Hey, look at this: some original writing by me! This is my latest Designated Cheerleader for the Best Album of 1991 tournament. Please give it a read, and hop on over to @bestalbum95 on Twitter to participate in the tournament. Thanks!

Front 242 are from Belgium. That’s not necessarily important. But with their martial beats, accented vocals, and vaguely Soviet cold war aesthetic, you are forgiven, by me at least, if you thought they were from Ukraine or Belarus or someplace like that, and not the Land of Chocolate. But perhaps that’s actually perfect, for, like an assortment of chocolates in a camouflage box, Front 242 uses a disturbing, off-putting, and deceptive cover to deliver something delicious. (The band plays what’s called electronic body music; maybe it should’ve been called Neuhaus.)

That said, however delicious I might find their offerings, they do provide it in the form of thumping, purely synthetic “dance” music that occasionally brushes up against industrial, ambient, and musique concreté. But even within that form, they flirted with pop and mainstream accessibility. “U-Men,” from their 1982 debut Geography, is like “Pocket Calculator” is the calculators transformed into surveillance machines. “Don’t Krash,” from the 1985 ep Politics of Pressure, despite the tough exterior, has the gentle interior of a Depeche Mode song. “Quite Unusual,” from 1987’s Official Version, is disco as a slithering, hissing snake. And of course, there was their biggest hit at the time, the sinister, pulsating “Headhunter,” a song that, in 242’s typical wry n’ dry fashion, is about both human trafficking and hiring a new insurance executive. 

But only once did the red line of mechanized body music and the blue line of pop hooks cross on the graph of their career, and that was with 1991’s Tyranny >For You<. With this album, something changed. The band, one might say, leveled up. Signing with Epic, I presume they got a large advance and blew it on new equipment, because their sound had now moved beyond what seemed like the same four computerized boxes. If their debut was the sonic equivalent of big blocky Atari 2600 pixels, then Tyranny >For You< was their N64; still a bit blocky, but with more detail, fresher colors, and a better sense of atmosphere. (To extend this metaphor, the “resolution” increased even further with the double release of 1993’s 06:21:03:11 Up Evil and 05:22:09:12 Off, but, unfortunately, not to the band’s benefit.) Previous albums had some catchy songs; this was the first and only time they attempted an entire album of them. 

Those pop hooks came from musician/producers Patrick Codenys and Daniel Bressanutti doubling down on the vocals of Jean-Luc de Meyer and Richard “Richard 23” Jonckheere. Previously (and setting aside the big singles), F424 songs used vocals as just another aural element; here, though, they’re asked to carry the majority of the songs and deliver the melodies with force. They do so, perhaps even overshooting the goal, as they give the robotic sequencers and power plant drum machines a compelling human face. 

“Sacrifice” sets the tone with something like the squawk of electronic birds and “No, I can’t see tomorrow/When I close my eyes, there is no tomorrow.” It’s an overture, a mid-temp low rumbling, setting the stage for the apocalyptic imagery to come — tidal waves and acid rain* and empires on fire. This is followed by “Rhythm of Time,” the album’s first classic, propelled by a bed of electronic bass that’s not unlike the theme from Knight Rider. “We believe in the future of the human race,” sings de Meyer, but that statement is tested in the song and throughout the album, and especially by the anguished scream that ends the track. 

The other big single, “Tragedy >For You<“ opens with a sample of an MTV interstitial — perhaps suggesting the main way the youth of 1991 were connected worldwide — before dissolving to a harsh synth string sound, sequenced into a million pinpricks. Here, though, as if mocking that MTV sample, it seems as if the Earth itself is the enemy. “Hot sun/blood sun/maybe I should start to run,” but run to where? The new planets to conquer, as mentioned in “Rhythm of Time’? For Front 242, we bring our terror and madness with us wherever we go. 

(I said I found their work delicious; I didn’t say I found it uplifting.) 

On “Moldavia,” Richard 23, kind of the Flavor Flav or Guy Picciotto of the group, takes center stage and delivers what’s now a live favorite. It also offers an alternative: becoming electronic insects, driven to “more pleasure.” “IT FLIES!” is the triumphant cry — trying to rise above this world is a common theme here — but it comes at the cost of one’s humanity. 

The centerpiece of the album, literally and figuratively, is “Gripped by Fear,” a… ballad? that’s unlike anything the band made before or since. Opening with a state of the nation chant — “Recession, repression, regression” — it proceeds with a ten note figure that's both bass and percussion. Under this, de Meyer delivers a eulogy for civilization that’s also a rebuke: “Your tyranny/I was part of/is now cracking/on every side.” A lot of 242 lyrics are spoken or shouted or whispered or growled or otherwise delivered in a rather prosaic way, as if to hide or meld with the inhuman electronics; the chorus of “Fear” is sung, belted even, making it their most overtly human track to date. Of course, this being Front 242, that emerging human face is immediately stamped with a boot. This was the only song I played on January 20, 2017. 

Maybe there’s another layer here. Maybe under the camouflage box are delicious-looking treats, but maybe underneath those sugary layers is something else. Maybe underneath is a Spring Surprise, two stainless steel bolts that shoot out and pierce both cheeks when eaten. That’s not conventional confectionary, but sometimes conventional is overrated. Sometimes pain is called for. 

Would you like a chocolate?

-- Kent M. Beeson, @Kza

Post-Script: This Designated Cheerleader is dedicated to Kirk M. Allen, who passed away a few years ago. I met him in ’98, and we quickly bonded over theater, synth-based pop music, role-playing games, and video games. He was one of the best GMs I ever played under, and some of my fondest memories were of laying on the couch on a lazy Sunday morning and root him on as he sat in front of the TV and made his way through Resident Evil 2 or Final Fantasy Tactics. He was a big fan of Tyranny >For You<, and we were delighted to discover that we both pronounced “>For You<“ the same way. How did we pronounce it? See below. Kirk, I miss you every day.