Julia's Club Eighties
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Craving for Clan of Xymox...
Clan of Xymox, also known as Xymox at various parts of their career, are a darkwave/gothic rock band founded in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in 1983 by Ronny Moorings, Pieter Nooten, and Anke Wolbert. Of the original members, only Ronny Moorings remains in the band today.
The band began with the self-published Subsequent Pleasures EP under the name Xymox, at that time consisting of Moorings on guitar and vocals, Anke Wolbert on bass, keyboards and vocals, and Pieter Nooten on keyboards. A chance meeting with Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance led to an invitation to support that band on a UK tour, and then a recording contract with their record label, 4AD Records.
Their debut album, self-titled under their newly adopted name Clan of Xymox, was released by 4AD in 1985, and drew comparisons to Joy Division and The Cure. 1986 saw their second album, Medusa (considered by many fans to be their finest work), continuing in this dark vein.
1987 saw the band provide a track for Lonely Is an Eyesore, a fascinating compilation album highlighting the diversity of talent on the 4-AD roster. "Muscoviet Musquito", sandwiched between Dif Juz and Dead Can Dance, showed a more confident side to the band. Album number two was a very different beast.
Subsequently, Clan of Xymox and 4AD parted company, Pieter Nooten left the band, the name Xymox was once again adopted, and the band signed to the Polygram subsidiary label Wing Records. 1989's Twist of Shadows was the band's most commercially successful album, selling 300,000 copies. It was in many ways a bold record and showed that being signed to a major concern wasn't going to stifle a natural sense of musical adventure. Supported by three single releases - "Obsession", "Imagination" and "Blind Hearts" - this was an album that confirmed the diversity of their appeal as again they clicked in both dance and alternative circles.
The bands fourth album, Phoenix (with Nooten back on board), released worldwide in 1991, was their last album on Wing. It had ecstatic reviews but did not sell as much as their predecessor, despite their loyal U.S. fan base. The band embarked on sell-out tours around the world and featured in college alternative and mainstream Billboard charts. The sub label Wing ceased to exist and when Wing declined to release the next album, Metamorphosis, Nooten and Wolbert left the band forever.
Mojca Zugna joined Moorings as bass-player (and album cover designer) and two albums followed on independent label Zok Records - Metamorphosis (1992) and Headclouds (1994) - before Moorings decided it was time for a change. Here, in addition to their trademark choral sounds and hypnotic electro rhythms, are albums spanning a whole range of styles and influences, taking Xymox into the '90s dance era. It is the work of a band who are never afraid to take chances. In the UK they nearly entered the top 40 charts with the "Reaching Out" single and were played on heavy rotation. "On Headclouds, Xymox tried to combine dance grooves with a melancholic sound, plus vocals. It was part of an experiment which we now steer clear of... After Headclouds, I moved back to Amsterdam and had a break from making music, and regained my interest by meeting different people, going to Industrial/Gothic parties, and basically rediscovering myself again".[1]
In 1994 Xymox re-released their first (from 1984, only 500 original printed copies exist) limited availability mini album Subsequent Pleasures on Double Dutch Records, and, without consent, Zok Records released a "Remix" album which contains only radio edits of the albums Metamorphosis and Headclouds compiled together.
In 1996 Xymox contributed music for a CD-ROM games project titled "Total Mayhem" and a year later the music for the game "Revenant", released worldwide by Domark.
In 1997 Ronny Moorings ended the Xymox era and restarted Clan of Xymox. The band signed to a brand new USA and German based Independent label Tess Records, and the album Hidden Faces was released in 1997. Moorings described it as "a logical follow-up to what Clan of Xymox made in the early '80s", and the band went on to tour extensively, co-headlining the Wave-Gotik-Treffen and Zillo festivals in Germany, where two singles from Hidden Faces - "Out Of The Rain" and "This World" - both reached the top 10 in the independent charts. Two more albums (1999's Creatures and 2001's Notes From The Underground) followed, blending guitars and electronics into a more standard electro-goth sound which has won Clan of Xymox a new generation of fans in the gothic subculture.
The year 2002 saw in April the band's first remix album Remixes From The Underground, which was composed of all the tracks from Notes From The Underground remixed by renowned artists like Front 242 and Assemblage 23. This year also saw the very first video disc of COX.
The current lineup of Clan of Xymox is Ronny Moorings, Mojca Zugna, Denise Dijkstra (keyboards), Agnes Jasper (alternate keyboardist), and Mario Usai (guitarist). Farewell was released in September 2003, and the band's most recent album, Breaking Point, was released in April 2006. The CD single Heroes, containing two interpretations of David Bowie's original track "Heroes", was released in May 2007. Original members Pieter Nooten and Anka Wolbert are both active today, pursuing a different musical direction as solo artists on i-rain records. (info taken from wikipedia.org)
DOWNLOAD LINKS: clanofxymox; medusa, twistofshadows
.
