It whimpers, hisses, hums to every nook and cranny

I can never decide which is the masterpiece of EBM pioneers Front 242: "Official Version" or "Front by Front"? After much back-and-forth I land but then again in "Official Version" - because even colder, more aggressive and front-typical.

The Belgian electro pioneers in principle as the co-founder of the Electronic Body Music (EBM) called and in fact they have even coined the term (cover of "No Comment" LP: Electronic Body Music for you to dance, move and enjoy). The roots of it certainly has at DAF, Throbbing Gristle and other electrical and industrial pioneers.

After several maxi-singles and the first - not really ausproduzierten - LP "Geography", found the front with "No comment" and the "Politics of pressure" EP slowly to her style. And that is - in many parallels to other bands - almost unique. There is hardly an EBM band, when it hisses so beautiful, whimpers, hums like front - and especially as to the "Official Version". The sampling of the band is unmatched and unique in the 1980s.

From the first song "WYHIWYG" popping the muffled bass in the stomach, while it pumps in the cerebral cortex and buzzes. Front vary for each song even less the pace - unlike, say, Nitzer Ebb, which are usually full, goes to the Twelve. Klug gesezte samples that produce a unique atmosphere for each song make, "Official Version" a real trip. So shimmers "Quite unusual" cold as the dawn of the morning on an industrial town ("The way the morning broke was quite unusual").

What on the vinyl version, which I still have on the shelf, lacking are the four remixes and maxi versions, I now do not know in detail. In principle, such bonus tracks are quite nice, if there is space, but often unnecessary. I have quite a lot of the band on record, have me but not brought any Maxi and every mix.

The longer I write here is more clearly: "Official Version" is actually my favorite album of the front, even though "No comment" and especially "Front by Front" this plate inferior in almost nothing.