Album dossier / 1988

Front by Front

Front 242 · EBM/Industrial

Front 242's fourth album, Front by Front became Wax Trax! Records' best-selling release ever, moving more than 90,000 units in its first run and elevating electronic body music (a genre name the Belgian group itself coined) from underground clubs into wider industrial-dance awareness. Lead single 'Headhunter,' accompanied by a music video directed by Anton Corbijn, became a dancefloor staple subject to more than 20 remixes, while techno DJ Miss Kittin later used album cut 'First In / First Out' on her Bugged Out Mix compilation. Founding member Daniel Bressanutti (billed as Daniel B.) deliberately stayed a silent, camera-shy presence behind the mixing console, reinforcing the band's anonymous, militaristic stage image even as the record's success pushed EBM toward the mainstream; retrospective critics at Pitchfork and Consequence have both ranked it among the greatest industrial albums ever made.