres for the first time, demonstrating impressively that electronic music can definitely sound diverse and contemporary at the same time. Their fourth album, «Sternenstaub», arrived at the stores one year later. Following an extensive tour of the States and Canada, a distribution partner was found in Metropolis Records, America’s biggest independent label. Their tour took Melotron through Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Israel and many other countries, long having become the most successful act of their genre. The fifth album «Cliché» was out June 2005. Now «Propaganda», the sixth album release by these likeable musicians, is ready for release. Open your mind and ears for new musical revolution
Frozen Plasma consists of the duo of Vasi Vallis (formerly of the highly successful band NamNamBulu), and Felix Marc (known from his work with the popular group Diorama). Frozen Plasma’s debut single, “Hypocrite,” was released November 24,2005; their first album, “Artificial”, was released April 25, 2006 through Infacted Recordings in Europe and through Nilaihah Records in the U.S.
Felix started to create music in 1994. The initial pieces consisted exclusively of synthesizer -, drumcomputer and sampled sounds, which were steered via a software sequencer. Since 1994, there have been different stylistic changes and developments from Hard Trance, to House and Rave and later to a symbiosis of Dream House and Trance.
The developments in the creation of his music went hand in hand with a regular commitment as DJ. First limited to parties and school happenings, he soon became a resident DJ in local clubs, which gave him the opportunity to present his own material to a broad public. In 2001, Felix joined efforts with his long-time friend Torben Wendt in his Dark Wave group Diorama as producer, background singer and live keyboard player. This co-operation brought forward some amazing musical pieces and experiences. The latest release is called A Different Life which is already their 5th album.
During a support tour with Diorama for VNV Nation in April 2005, Felix connected to Vasi Vallis who was playing live keyboards for VNV. In the aftermath, they decided to start a collaboration with Felix being the lead singer.
After the release of "Subjection" (feat. Claus Larsen of LeætherStrip on vocals) on the famous Zoth Ommog compilation Body Rapture, LOE started to become a "real band" after the release of the first album "Brainstorm" (Zoth Ommog, followed by "Beyond Subconsciousness", "Fahrenheit", "Voices" and the single "Fortuneteller") Jimmy Machon and Torben Schmidt teamed up "by accident" to produce some further music and touring all around the globe. While LOE in the beginning was more a sort of a project and "one hit wonder", working with various guest vocalists such as Ronan Harris (VNV), Stephan Groth (APB), Vasi Vallis (Frozen Plasma/Reaper) Johan van Roy (Suicide Commando), Kay Härtle (Supreme Court) and various other good friends, mastermind Torben Schmidt decided to bring it down to a more band orientated way of working.
So from today we..re proud to announce a real band line up with Jimmy Machon (vocals, machines, production), Torben Schmidt (machines, programming, production), and the helping production work of Vasi Vallis (Reaper/Frozen Plasma, on the last album single). Also Jimmy became a driving force in the production process so he..s now also integrated in doing music, production and artwork designs with a great helping hand of our favourite "pixelman" USER.DX. A new labeldeal with Accession Records after the going down of Zoth Ommog) brought us the platform to release our music and after the successfull release of the single "True Life" we managed to put out a variety of cool CD tunes for you, the fans, such as "One Nation" (MCD), "Krieg gegen die Maschinen (CD Ltd. CD), "Fading Moments" (EP CD), "Gegen den Strom" (CD Ltd. Edition), "Querschnitt" (CD, Best of) and the current limited single "Sleepwalk" (MCD).
Also touring became very important to us so we visited germany, denmark, sweden, greece, norway, austria, spain (with more to come...) and actually became a way more professional live unit then in the early days. Kevin Markdan (live drums) are no longer a member of LOE, and will not join us Live.
It's 2009 and Faderhead's electronic music assault is in full swing. Three highly acclaimed albums in 3 years - and 2 massive worldwide clubhits with "Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois" and "TZDV" - have moved the producer from Hamburg/Germany into the limelight of the harder electro scene. From stompy techno to synthpop to dirty groove-laden electro: Faderhead mashes it all up like no one else.
But wait, there's more to the man with the mohawk: as a complete surprise to almost anyone, he just released the highly acclaimed "Horizon Born"-EP ... a collection of 5 haunting ballads that show an emotional side and an ability to create beautiful music that most people never expected from a man who's famous for his dancefloor-dominating clubtracks!
After releasing the track "The Protagonist" as a one-off compilation entry on the Advanced Electronics Vol. 3, Faderhead received a lot of record company attention and finally signed with Accession Records/Indigo to release his debut album FH1 in 2006. Rave reviews and the inofficial "newcomer of the year" title made FH1 an instant debut-success with standout tracks like "The Protagonist", "Vanish" and "O/H Scavenger". The year progressed and saw Faderhead play shows alongside bands like Combichrist, Diary Of Dreams, SITD, Painbastard and others, winning over the audience again and again.
2007 saw the release of the extremely popular FH2 CD which featured the massive club hit "Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois", a song that still fills dancefloors 2 years later. Faderhead released a music video for the track "Girly Show" and played festivals like WGT (Germany) and Infest (UK) among other shows.
2008 started with the departure from Accession Records and the signing to L-Tracks Recordings. This decision led to serious speculation regarding the future of Faderhead by press and fans, but the free song/video release of the hauntingly beautiful pianoballad "Exit Ghost" firmly silenced all sceptics. Only a few months later the powerful club-anthem "TZDV" was released alongside a very popular video and conquered dancefloors from Moscow to Mexico City. This put an end to any doubts that may have persisted about the direction of Faderhead and established the German producer as one of the top names in the genre at merely 25 years of age. On October 10th, the highly-anticipated FH3 album was released and again gathered top reviews from media and fans alike - FH3's darker mood and more aggressive tones showing once again an evolution from the previous recordings.
