Midnight Juggernauts were an Australian band from

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, composed of Andrew Szekeres, Vincent Vendetta (Vincent Heimann), and Daniel Stricker. The band has been described as anything from 'prog dance meets cosmic film scores', to 'slasher-flick disco' to 'deadpan landscape'. Following the release of numerous 7" and 12" singles, and limited edition EPs, the band released their debut album, ''

Dystopia A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmen ...

''. After playing festivals and headlining tours worldwide during late 2007–2008, the band finished working on their follow up album '' The Crystal Axis'', touring around its release mid-2010 at festivals and headline shows around the globe. After a few years' break, the band released a third album ''

Uncanny Valley The effect is a hypothesized psychological and aesthetic relation between an object's degree of resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to the object. The uncanny valley hypothesis predicts that an entity appearing almost huma ...

'' in mid-2013. Members have individually collaborated with various artists including Kevin Parker, Justice,

Solange Knowles Solange Piaget Knowles (; born June 24, 1986) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She expressed an interest in music from an early age and had temporary stints as a backup dancer for Destiny's Child, which featured her older sister ...

and Sebastian Tellier. The group also runs the label Siberia Records, through which they release their own music and others including Kirin J. Callinan and Forces.

Career

Origins

The band was formed in 2004 by Vincent Vendetta and Andrew Szekeres who met in school. They were later joined by Daniel Stricker in late 2006 who had met the two whilst playing in various groups over the years. The band's influences included M83,

Hot Chip Hot Chip is an English synth-pop band formed in London in 2000. The group consists of multi-instrumentalists Alexis Taylor, Joe Goddard (musician), Joe Goddard, Al Doyle, Owen Clarke, and Felix Martin. They are occasionally joined by former memb ...

, ELO, OMD,

Duran Duran Duran Duran () are an English pop rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. After several early changes, the band's line-up settled ...

and

Air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

. In early shows the group had many different names and the lyrical content changed from show to show – one time when playing above a Chinese restaurant using the name of items from the menu in the lyrics of a few songs. The band have been noted for their more eccentric approach having come from established creative arts backgrounds, and remain heavily active in various experimental audio-visual projects.

EPs and vinyl

Following a self-titled EP featuring "Raised By Wolves" in 2005, and the EP '' Secrets of the Universe'' in 2006, the band started to quickly gain a following in and out of Australia with the song "Shadows" becoming a hit in clubs and on the Internet. It was originally released as a 12" on friends label Cutters and re-released on Institubes in 2008 along with a host of limited edition vinyl. It and other songs were also featured on many compilations including Modular's '' Leave Them All Behind'', FBI's ''Kill Your Idols'' CD, Kitsune Maison, !K7's '' DJ-Kicks'',

Cut Copy Cut Copy (sometimes stylised as Cut/Copy) are an Australian synth-pop band formed in 2001 by Dan Whitford (vocals, keyboards and guitar). Originally a home-recording project, the band now includes Tim Hoey (guitars), Ben Browning (bass guitar), ...

's '' FabricLive.29'' and a Christmas compilation with Institubes. It was on this Christmas compilation that then French up and coming act

Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

(who were also on the compilation) heard the band and declared them their new favourite act, later inviting them to tour with them around the world.

''Dystopia'' (2007–2008)

In August 2007, the band released their debut album ''Dystopia'' in Australia on their own label Siberia Records debuting at #24 on the

ARIA Charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian record chart, music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA beca ...

. Although not yet released overseas, some of its songs were being played on UK and US radio stations thanks to the many vinyl releases on different independent labels and many compilations, along with support from other artists. Because it was not yet released, the band's music such as "Shadows" was being played on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

, as "Tomorrow Today" on Modular Records which was incorrect. It also received reviews not only in Australia but in the US and UK (before its release) as well stating ''Dystopia'' was a "euphoric hammering together of

Krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electron ...

grooves, psychedelic flights of melodic fancy and post-Justice grindy synth noises", and being declared album of the year in 2007 by

