mind.in.a.box is an Austrian

electronic music Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromech ...

band which was founded in 2002 by childhood friends Stefan Poiss and Markus Hadwiger. Poiss is responsible for the sound, vocals and production of their music while Poiss and Hadwiger collaborate on developing the story and writing the lyrics. Their "technopop" sound can be described as a cross between

futurepop Futurepop is an electronic music genre that has been characterized as a blend of synthpop, EBM and dance beats, based on trance and techno.Peter Matzke, Tobias Seeliger: ''Das Gothic- und Dark-Wave-Lexikon.'' Schwarzkopf und Schwarzkopf, Berlin ...

and

progressive trance Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged from the British new-age music scene and the early 1990s German techno and hardcore scenes. Trance music is characterized by a tempo generally lying between 135–150 beats per minute ...

. Most songs have a cinematic feel, telling a

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian Futurism, futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of low-life, lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial in ...

story which runs throughout the albums. Lyrics are sung through

vocoders A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...

but with sadness and emotion, sharply contrasting with the always-happy futurepop melody. mind.in.a.box released their 5th studio LP, entitled "Revelations", on January 20, 2012. An EP containing club mixes of select songs from the album was released on March 9, 2012. To facilitate these releases, mind.in.a.box created their own label ''Dreamweb Music''. In March 2011, Stefan Poiss released the debut single from his side project

THYX THYX is an electronic music project created by mind.in.a.box front man, Stefan Poiss. The project was founded in 2012 and four full-length albums have been produced. Many of the THYX tracks have a complementary, but not identical, sound to Poiss's ...

. The album ''The Way Home'' was released in May 2012, on Metropolis Records and Dreamweb Music. The second

album ''Below The City'' was released on May 14, 2013.

Band history

Stefan Poiss and Markus Hadwiger were childhood friends in their native Austria. Over the course of their adult lives, they collaborated on creating a number of computer games. In 2000, Poiss decided to create a music album. With Poiss writing the music and performing the vocals and Hadwiger providing the lyrics, mind.in.a.box's debut album ''Lost Alone'' was completed in 2001. After approaching

Dependent A dependant is a person who relies on another as a primary source of income. A common-law spouse who is financially supported by their partner may also be included in this definition. In some jurisdictions, supporting a dependant may enab ...

, the album spent another year being tweaked and marketed before it was finally released in 2002. ''Lost Alone'' was an immediate success and soared to the number one spot in the Deutsche Alternative Charts (DAC) where it would stay for five consecutive weeks. The followup album, ''Dreamweb'', peaked at #2 on the DAC and ranked #7 on the DAC Top Albums of 2005.

Live setup

Starting in 2007, Poiss worked on plans to perform mind.in.a.box music live on stage and assembled a live line up consisting of Stefan Poiss (vocals), Roman Stift (bass), Gehard Höffler (drums) and Adam Wehsely-Swiczinsky (guitar). The live setup interprets the music in a more traditional rock setup and is paired with visuals to convey the story about Mr. Black. mind.in.a.box first appeared live in 2009 at the "Arvika Festivalen" in Sweden, followed by concerts in Montreal and Oslo at the "Elektrostat Festival".

The story

For their albums, the songs feature monologues, snippets of audio logs and conversations that combine to tell a story that spans the albums. Together, they form a mysterious epic that draws on

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama ...

and

noir fiction Noir fiction (or roman noir) is a subgenre of crime fiction. Definition In its modern form, noir has come to denote a marked darkness in theme and subject matter, generally featuring a disturbing mixture of sex and violence and death in some ...

''R.E.T.R.O.''

In 2010, the band released '' R.E.T.R.O.'', an album separate from the story lines of ''Lost Alone'', ''Dreamweb'' and ''Crossroads''. ''R.E.T.R.O.'' pays homage to the days of computer gaming on 8-bit computers, with some remixes of game soundtracks as well as songs themed around 8-bit computing. All the tracks feature synth sounds styled after the sound capabilities of the Commodore 64 home computer and other machines of its day. Following positive reception of the album, the song "8 Bits" was released on a limited edition EP.

Discography

LP

* ''Lost Alone'' (2004,

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big c ...

) * ''Dreamweb'' (2005, Dependent/Metropolis) * ''Crossroads'' (2007, Dependent/Metropolis) * '' R.E.T.R.O.'' (2010, Dependent/Metropolis) * ''Arvika Live'' (2010, independent) * ''

Revelations Revelation, in religion and theology, is the act of revealing through communication with supernatural entities. Revelation(s) may also refer to: * Book of Revelation or simply Revelation, the last book of the New Testament * Revelation (Latter Da ...

'' (2012, Dreamweb/Metropolis) * ''Memories'' (2015, Dreamweb/Metropolis) * ''Broken Legacies'' (2017, Dreamweb/Metropolis)

EP

* ''Certainty'' (2005, Dependent) * ''What Used to Be'' (2007, Dependent) * ''8 Bits'' (2010, Dependent) * ''Revelations Club.Mixes'' (2012, Dreamweb/Metropolis)

References

External links

*
dependent records mind.in.a.box news

Russian fansite

German fansite
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mind in a Box Austrian electronic music groups Metropolis Records artists Dependent Records artists Cyberpunk music