Tamtrum was an
Aggrotech
Electro-industrial is a music genre that emerged from industrial music in the early 1980s. While EBM (electronic body music) has a minimal structure and clean production, electro-industrial tends to have a grittier, complex and layered sound w ...
duo from
Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label=Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...
(
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
), composed of artists Benoit XVI and Sylvicious. They released many singles on many different compilation albums such as ''
Cyberlab Volume 5.0''. The friendship of Benoit and Sylvicious started in a French
black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw ( lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an em ...
band called
Mandragor. When this band broke up, Sylvicious continued with his band
Lucky Striker 201 until he met Benoit, who had already composed a couple of songs which would later be included on ''
Some Atomik Songz
Some may refer to:
*''some'', an English word used as a determiner and pronoun; see use of ''some''
*The term associated with the existential quantifier
*"Some", a song by Built to Spill from their 1994 album '' There's Nothing Wrong with Love''
...
''. They sent demos out to several labels until the French label
La Chambre Froide picked up the band. The resulting release after Some Atomik Songz would ''Versus'' (2004) - a split CD featuring
Lok-8.
The band has become well known because of their live shows. Sonic manipulations are accompanied by
fire breathing
Fire breathing, fire-breathing, firebreathing, fire breather, or firebreather may refer to:
* Fire-breathing monster, a mythological or fantastical monster able to breathe fire
* Fire breathing (circus act), the act of making a plume of fire by ...
and other uncanny acts you would rather expect to see at a carnival than a concert. By touring
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
extensively they made a name for themselves due to their harsh, grinding
elektro
Elektro is the nickname of a robot built by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in its Mansfield, Ohio facility between 1937 and 1938. Seven feet tall (2.1 m), weighing 265 pounds (120.2 kg), humanoid in appearance, he could walk by voice ...
which manages to mix the genre in its essence and the atmospheres of
black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw ( lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an em ...
. In 2005 they released the mega hit ''Le Son de la Pluie'' (The Sound of the Rain) on the
Alfa Matrix
Alfa Matrix is a Belgian record label. Founded in 2001, the label releases musical styles including aggrotech, industrial music, dark elektro, synthpop, and electronica.
Based in Brussels, the label consists of label and artists manager Séba D ...
compilation ''
Endzeit Bunkertracks: Act I''. It became number one on the DAC.
They had a touring member besides the core who went by the name of Ins-ext. He added a lot to Tamtrum's show including fire breathing and live support, but after a few shows he left the band and was replaced by Fixxxer (also known as Fixhead).
In late 2005/early 2006 Tamtrum entered the studio to record the album
Elektronic Black Mess and this for their new label
Alfa Matrix
Alfa Matrix is a Belgian record label. Founded in 2001, the label releases musical styles including aggrotech, industrial music, dark elektro, synthpop, and electronica.
Based in Brussels, the label consists of label and artists manager Séba D ...
. The line up for this album included the whole band and also holds guest vocals by the ex-Anorexia Nervosa singer
Rose Hreidmarr
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be e ...
. Some tracks had vocals by Fixxxer, who also contributed with the writing of the music which had been done by Benoit only. Elektronic Black Mess was released in two different versions, a single disc edition and a 2CD limited edition set, the bonus disc containing remixes. The limited edition CD also comes with the ''Vatican-Approved Condom'' and two live appearance videos.
Musical groups from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
{{France-band-stub