Metroland - Men In A Frame (The Full Story)

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

Patrick Verbessem Facebook page 

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 5^th 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 20^th 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 21^st 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/ 

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.