This year, Belgian conceptual electronic band Metroland
celebrate 10 years since their first release, which was the single “The
Passenger”, it was through this single I discovered the band and began posting
messages in forums about this brilliant new band, including the official OMD
forum, Passenger S spotted my messages and contact was made, since then I have
become very good friends with Metroland, especially, Passenger S, which has led
to some very interesting opportunities for me, more on that later. By the way Metroland ended up supporting OMD on tour!
Their debut album “Mind The Gap”, in my opinion, one of the greatest albums ever released, the concept behind the album was underground rail systems, it is a flawless album and highly recommend it. The album also included the single “Enjoying The View”, which is electro pop heaven. The singles released show the strength of the album.
2012 was quite a year for the band as they also released a remix album “Mixing The Gap”, and they ended the year with an electronic greetings card in the shape of the track 2013.
In 2014 the band released the single “Thalys”, which is about the Thalys Rail Network, it also featured the first vinyl release by the band, the single was released in various languages and is a big fan favourite. The idea for this song was built around a 6 second melody Passenger A came up with.
Metroland’s second album “Triadic Ballet” released in 2015 was all about the Bauhaus movement and in true Metroland style it was a unique release as 3 versions of the album were featured in the 3 disc box set, discs 2 & 3 featured the tracks remixed by other artists. The album was preceded by the single “Zeppelin”, another electronic gem, 2 further singles were released from the album “The Manifesto” and “Re-Design”, other stand out tracks on the album, included, “Utopia”, “Ikone Der Moderne (Deutsche Bank Remix)” and “Art + Technology (Sound Of Science Remix)".
The third album by the band was completely unexpected and was recorded as a tribute to their friend and sound engineer Louis Zachert, who passed away suddenly, Passenger S & Passenger A recorded a selection of songs, which in the main were named after expressions Louis use to say, the album was rightly titled “Things Will Never Sound The Same Again”, and was released in 2016, 3 singles were released, “Under The Roof”, “Synthetic Sound” and “Brother”, it also includes one of my favourite Metroland tracks “Quo Vadis”.
2017 was a landmark year for the duo, they celebrated their 5th anniversary as Metroland and released a brilliant 4CD box set to mark the occasion, it featured a CD for their 7 inch mixes, a CD for their 12 inch mixes, a CD compiling their B sides and a bonus disc of rarities, an absolute must for fans of the band, a new single was also released called “Cube”, check out their video for the track, is is superb and their best promo video to date.
The following year Metroland released a taster for a new album, in the shape of the track “Man In A Frame”.
The band made plans to host an exhibition of the photographs in their home city of Mechelen in Belguim.
They decided to put together a compilation called “Pictures To Listen To”, which featured their best tracks up to that point, and included 2 tracks from the forthcoming “Men In A Frame” album and the B side “F-8”, taken from the “Man In A Frame” single and another new track “Pictures To Listen To”, it was at this point I made official video’s for the band for subsequent releases connected to the whole “Men In A Frame” concept album, purely as a hobby, they liked what I came up with, at that point I was also putting together a documentary about the band with my daughter, with half of the film made I decided to send it to Passenger S, who was amazed by it, so much so, he wanted to speak to their record label to discuss releasing the film in some format, which they gave the green light to.
The band also wanted to include the film at the exhibition they were arranging.
The album “Men In A Frame” was released and was centred around photography, various photographers submitted a photograph and the challenge for the band, was to write a song for each photograph, a very interesting and rewarding concept.
The documentary idea was expanded to also include 3 separate new promo video’s which I had made for the band, for different versions of “Shades Of Pale”, “Memorabilia” and “Man In A Frame”, these along with audio content would form the release of a special USB key titled “The Key To Metroland”, which was available at the exhibition and was housed in a specially made tin.
Never in a million years did I think I would be involved in a project like that when I first discovered the band!!
They closed this particular chapter of the Metroland story with the release of a remix album called “Framed”, which featured remixes of tracks off the original album by other artists, it also included one remix each by Passenger A & Passenger S.
Their exhibition opened in Mechelen in January 2019 and it was there we got to meet both Andy & Sven in person, the welcome we received was touching and heart-warming, 2 of the nicest people I have ever met, our film was being screened on rotation for the duration of the exhibition which was for around 2 weeks or so.
After an absence of 3 years the band are back with a new single, a new album and of course a new concept!
The first single, an EP called “4.0” has just been released and is available as a digital download and also available on 2 different colour 12 Inch vinyl records.
The concept for the album hasn’t been unveiled yet by the band, but rest assured they will have done hours and hours of research to learn as much as possible about it. More information on that as soon as I have it and of course news on the album too.
So there you have it, a fan perspective of 10 years of Metroland and to think I have contributed to the story during that time as well, means a lot.
Passenger S & Passenger A, thank you for your generosity, friendship and of course thank you for such brilliant music over the last decade and I know there is much more to come!
Metroland Homepage:
https://www.metrolandmusic.com/
Metroland releases on Alfa Matrix Bandcamp page:
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