From: awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Al Crawford)
Subject: Review: Front 242 - Live Target
Reply-To: awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Al Crawford)
Organization: The University Of Edinburgh - Department Of Computer Science
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 15:07:19 GMT
Followup-To: rec.music.industrial


Front 242			Live Target			Guzzi 888 (Ita)

	Total Running Time: 73.34

	 1.	Rhythm Of Time			07.33
	 2.	Soul Manager			04.20
	 3.	Don't Crash			04.13
	 4.	Im Rhythmus Bleiben		03.36
	 5.	DSMO 123 & Moldavia		12.23
	 6.	No Shuffle			03.44
	 7.	Gripped By Fear			04.48
	 8.	Never Stop			04.21
	 9.	Headhunter			05.06
	10.	Tragedy For You			04.58
	11.	Welcome To Paradise		04.00
	12.	Punish Your Machine		05.33
	13.	Intro + Circling Overland	08.56

Front 242 seem to be *very* popular with the bootleggers these days, as
evidenced by the appearance of yet another "live, rare and probably
illegal" F242 CD in my local shop. Apparently the new single European
market (or something) is going to make bootleg availability in the UK at
least much better than it has been in the past (it's been illegal to import
them) but since this review is going worldwide and since even the
possession of bootlegs is illegal in many places I'd better make it quite
clear here and now that this *is* a bootleg which means that a) no, I can't
buy a copy for you and send it and b) even if I did, dangerous-looking men
in expensive suits and mirror shades would break down your door the minute
you started playing it and you'd never be seen again, except maybe on the
side of a milk carton. Well, perhaps I exaggerate, but you get the general
idea...

What's nice about this disc is that, unlike most boots I've found, the
unknown Italian label is about the only thing that marks this release out
as being of dubious origins. It's well packaged with nice screen printing
on the CD itself and the sound quality...well, that certainly seems to
support the "Digital Recording From The Mixing Desk" claim made on the back
cover, as this is (for the most part) crystal clear.

The disc is a record of Front 242's 1991 _Tragedy For You_ tour, and seems
to have been recorded at more than one show. The bulk of the material
appears to be from the Bonn gig with the last few tracks from the
Cincinatti show on the US leg of the tour.

The tracks themselves are a reasonable mix of material from the most recent
album _Tragedy For You_ and older material. With as much of the show on
tape or sequenced as you'd expect from a very electronically oriented group
like Front 242, the mix and sound here don't differ *too* drastically from
the studio originals, but the live quality of the (surprisingly
intelligible) vocals and some differences in arrangement do make this
something rather more than just a _Best Of_ compilation with added crowd
noise. The crowd interaction is pretty limited - exortations to sweat,
move, dance etc - and the majority of the material sounds just like the
album, but there are touches that stand out such as many of the vocal
samples on "Welcome To Paradise" being sung live. The only really new piece
here is the extended (4 minutes or so) intro to "Circling Overland", an
extended mood piece of dark synths and samples of mission control dialogue
from various space missions.

Overall, rather a nice live disc (good enough that any legitimate live F242
album would have difficulty bettering it), but like most live bootlegs this
is definitely one for the seriously fanatical rather than the merely
interested.

Erland Rating: +2 (for the fanatic)
	       +1 (for anybody else)

-- 
			Al Crawford - awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk
	  Department Of Computer Science, The University of Edinburgh
   Rm 1410, JCMB, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Rd, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland
	     Tel: +44 (0) 31 650 5165  Fax: +44 (0) 31 667 7209
x-gateway: rodan.UU.NET from love-hounds to rec.music.gaffa; Wed, 6 Jan 1993 17:35:56 EST
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 17:35:16 -0500
From: MIHARKI@INDSVAX1.INDSTATE.EDU (Eskimo)
Errors-To: Love-Hounds-request@uunet.uu.net
Subject: I found her too, and I'm Happy about it...:)
Message-ID: <01GT7GE6FR9C000M5Z@INDSVAX1.INDSTATE.EDU>