Run Level Zero is a band creating electronic music in the same vein as the
European and Canadian ebm/industrial masters. The inspiration comes from all
sorts of music though. Art and literature and whatever we think is important
enough to put into a song eventually end up into the soup.
Easy to swallow for some - noxious to others.
The band hails from Stockholm, Sweden. Current line-up is Hans Åkerman (vocals), Ville Hising (keyboards) and Ola Sundell (live drums).
Run Level Zero has released several discs in both Europe and North America. Memento Materia, who own the world rights, has license deals with DSBP and Minuswelt. RLZ has appeared on many compilations and remixed artists such as Pzychobitch, Punto Omega, Clan of Xymox and Psyche.
The band has toured Europe twice (supported VNV Nation in 2001 and Assemblage 23 in 2005) and have toured the United States in 2006.
In 2001 the band were voted “Best Newcomer” at SAMA, Swedish Alternative Music Awards.
The sole creation of Erica Dunham, material began to be written under the moniker of Unter Null in the year 1998. After years of classical piano training, as well as cello and guitar, the foray into electronic music began.
Unter Null's sound could be described as equal parts melody and noise,, venom balanced with sentiment, and a blend of sounds influenced by a wide variety of genres spanning from industrial, classical, black metal, and IDM.
Unter Null has come to represent a complete reassessment of the direction of the project, both in the writing and live performance aspects of Unter Null. Supported by a full live band, the aggression of the album material is now fully reflected by a live dynamic that looks to span genre boundaries, and overcome scene isolation by incorporating the engaging elements of punk rock energy, metal ferocity, and the intensity, and club playability of industrial, and EBM.
Cesium 137 is an American synthpop musical group composed of Isaac Glendening
and Vince Guzzardo. It originally also included Matt Cargill.
Its first release was the album “Advanced/Decay” in 2001 on Tonedeaf Records. Its style was electro-industrial. It gained widespread attention, particularly with the moody dance track “Regrets”, which was also released as a single and became a danceclub hit.
Soon after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Matt Cargill joined the U.S. military and was no longer available as a member of Cesium 137. Cesium 137 had a hiatus of three years before their next release.
That release was “Elemental” in 2004; it was issued with Metropolis Records, a much more prominent label than Tonedeaf. It was soon followed by an E.P. release, “Luminous”, also in 2004 on Metropolis; it composed largely of remixed material from “Elemental”. Cesium 137’s style was much mellower and synthpoppy and less angst-ridden on these releases than on “Advanced/Decay”. Whether that was simply a natural progression or whether Cargill was the sole source of angst and took it with him to the military is an open question. In 2006 Cesium 137 released “Intelligent Design”. And their latest album “Proof of Life” was released in 2007. Like its predecessor, both were released by Metropolis.
Cesium 137 is named after a radioactive isotope of cesium. It continues a tradition in industrial music of incorporating a number in the band name, which became popular after the example of Front 242. It also continues the narrower tradition in industrial music of adopting the name of an isotope as the band name, as with Carbon 12 and Front 242 offshoot Cobalt 60.
Fractured, the brainchild of Nick Gorman and Famine has come a long way since
it’s inception in 2003. Located in Toronto, Canada they mix very contrasting influences with precise post-production to create a sound which is unique as well as upholding the standards of the high quality that Canadian industrial is known for. Following the success of “Only Human Remains”, Fractured has returned to the studio and are working on taking the signature sounds and refining them, creating more progressive and intense tracks, incorporating more organic sounds and live guitar / drums.
Industrial / electronic musician Glenn Love has just returned to Toronto after
his second European tour in twelve months. These tours promoted his most recent
CD, Cryptesthesia, which was officially released in Europe on September 5th,
2008. Glenn has also toured extensively in Central and Eastern Canada.
Cryptesthesia has received worldwide reviews, radio and club play. With his concerts he has earned a reputation as a dynamic and powerful live performer. Three new tracks have been uploaded to the myspace player, "Hang On" is available as a free download here!
The album was recorded at TS-Musix Studio in Germany and was engineered and produced by Tommy Steuer.Cryptesthesia is distributed in co-operation with Sonic-X Records / Danse Macabre / Alive.
Glenn Love’s music is driven with hard industrial-dance beats, lush dark textures, experimental vocal structures and voice samples.A remix of Airships was released in June 2007 as a virtual download on the "When Angels Die Compilation CD" on COP International. This compilation went on to become the 1 top selling album at Metropolis in May 2007. Available at http://www.copint.com
Glenn’s previous CD, Belle Epoque was released on Sonic-X Records (Germany) in September, 2005. Belle Epoque charted on Canadian college radio from Sept. 2005 to May 2006 and charted for eight weeks on the Native 25 German Alternative DJ Music Charts. Belle Epoque received very positive reviews in major Gothic / Industrial print and web press including Sonic Seducer, Zillo, Gothic Magazine, Legacy, Oblivion, Elektrauma and Black Magazine.
Glenn's Nov. 2001 CD , Cruel Utopia, has been digitally re-released to coincide with the release of Cryptesthesia. The tracks are available now for download at the leading MP3 shops. 'Cruel Utopia' has been acclaimed as a masterpiece in electronic dark ambient music.
Merch tables area-BBQ 3pm / Show hall doors 4pm for tickets info visit the online store section
