Je M'en Fish JMF202304 (2023)

Little need for most to present ‘The Neon Judgement’. Together with Front 242, they were Belgian’s pioneers during the eighties of developing a unique sound, being coined instead of New Wave to become the new ‘EBM’ or ‘Electronic Dance Music’. But what of the later period? Well, here is a snippet of later work, remastered and for the first time on vinyl.

Dirk Timmermans (aka Dirk Da Davo) and Frank Vloeberghs (aka TB Frank) created The Neon Judgement in the early eighties, the first tapes combining harsh minimalist industrial sounds with their trademark guitar and synth wizardry. Classics like ‘The Fashion Party’ are favorites to this day and were for instance still played at the 2023 Dour Festival by Aphex Twin, but other tracks like ‘TV Treated’ ‘Miss Brown’ ‘Awful Day’ and more are engraved in the minds of most.

With most releases being done on Play It Again Sam (PIAS), the nineties took a different turn, both labelwise and musicwise, with Dazsoo on KK Records (Bauhaus, FLA, Vomito Negro, ...), At Devil’s Fork on Synthetic Symphony (Die Krupps, Welle: Erdball, K. Schulze ...) and last but not least, Smack on LC Music / Dancedelic-D (Dirk Da Davo’s own label).