The Neon Judgement is a Belgian new wave band, formed in

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

in 1981 by Dirk Da Davo (born Dirk Timmermans, keyboards/vocalist) and TB Frank (born Frank Vloeberghs, guitarist/vocalist). They have often been cited, alongside fellow Belgian band

Front 242 Front 242 is a Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. Pioneering the style they called electronic body music, they influenced the electronic and industrial music genres. History Formation Front 242 were for ...

, as the pioneers of

electronic body music Electronic body music (EBM) is a genre of electronic music that combines elements of industrial music and synth-punk with elements of dance music. It developed in the early 1980s in Western Europe, as an outgrowth of both the punk and the in ...

(EBM), an electronic dance genre from the early 1980s combining industrial and electro music.

History

Dirk Timmermans (aka Dirk Da Davo) and Frank Vloeberghs (aka TB Frank) combined minimalist industrial drones and new wave synthpop and dance music, with cold, mechanical rhythms. Their early work was aggressive, danceable and dominated by synthesizers and drum-machines. Later in their career, their work featured prominent guitars. Their early influences included

The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Its classic lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionis ...

and

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

. The band self-released a pair of cassettes before landing their first single, 1982's "Factory Walk." Most of their subsequent output was on the Belgian Play It Again Sam label, beginning with 1986's ''Mafu Cage''. Their first American release came in 1987, with the sex-themed concept album, ''Horny As Hell'' which included the well-received dance track, "Miss Brown. Subsequent recordings included ''Blood and Thunder'' (1989), ''The Insult'' (1990), and ''Are You Real'' (1992). The duo took a three-year hiatus in 1992, returning in 1995 with ''At Devil's Fork'', an LP recorded with percussionist Ben Forceville entirely in a wooded area. The band stopped performing in 1998, but reformed in 2004 and started performing live again to promote a series of remixes and re-releases of their material. The touring continued into 2006, with the band stating on their website that "Live, The Neon Judgement will continue to give art terrorism a good name, finding new ways of marrying noise and beauty, machines and magic". Timmermans is also part of the side project Neon Electronics, for which he started his own record label Dancedelic-D and he both reworks old classics and composes new material. In November 2005, the Neon Judgement played at the Machina Festival at the Broadway Club in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. The festival celebrated the first eight years of the site FiberOnline and the launch of the label Fiber Records. Fiber Records released the DVD ''The Neon Judgement – Live at Machina Festival'' in 2005 featuring the whole concert of 13 songs. In 2007, the band released the compilation album ''Redbox''. The release followed the 100% vintage 2 CD ''Box'' released in October 2005. ''Redbox'' mainly contains the band's work during the second half of the 1980s. The album also features

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

es from acts such as David Carretta, Blackstrobe, Lifelike, and Helmut Kraft. ''Redbox'' also contains a new cover version of "

Heroes Heroes or Héroes may refer to: * Hero, one who displays courage and self-sacrifice for the greater good Film * ''Heroes'' (1977 film), an American drama * ''Heroes'' (2008 film), an Indian Hindi film Gaming * ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' ...

" by

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

. The band released another album, ''Smack'', in 2009.

Discography

Albums

*''Suffering'' (mini-album) (1981) *''MBIH!'' (mini-album) (1985) *''Mafu Cage'' (1986) *''Horny as Hell'' (1988) *''Blood and Thunder'' (1989) *''The Insult'' (1990) *''Are You Real'' (1991) *''At Devil's Fork'' (1995) *''Dazsoo'' (1998) *''Smack'' (2009) *''We Never Said You're No Good'' (2012)

Compilation albums

*''The Neon Judgement 1981-1984'' (1985) *''The First Judgements'' (1987) *''General Pain and Major Disease'' (1989) *''The First Judgements'' (2005 re-release) *''The First Judgements - Outbox'' (2005) *''Box'' (2005) *''Redbox'' (2007) *''Remixed Box'' (2007) *''A Fashion Party - Live @ AB Bxl'' (2008) *''Early Tapes'' (2010)

Singles and EPs

* "TV Treated" (1982) * "Factory Walk" (1982) * "Cockerill Sombre" (1983) * "Concrete" (1984) * "Tomorrow in the Papers" (1985) * "Awful Day" (1986) * "Voodoo Nipplefield" (1986) * "A Man Ain't No Man When A Man Ain't Got No Horse, Man" (1987) * "Miss Brown" (1987) * "TV Treated" (1989) * "Games of Love" (1989) * "1313" (1989) * "Alaska Highway" (1990) * "Baby's On Fire" (1991) * "A Nicer Person" (1995) * "Out Of My Mind" (1998) * "Jazzbox" (1998) * "Machine Life" (2005) * ''Smack EP'' (2010)

Gallery

2014-07-26 The Neon Judgement (Amphi festival 2014) 002.JPG 2014-07-26 The Neon_Judgement (Amphi festival 2014) 004.JPG

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Neon Judgement, The Belgian post-punk music groups Belgian industrial music groups Musical groups established in 1981 Belgian new wave musical groups Electronic body music groups English-language musical groups from Belgium