Pedro Winter Pedro Winter (born Pierre Winter; 21 April 1975), also known by the stage name Busy P, is a French record producer, DJ, record label owner, and former artist manager. He was the manager of Daft Punk from 1996 to 2008,XLR8R ''XLR8R'' (pronounced "accelerator") is a website that covers music, culture, style, and technology. It was originally also a print magazine. History and profile ''XLR8R'' was founded as a newsprint zine in 1993 by publisher Andrew Smith in S ...

magazine At this time the band decided to do a license deal with

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a British multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company EMI in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succes ...

for their label Siberia Records. In October 2007, the band were invited to tour with Justice around North America, leaving their mark on the CMJ Festival playing with !!!, Holy Fuck and

Klaxons Klaxons were an English Rock music, rock band, based in London. Following the release of several Gramophone record, 7-inch singles on different independent record labels, as well as the success of previous singles "Magick (Klaxons song), Magick ...

across the UK and Europe. They then returned to Australia where they played the main stage of the

Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typi ...

festival alongside acts such as

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to Rage) was an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1991. It consisted of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim ...

Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct voice, three-octave vocal range, and eccentric public per ...

and

Arcade Fire Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury, and Jeremy Gara. The band's touring line-up includes former core ...

. 2008 began with the band inviting M83 to tour with them on a league of sold-out shows in Australia. It then saw the band release Dystopia with additional material in April and May internationally. To support the release of the album the band toured the world performing on their own headlining tours and many festivals including Coachella, Fuji Rock, Glastonbury, Primavera Sound, Latitude, Bestival, Route du Rock, Electric Picnic, Lowlands,

Pukkelpop Pukkelpop is an annual music festival that takes place near the city of Hasselt, Belgium in mid- to late August. It is held within a large enclosure of fields and woodland—adjacent to a dual carriageway called ''Kempische Steenweg''—in the v ...

, Lovebox, Summercase, Alive,

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annu ...

, Eurockeenes, Hove and Rockness.

''The Crystal Axis'' (2008–2011)

After Dystopia the band located to a beach house on the east coast of Australia to work on new music, having collected a lot of ideas while touring for the previous 2 years. After experimenting with a range of analogue gear and new digital sounds, a fresh batch of songs were written with a more 'prog' / 'layered' sound – working with a lot of ambient layers. The band then entered a range of studio's with engineer Chris Moore (TV on the radio, yeah yeah yeah's, yeasayer), and started tracking the new record . Fresh out of the studio, they were then asked to perform at a range of festivals in Buenos Aires and Australia (Splendour in the Grass) and also a tour supporting the Flaming Lips, road-testing new material including early versions of 'Vital Signs' (then called United Illuminations), and 'This New Technology' – allowing the songs to further develop. As a preview to the new album, the band released the ''This New Technology'' EP, and an accompanying 500 copy 7" through Acephale Records, featuring the single This New Technology, a radio edit and remixes by The Emperor Machine, Memory Tapes, Juan Maclean and Babe Rainbow, also performing in New York at the CMJ music festival. Returning home, the band (who were self-producing their new album) went back into the studio to finish mixing the rest of the record. 2010 started out with performances at the Falls, Big Day Out and Golden Plains festivals. The band then created 'The Crystal Axis' (not only the name of the album but a physical construct / a world surrounding the album) which they built (using all the synthesisers and instruments from the recording) with the help of Melbourne artist Dylan Martorell and lights from MPH. They also created a video around this construct, an idea from the band executed with the help of Krozm. Just prior to the release of ''The Crystal Axis'' the band played a handful of sold-out shows previewing the new record in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Edinburgh, Santiago, Brazil and more. ''The Crystal Axis'' was then released on 28 May 2010 in Australia with international dates following between July (UK) and September (August in the US, with a 12" double vinyl on Acephale/Siberia Records and September in Europe). ''The Crystal Axis'' won 'Best Independent Dance/Electronica Album' at the fifth annual Australian Independent Record (AIR) Awards. They received their second award in this category, after winning in 2007. The rest of 2010 was filled with European and Australian festival dates such as Calvi on the Rocks, Montreux Jazz Festival, Exit Festival, Lovebox, Benicassim, Splendour in the Grass, and Parklife.

