Front 242 – No Comment

Possibly the best Front 242 LP, and certainly the title that opened a wider audience for the band at the time. However, while their LPs were good, Front 242's most interesting efforts were their EPs and 12" - their favorite format (they published almost 20 EPs and 12"s over two decades), including some unlikely underground EBM hits such as Funkhadafi (still one of my favorite F242 tracks to this day), published with the somewhat failed remix of Commando in 1985 on Politics of Pressure ( https://www.discogs.com/release/4748476 ).

This is probably the "rawest" sounding Front 242 album released; the reason for that is based in the technology behind the album. Front's previous album (Geography), was grounded in using instruments that had been around for a while (analog synthesizers, modular equipment, spring reverb machines, tape machines, analog drum machines), so they had the chance to build on their sound, and spend time developing it (you can hear evidence of this in the deluxe edition of Geography). No Comment was Front's first effort into new technological territory that would be the mainstay of their sound for the rest of their career (sharp FM synthesizers, digital drum machines, digital effects, and heavy samples). Two incredibly influential instruments became available between their first and second album; The Emu Emulator II digital sampler (a follow-up to the Emulator I, which had to constantly be serviced due to design flaws, the II was the first stable and truly usable affordable digital sampler), and the Yamaha DX7 (or variations of this synth, as many were released, and many were used by Front 242), these two technologies; FM synthesizers and digital samplers became directly associated with their music and related types "Electronic Body Music" for decades to come. Listening to early works like "No Comment" next to works like "Front by Front" show you the level to which they mastered that technology in a very short period. No Comment tends to have a lot of almost sloppy samples and very redundant rhythmic lines, at times sounding more live and improvised than rehearsed, both the technologies mentioned had only just become available within the last year, so it is likely that they were so inspired by the new instruments that they rushed out the material to showcase their changed sound and new efforts. Some of the tracks such as "Commando Mix", and "Nomenklatura I & II" sound and feel like a live improve performance, missing any typical musical structure, and going on for extreme periods of time (both sets of tracks time in at over nine minutes each), while others sound more like demo versions of tracks that would be released again on later releases (No Shuffle was released again on the Politics of Pressure EP, with a much more polished and developed sound). Tracks like “Deceit” and “Lovely Day”, sound more like an homage to the sound they had developed on Geography but done in the style of the new technology they were using, while the closing track “Special Forces” sounds like it could just as easily have been a continuation of the recording session of “Nomenklatura I & II”. This album tends to be a fan favorite though, possibly based in how raw it comes across. They would not end up releasing another full-length studio LP until near the end of the eighties with “Front by Front”, by that point having all but completely mastered the technology that they had begun with on “No Comment”, and even leading them to having their largest hit in their career with "Headhunter". This album tends to have a unique sound because the approach was unique, working with so many new technologies and entering musical regions that had not yet been crossed. Their sound would stay consistent until the release of “Tyranny for You”, where it once again evolved with new and fresh technology and the musical influence of “techno” going on at the time.