Biomechanoid - Press release…

Biomechanoid was a sideline project of Alto Stratus, who consisted of the brothers Alan & Steven Freeman, from Leicester (in the East Midlands), England. Nowadays the proprietors of the Ultima Thule Record Shop (and international mail-order), publishers of Audion (the new-music magazine), the acclaimed Krautrock Encyclopedia "The Crack In The Cosmic Egg", and acknowledged collectors and chroniclers of fine progressive and experimental music. A full Alto Stratus history is available separately, accompanying the CD release of "Tachyon" + bonus (UTCD 002) and then there's the other related project Zircon & The Burning Brains aka ZBB «Cortex!» + 24 minutes bonus (UTCD 001), a weirder excursion.

As a conceptual work that took over a year to complete, it's often hailed as one of Auricle's best releases. It attempts to musically visualise the bizarre and oft-disturbing art of H.R. Giger, and by pure coincidence its often close to Joel Vandroogenbroeck's (ex- Brainticket) similarly conceived BIOMECHANOID album, something that surprised us when we later heard it.

Texts on the inside of the Biomechanoid CD insert give a full run-down on the concept of the album, how the music relates to what sort of imagery, etc. This means that, even if you haven't any ideas as to what the inspiration is behind it all, you can at least visualise your own imagery! Abstract electronics, weird collage, guitars, atmospheric synths and sound effects paint picture music with a big difference! Dark, vivid, contrastingly it's beautifully entrancing and disturbing!

The music itself, naturally, has a much wider range of inspiration, and was pretty much our attempt to do something that was accessible, yet still a little scary underneath. The results were that on cassette it became the biggest seller out of all our own releases, selling 250+ which is extraordinary for a self-produced cassette with little or no promotion. It's success is no doubt due to the concept capturing peoples imagination, the unison of melodic and experimental textures, with sequencers and guitars adding elements of Cluster and Heldon, into a music that bridges from early atmospheric Tangerine Dream, via Peter Frohmader's dark visionary works, onto freaky psychedelic rock. The heavy reliance on analogue synthesizers and extensive sound-collage work all add to the uniqueness of the project.