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| Submitted by: |
jen |
| On: |
2001-08-01 |
| Genre: |
industrial
ebm
techno
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| Unofficial Site: | Delerium on the Web
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| Best songs: |
Fatalist
Everything Must Perish, Dead Planet
Millennium
Provision
Mindphaser
Mindphaser
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Description, by jen
One of several projects on the go for Bill Leeb & Rhys Fulber, FLA started in the mid-80s & grew to be one of the most lauded acts on the industrial scene. They sound amazingly crammed & complex, each track stacked like a fine parfait (mmm, rich, creamy distortion). FLA is covered along with the slew of other Leeb/Fulber projects on the Delerium website, url above. |
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Featured comment (1/2) by fatalist on 2001-08-01
Breaking away from his Skinny Puppy origins, Bill Leeb needed to achieve his own musical vision. That was the birth of FLA, the concept simple: to make the most high-tech sounding records possible, to see a possible future of music. The progression of this band is quite amazing, it's everything an Industrial band should be. Dancy beats, unbelievable use of synths and electronic layers of machinery noise and sampling. Not to mention subject matter of sparse human emotion, the fusing of man and machinery and possible nihilistic futures. Evolving with every release, FLA virtually set the standard for where Dark Electronic music is at...and where it's going.
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Albums:
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Caustic Grip
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Featured comment (1/1) by fatalist on 2002-03-16
Considered by many to be FLA's first real 'Hit' album, Caustic Grip was a big advance musically from the previous 'Gashed Senses & Crossfire'. The album is extremely electronic, utilising great keyboard lines and synth textures which are still impressive even compared to their latest stuff. Contains many of FLA's early breakthrough tracks like 'Iceolate', 'Provision' and 'Resist' which featured prominently on their live tours and are still sure to get those dancefloors pumping. Caustic Grip is possibly a bench mark in synthesizer music, it certainly is in FLA's backcatalogue.
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Epitaph
- Music type:
industrial
ebm
- Best track on the album:
Everything Must Perish, Dead Planet
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Featured comment (1/1) by fross on 2002-03-11
While seemingly ignored by the EBM scene they helped spawn, these days, FLA continue to churn out fantastic album after fantastic album. the last few see them drop their old formulaic approach and try something new - and Epitaph is no exception. hard EBM tracks meet Deleriumesque slow pieces - often within the same track. The result is mature and the best of both worlds, making this a criminally ignored album. Everything must perish, the single, is exceptional, as are Insolence and Dead Planet. Also worth checking out is the b-side on the above single, called Providence.
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FLAvour of the Weak
- Music type:
industrial
techno
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Featured comment (1/1) by fross on 2002-03-10
Another change of direction for FLA - this time to techno. The usual FLA ingredients are all there, great basslines, vocodered lyrics, good use of sampling, but the songs are more hard-edged toward a techno feel. A few duffers, but nonetheless this is a good album that stands better up to repeated listening than some of the older work.
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Hard Wired
- Music type:
industrial
ebm
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Featured comment (1/1) by fross on 2002-03-10
In many EBM fans' eyes, this was the first "sell-out" album by Front Line - though most of these have called every album since a sell-out. The first album to really define the industrial-metal crossover sound, and did so incredibly well. Refuses to sound dated even now, and is definitely a great album in its own right, fusing guitar sounds with hard electronics for some pumping dancefloor anthems.
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Implode
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Featured comment (2/3) by fross on 2002-03-10
Implode is a bit of a departure for FLA, as it is the first album that Leeb/Petersen worked on after effectively stopping working on most of their other collaborative projects (Equinox, Pro-Tech, Noise Unit, Delerium, etc). As a result there is a lot of each of these projects in the sound, and as a good side-effect, releasing one album a year instead of 4 means trimming the fat on the bad songs. Industrial, EBM, still a bit FLA-formulaic, but intricate and well thought out. More for home listening than the dancefloor in places as it's a bit laid back - FLA isnt' so angry anymore, but they can still make good music!
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Millennium
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Featured comment (1/1) by fatalist on 2002-03-17
Fresh from producing the remixes for Fear Factory's 'Fear Is The Mindkiller', Leeb and Fulber decided to tackle FLA's next album under the influence of heavy guitar work and came up with Millennium. The album wasn't instantly well received by FLA's already large fanbase, especially the pure electronic music lovers, but over time tracks like 'Vigilante', 'Surface Patterns', 'Liquid Separation' and the title track itself, being played excessively on tours, have become classics for the band, and perhaps introduced them to a whole new audience. Millennium is easily FLA's most guitar driven effort ever, but still has the trademark keyboard lines and movie samples that the band are renowned for. Still with a futuristic theme in mind, this is a refreshing change of direction and a classic Industrial Metal album full of floorfillers.
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Reclamation
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Featured comment (1/1) by on 2002-03-29
This is principally a collection of some of Front Line Assembly's earlier EBM-ish tracks, concentrating on the years 1989 to 1992. There's a quick roundup of classics such as Iceolate, Provision and Mindphaser; there are also some 1992 b-sides which are worth a listen.
If you've never heard FLA before and would like to try them out, this is a reasonable introduction to the first half of their career, but fans would probably be better off simply collecting the earlier albums.
The album finishes with two remixes from the 1994 album Millennium, which sound somewhat out of place next to the more electronic early material.
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Tactical Neural Implant
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Featured comment (1/1) by fross on 2002-03-29
The last of the "early" FLA albums, bringing the refining of the softer EBM/electronica approach to a fine point. Punchy, danceable and definitely very listenable, this is an album with many different highlights and good consistency throughout, without being too samey - FLA's two weak points. Highlights would have to be Gun and Mindphaser for bouncy tracks, and Lifeline and Remorse for the more laid back ones. Many consider this FLA's finest hour, as they changed style after this with Hard Wired et al.
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