Metroland: In Focus, an in-depth look at all
aspects of Metroland’s latest concept release.
Metroland are an electronic duo based in Belguim and have
been making music as Metroland since 2012.
Above photograph courtesy of Patrick Verbessem
All there releases are centred around a concept, Underground rail systems was the concept for their debut album “Mind The Gap” , The Bauhaus Movement was the concept for their second album “Triadic ballet”. Their third album “Things Will Never Sound The Same Again” was an album dedicated to their sound Engineer Louis Zachert, who passed away suddenly in August 2015.
In 2017 they celebrated their 5th anniversary
with a special 4 disc box set and in 2018 they returned to their Concept Blue
print, with the release of their latest album “Men In A Frame”. This time the
concept is photography, but the project is a whole lot more than the main album.
In February 2018 the band released a new single called
“Man In A Frame”, a taster for the new album “Men In A Frame”, but
interestingly the single wasn’t going to be included on the album, the single
featured the B side F8, which we played at the start of the show, in addition
they also released a 3 tracks remixes EP that featured Metroland’s own extended
version of “Man In A Frame”, Maschine Brennts remix of F8 and The Frixion’s
remix of “Man In A Frame”
The single gave a clear indication that the concept for
the new album would be photography, however, what might seem a simple concept
was far from that, because they had to write songs influenced by 10 photographs
submitted by a Belgian photography organisation F8, each member of the
organisation submitted 2 photo’s each.
The ten track album “Men In A Frame” was released on the
20th April 2018 as a CD and Digital Download and featured tracks
such as “Shades Of Pale”, “Concrete Witness”, “Hope”, “Speed Of Life 3”,
“B-Old” and “Trust”
In a very bold move Metroland hosted their own Expo in
March 2018, which featured all the photography on display and via a smartphone
App you could scan the information card alongside each picture to play the
relevant track created for that picture, a true multimedia experience.
At the same time as releasing the album “Men In A Frame”
the band also released a special collection called “Pictures To Listen To”,
this 16 track album featured the very best of Metrolands back catalogue as well
as a new track “Pictures To Listen To”, an extended version of “Man In A Frame” and “Shades Of Pale” a track off the
new album.
The perfect release for any Metroland fan and of course
the ideal way to introduce new fans to the work Metroland had released prior to
“Men In A Frame”, so tracks such as “Thalys”, “Zeppelin”, “Synthetic Sound”,
“The Passenger” and the wonderful “Enjoying The View” were all included.
In September Metroland released a second single called
“Memorabilia”, not a cover version of the Soft Cell track of the same name, but
makes clever use of a couple of key lines from that song.
The single was released as a 3 track digital download and
in addition to the single, it also included another new track “Sunwriting
(Metroland’s Heliograph”, a reference to the very first process of modern
photography and Metroland’s Souvenir Mix of “Memorabilia”. As is the way with
Metroland, they also released a 3 track remixes package, which featured remixes
of both “Memorabilia” and “Sunwriting” as well as a cover version of
“Sunwriting” by Swedish Machine-Pop band Datapop, which they titled
“Heliograph”.
As with the first single “Man In A frame” “Memorabilia”
was n’t included on the album.
At the end of 2018 the band announced the very exciting
news of a double yellow vinyl remix album, called “Framed”, which would feature
remixes of all the album tracks, as well as, the two singles. The 12 track
double vinyl album was to be released on the 26th January 2019, an important date, as the band hosted a second Expo, this time in their home city,
Mechelen.
Before they released the album “Framed” they released a
new 3 track EP on December 21st called “Re-Framed”, this featured
the Analogue Audio Remix 1 of the track “Concrete Witness”, the Passenger S
Perennial Edit of “Creative Rose” and the lead track “Shades Of Pale (Reframed
By Metroland)
The album “Framed” includes remixes by the likes of Psy’Aviah,
Frohm, Passenger S, Analogue Audio Association and Kurt Baggaleys remix of
“Next Choice”.
As well as the vinyl release they also decided to include
a CD version that would feature 9 tracks taken from the Vinyl release and 3
exclusive remixes, further remixes of “Memorabilia”, “Shades Of Pale” and the
Decibel Sintético remix of “Man In A Frame”.
Metroland had even more up their sleeves with the release
of two specially made Metroland USB Keys, one of which, a yellow key, that
would have also the remixes of the vinyl and CD remix packages plus bonus
content, including 3 exclusive remixes, a new mix of “Pictures To Listen Too”,
“Man In A Frame (Decibel Sintético Edito)” and “Memorabilia (Hunted Video
Version)”.
The package including the vinyl, CD and Yellow USB key is
available exclusively direct from the band.
To complete this outstanding concept the band had
something very special for Metroland fans, a second Black USB Key titled “The
Key To Metroland”. This featured a special 82 minute documentary film about
Metroland’s career up to and including all the releases associated with the
“Men In A Frame” concept, by Gary Hunter, with the help of Passenger S from the
band, with commentary by Charlotte Hunter. In addition the key also includes 3
special promo video’s made by Gary for the new mixes of “Man In A Frame”,
“Pictures To Listen Too” and “Memorabilia” and his official video for "Shades Of Pale".
The key also includes further exclusive bonus audio
content, three 3 track EPs, “Een Dag In Mechelen”, “Pictures To
Listen Too” and “Shades Of Pale”, as well as a unique 60 minute Mega-Mix of
some of the remixes of Metroland’s music and exclusive graphic collections,
including wallpaper and Metroland sleeves. A stunning conclusion to an
incredible concept, and to think, this journey started out, when the duo were
presented with 10 photographs!
*This special key is now available direct from the band (See link below for their webpage)*
White Lion Radio have also released an Audio Documentary of this story, which is available to listen to on Mixcloud and Hearthis.at via the links below:
https://www.mixcloud.com/whitelionradio/metroland-in-focus/
https://hearthis.at/white-lion-radio-f7/metroland-in-focus/
White Lion Radio have also released an Audio Documentary of this story, which is available to listen to on Mixcloud and Hearthis.at via the links below:
https://www.mixcloud.com/whitelionradio/metroland-in-focus/
https://hearthis.at/white-lion-radio-f7/metroland-in-focus/
You can obtain the
full remix package that includes the double yellow vinyl album “Framed”, the CD
“Framed Anew” and the Yellow USB Metroland Key by visiting Metroland’s official
homepage, the address for that is www.metrolandmusic.com
The Double vinyl album “Framed” and CD “Framed Anew” package is available from Metroland’s record label Alfa Matrix, the web address for that is https://alfa-matrix-store.com
To sum up, a brilliant conclusion to what has been a very special concept release.....we now wait to see what adventure Metroland take us on with their next concept release.