The band began with the self-published Subsequent Pleasures EP under the name Xymox, at that time consisting of Moorings on guitar and vocals, Anke Wolbert on bass, keyboards and vocals, and Pieter Nooten on keyboards. A chance meeting with Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance led to an invitation to support that band on a UK tour, and then a recording contract with their record label, 4AD Records.
Their debut album, self-titled under their newly adopted name Clan of Xymox, was released by 4AD in 1985, and drew comparisons to Joy Division and The Cure. 1986 saw their second album, Medusa (considered by many fans to be their finest work), continuing in this dark vein.
1987 saw the band provide a track for Lonely Is an Eyesore, a fascinating compilation album highlighting the diversity of talent on the 4-AD roster. "Muscoviet Musquito", sandwiched between Dif Juz and Dead Can Dance, showed a more confident side to the band. Album number two was a very different beast.
Subsequently, Clan of Xymox and 4AD parted company, Pieter Nooten left the band, the name Xymox was once again adopted, and the band signed to the Polygram subsidiary label Wing Records. 1989's Twist of Shadows was the band's most commercially successful album, selling 300,000 copies. It was in many ways a bold record and showed that being signed to a major concern wasn't going to stifle a natural sense of musical adventure. Supported by three single releases - "Obsession", "Imagination" and "Blind Hearts" - this was an album that confirmed the diversity of their appeal as again they clicked in both dance and alternative circles.
The bands fourth album, Phoenix (with Nooten back on board), released worldwide in 1991, was their last album on Wing. It had ecstatic reviews but did not sell as much as their predecessor, despite their loyal U.S. fan base. The band embarked on sell-out tours around the world and featured in college alternative and mainstream Billboard charts. The sub label Wing ceased to exist and when Wing declined to release the next album, Metamorphosis, Nooten and Wolbert left the band forever.Mojca Zugna joined Moorings as bass-player (and album cover designer) and two albums followed on independent label Zok Records - Metamorphosis (1992) and Headclouds (1994) - before Moorings decided it was time for a change. Here, in addition to their trademark choral sounds and hypnotic electro rhythms, are albums spanning a whole range of styles and influences, taking Xymox into the '90s dance era. It is the work of a band who are never afraid to take chances. In the UK they nearly entered the top 40 charts with the "Reaching Out" single and were played on heavy rotation. "On Headclouds, Xymox tried to combine dance grooves with a melancholic sound, plus vocals. It was part of an experiment which we now steer clear of... After Headclouds, I moved back to Amsterdam and had a break from making music, and regained my interest by meeting different people, going to Industrial/Gothic parties, and basically rediscovering myself again".[1]
In 1994 Xymox re-released their first (from 1984, only 500 original printed copies exist) limited availability mini album Subsequent Pleasures on Double Dutch Records, and, without consent, Zok Records released a "Remix" album which contains only radio edits of the albums Metamorphosis and Headclouds compiled together.
In 1996 Xymox contributed music for a CD-ROM games project titled "Total Mayhem" and a year later the music for the game "Revenant", released worldwide by Domark.
In 1997 Ronny Moorings ended the Xymox era and restarted Clan of Xymox. The band signed to a brand new USA and German based Independent label Tess Records, and the album Hidden Faces was released in 1997. Moorings described it as "a logical follow-up to what Clan of Xymox made in the early '80s", and the band went on to tour extensively, co-headlining the Wave-Gotik-Treffen and Zillo festivals in Germany, where two singles from Hidden Faces - "Out Of The Rain" and "This World" - both reached the top 10 in the independent charts. Two more albums (1999's Creatures and 2001's Notes From The Underground) followed, blending guitars and electronics into a more standard electro-goth sound which has won Clan of Xymox a new generation of fans in the gothic subculture.
The year 2002 saw in April the band's first remix album Remixes From The Underground, which was composed of all the tracks from Notes From The Underground remixed by renowned artists like Front 242 and Assemblage 23. This year also saw the very first video disc of COX.
The current lineup of Clan of Xymox is Ronny Moorings, Mojca Zugna, Denise Dijkstra (keyboards), Agnes Jasper (alternate keyboardist), and Mario Usai (guitarist). Farewell was released in September 2003, and the band's most recent album, Breaking Point, was released in April 2006. The CD single Heroes, containing two interpretations of David Bowie's original track "Heroes", was released in May 2007. Original members Pieter Nooten and Anka Wolbert are both active today, pursuing a different musical direction as solo artists on i-rain records. (info taken from wikipedia.org)
DOWNLOAD LINKS: clanofxymox; medusa, twistofshadows
.
1 Comments:
Pieter Nooten was absolutely 100% present on the Twist of Shadows release. He played keyboards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twist_of_Shadows
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