''Uncanny Valley'' and ''Aerials'' (2013–2014)

The band took a few years' break where they returned to focus on various experimental audio-visual projects. Eventually they started writing/recording sessions in a converted church in France's

Loire Valley The Loire Valley (, ), spanning , is a valley located in the middle stretch of the Loire river in central France, in both the administrative regions Pays de la Loire and Centre-Val de Loire. The area of the Loire Valley comprises about . It is r ...

. They then released a music video anonymously, hidden under the guise of a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

pop band from the early '80s. This Russian-shot video remained unattributed and hidden behind this pretense for many weeks. It was eventually announced as a new Midnight Juggernauts track,
Ballad of the War Machine
'. Their third album ''Uncanny Valley'' was released soon after in mid-2013 and the band toured with

Tame Impala Tame Impala is the psychedelic music project of Australian singer and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker (musician), Kevin Parker. In the recording studio, Parker writes, records, performs, and produces all of the project's music. As a touring a ...

to promote it. A year later in 2014, the band released a 4-track EP of new songs named ''Aerials'' via

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

. All proceeds from EP sales were pledged towards the Aboriginal Benefits Foundation. A shorter 2-track version was also offered as an

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

single.

Current hiatus and other projects

Midnight Juggernauts became inactive shortly after ''Aerials'' and have not released new music or played any concerts since 2014. No statements or clarifications on the band's activity have been released. Daniel Stricker turned to music production for other artists, including albums for

Kirin J. Callinan Kieran John Callinan (born 21 January 1986), known by his stage name Kirin J. Callinan, is an Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is also a founding member of Mercy Arms and has played with the Night Game, Jack Ladder and the Dream ...

and Dita Von Teese. Stricker and Vincent Vendetta also collaborated on the

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

projects ''Shifting Homes'' and ''Mirrar World'' in 2021. Andrew Szekeres joined with Tim Hoey of

to produce a new electronic music project known as ''Sanctuary Lakes'', which was released as a self-titled album in 2019. Szekeres also played on and assisted with production of

the Avalanches The Avalanches are an Australian electronic music group formed in Melbourne in 1997. They have released three studio albums, ''Since I Left You'' (2000), ''Wildflower (The Avalanches album), Wildflower'' (2016), and ''We Will Always Love You'' ...

' 2020 album, '' We Will Always Love You''.

Discography

Albums

EPs

Awards and nominations

AIR Awards

The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as

AIR Awards The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. History The inaugural 2006 awards were held at Blacket Hot ...

) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. , - ,

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, ''Dystopia'' , Best Independent Dance/Electronic Album , , - , rowspan="2",

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, ''The Crystal Axis'' , Best Independent Dance/Electronic Album , , - , themselves , Most Popular Independent Artist , , -

ARIA Music Awards

The

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of

Australian music The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions o ...

. They commenced in 1987. ! , - , rowspan="2",

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, ''Dystopia'' , Breakthrough Artist - Album , , rowspan="2", , - , ''Dystopia'' , Best Independent Release , , - ,

, "The Crystal Axis" , Best Dance Release , , , -

Australian Music Prize

The

Australian Music Prize The Australian Music Prize (often shortened to the AMP) is an annual award of $50,000 ($30,000 from 2005 to 2023) given to an Australian band or solo artist in recognition of the merit of an album released during the year of award. The award was ...

(the AMP) is an annual award of $30,000 given to an Australian band or solo artist in recognition of the merit of an album released during the year of award. The commenced in 2005. , - , 2007 , ''Dystopia'' , Australian Music Prize , , -

J Award

The

J Awards The J Awards are an annual series of Australian music awards, established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J, and which also extend to sister stations, Triple J Unearthed and Double J. The awar ...

are an annual series of Australian music awards that were established by the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

's youth-focused radio station

Triple J Triple J is an Australian government-funded national radio station founded in 1975 as a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It aims to appeal to young listeners of alternative music, and plays far more Australian conten ...

. They commenced in 2005. , - ,

, ''Dystopia'' , Australian Album of the Year , , - ,

, "Lara Versus the Savage Pack" , Australian Video of the Year ,

References

{{Authority control Australian electronic music groups Victoria (state) musical groups