Rumours have been doing the rounds for months, but now I can finally confirm that yes, the talk has been true. One of the largest pioneers of industrial and electronic music, Front 242, is to appear live at the next Alternative Party, fulfilling a dream that we have had for many years.
Starting with their first recordings in 1981 Front 242 brought a whole new harsh, meaty and beaty approach to electronic music with many hit tracks such as Tragedy For You, Religion and the all-time #1 club hit, Headhunter.

Front 242 has a big impact on scene music, influencing many musicians along the years. The most obvious examples on the ST are the demos 'Punish Your Machine' (takes its name from one of their tracks) and the famous 'Grotesque' by Omega, which remixed a 242 track and used a
lot of their visuals.

Interestingly enough 242 has not been aware of the demoscene, even though their live visuals are full of demo style effects. This will, however, be the first time that they will experience the heated competition, visuals and buzz that are prevalent at parties. Yes, they are going to be staying for the whole party to watch the compos as well as playing their full live set on Friday, so demo crews better release some hot material! They will also be giving a speech on music and art on Saturday.

This is the 10th anniversary of the Alternative Party and we have reserved the biggest, coolest hall we could find. Two floors, industrial architecture (an old Nokia cable factory), lounges, seminars, prizes and of course 242 and other special guests. The theme of the party is to look back at the dawn of the computing age, when Charles Babbage was designing his first steam-powered computer systems, with the help of the world's first programmer, Lady Ada.

We have been working months to finalise this deal and I can honestly say there's never been such a big band playing at a demo party before. It is going to kick rear ends like nothing has done before.

The party starts on October 24th and continues to the 26th.