(Photo by Paul Decock) Out via Starman Records is the new double single/5-track EP (digital/cassette) “Fris! Fris! Fris! Het Heelal Is Hier” by Belgium’s electropop avant garde act Arbeid Adelt!.

The EP acts as a prelude to the new full album “Het Heelal Is Hier” to be released in early 2023. It will come exactly 40 years after the legendary mini-album “Jonge Helden” and their classic “Lekker Westers”.

The new album will be their first since 2016’s “Slik”. You can view the video for the title track below.

About Arbeid Adelt!

Arbeid Adelt! was founded in 1981 by Marcel Vanthilt (pseudonym Max Georg Alexander) and Jan Vanroelen (David Salamon). They broke through (in Flanders) with the song “De dag dat het zonlicht niet meer scheen”. The song was originally going to be called “De dag dat de dokter geen pillen meer voorschreef”, but Jan Vanroelen didn’t like that. The song’s lyrics were changed leading to a conflict with John Terra, who had released a schlager of the same title. Other well-known songs are “Lekker Westers”, “Death Disco” and “Stroom”.

Other musicians who have been part of the band were Luc Van Acker, Willy Willy and Dani Klein. Around 1992, Arbeid Adelt! split up for a long time.

On August 2, 2007, a reunion concert was held during Theater Aan Zee in Ostend in honor of Marcel Vanthilt’s fiftieth birthday. October 31, the group reunited for a performance on Sinner’s Day in Hasselt (Belgium). The group performed in December 2011 during the Turnhout Comics Festival, where they gave a “comic concert” with well-known cartoonists such as Kim, Ilah, Serge Baeken and Lectrr.

At Pukkelpop 2015, they announced they were back and signed a new record deal and new work was released on September 2, 2015.

Here’s a list of their albums, cult in Flanders, not so much abroad.

• “Jonge helden” (1983)
• “Le chagrin en quatre-vingts” (1983)
• “Des duivels oorkussen” (1991)
• “Bijna heeft nog nooit een haas geschoten” (Compilatie, 1993)
• “Methode champenoise” (1994)
• “Slik” (2015)

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Cartoon by Lectrr) – Belgian cartoonist Lectrr, who is the in-house cartoonist for one of Belgium’s most respected newspapers De Standaard, is also a big Front 242 fan so it seems. In the newspaper of December 12th we noticed a reference to Front 242 (see the bartender’s t-shirt) in a cartoon which was about expensive Adèle tickets available via Live Nation’s own illegal re-sell company Seatwave (we covered this re-sell scandal in detail right here).

In a chat we had with Lectrr a while back it seems he has been a Front 242 fan for over 20 years, more precisely when “Up Evil” was released. As it happens he also had been thinking about a Front 242 comic, but for now, we’ll have to do with a subtle hint in a cartoon. Coincidently Lectrr’s Tsū page recently welcomed its 242th follower. Maybe that was the trigger? 🙂

You can read more about Lectrr’s work on the official Lectrr website.

For non-Belgian readers, De Standaard is a Flemish daily newspaper published in Belgium by Mediahuis and is considered to be the best newspaper published in Belgium. You could compare it to The Times in the UK which means Front 242 is in good company!

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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