Tom Shear began constructing music at home under the moniker Man On A Stage in the late 1980's. Most of the music was very simplistic and poorly constructed, with no vocals at first but as time went on they occurred more often. While working on Man On A Stage, Tom Shear also was playing bass live for a punk-influenced band collectively known as the Advocates.

In 1988 at a Depeche Mode concert, Assemblage 23 was born. Tom was amazed by the industrial dance music that the opening DJ was spinning. His love of the electronic synth-pop sounds mixed with heavier darker aggression proved to be an turning point for him.

The name Assemblage 23 has no meaning. Tom liked the idea of combining a name with numbers because it lent itself well to logo design, and had a nice phonetic ring.

While in college, in addition to working on Assemblage 23, Tom also collaborated with, Mike Ukstins and Matt Guenette on a synth-pop project, Procession. The band didn’t last, but it provided Tom with performance experience and practice. At first, Assemblage 23 was more of a hobby for Tom rather than a permanent project. He occasionally sent out demos, but when there was no interest in the band, Tom reverted back to making music for fun and his friends.

In 1992, he self-released a collection of songs called Wires. Several radio stations began playing the new act, and magazines such as Industrial Nation began to show interest.

But it was a side project of Tom’s called Nerve Filter that helped Assemblage 23 get needed recognition. On a whim, Tom sent copies of Assemblage 23 and Nerve Filter to Peter Stone of Xorcist, who handed them over to Don Blanchard of the now defunct 21st Circuitry Records. However, Blanchard’s interest was not in Assemblage 23, but in Nerve Filter.

A few Assemblage 23 tracks were later released. Arts Industria released the first ‘official’ Assemblage 23 song "Graverobber" on their Construction No. 009 compilation. Several more times Tom sent out demos to various labels, and even though he was frustrated by the lack of interest, he still wrote more Assemblage 23 songs.

Finally in 1998, the Canadian label, Gashed Records signed Assemblage 23 and in 1999 released their first album, Contempt. Comprised of polished melodies, heavy beats and a mechanical roughness, Contempt won dance floor acclaim with originality and timeliness in a genre dominated at the time by electro and goth bands. Two years after the groundbreaking release of Contempt, Assemblage 23 stepped into the spotlight once more with Failure. Failure marked a turning point for Assemblage 23, noticeably, the album was more polished and refined than is predecessor. Loaded with EBM dance floor hits, the album utilizes themes of loss and desperation to create an ever moving and flowing piece of sonic artistry.

After a falling out with Gashed Records, Assemblage 23 signed with Metropolis Records in 2001, re-releasing the Contempt and Failure albums.

With only those two albums, Contempt and Failure, Assemblage 23 became one of the biggest names in industrial and EBM music today. To further the American electro act’s success, a third album, Defiance, was completed for October 2002. Defiance pushes Assemblage 23's sound to the limits of only the imagination. Signature melody constructions, driving rhythms, non-stop beats, and highly emotional and personal lyrics make Defiance a logical follow-up to the widely reveled Failure . Defiance is sure to send Assemblage 23's status to legendary for not only does it keep with the sound fans have come to know and love but incorporates fresh new elements and structure as well. Catch the buzz before it catches you.

>>ASSEMBLAGE 23
>>METROPOLIS RECORDS

The Canadian, Montreal based duo Headscan fuses danceable electro with trance/techno beats, samples, and vocals, all meshed into a smooth, hypnotic sound. The band combines the best elements of trance and electro industrial resulting in a sound that is fresh and exciting, while holding true to its predecessors in electronic music.

Claude Charnier (electronic flow control) & Christian Pomerleau (human frequencies) have been active in Montreal's local alternative music scene for some years now, particularly within the techno industrial outfit Insurgent, playing a hard and intense mix of electronic and acoustic music. Co-founder of that band, Claude did the music for two cds, "System Structure Security" and "Supercollider", before leaving the group in 1999 to focus on a mainly electronic music project. Christian was the singer of Insurgent before he finally decided to leave that band to complete Headscan, bringing also his talents in motion graphics and website designing.

Signed to Artoffact Records in 2001 they've released their first album entitled Shaper and Mechanist to great reviews worldwide. Dark moods, electronic voices, bubbling basses and relentless beats create a futuristic soundscape for the new dark ages inspired in parts by the writings of science-fiction author Bruce Sterling.

Apart from this release, they have remixed the songs "Sanctuary" by Psyche, "Static" by Negative Format, "Clear Vision" by Dubok and "Testing New Waters' by Aiboforcen. The band also appears on several compilations including the German Compilation "Sonic-Xperience", "Resist The Command 2" from the American label Dystopian Records and most recently on UK's Cryonica Records new compilation intitled "Cryonica Tanz 2". The band's first release was a self-produced EP entitled "High-Orbit Pioneers" released on January 2000.

Headscan has played live for the first time in Montreal, opening for the renowned German band Haujobb, during the event "Krashtess 2000", February 2nd, at Foufounes Électriques. The band later played openings for other well know bands in the Toronto and Montreal area followed by tours with label mates Psyche and Netz from Germany.

Observing the impact of new technologies on society and its influence on the transmission of ideas, the band evokes the public domain as being a vast field of human memory.

As the continuous onslaught of modern technology breaks down the barriers of culture and geography, the public domain becomes embedded in our collective mind; where the spirit meets the mechanical.

>>HEADSCAN
>>ARTOFFACT RECORDS

As a band, CK begins in 1.992. The two founders, Wolfran and Josua were involved into music long before, in fact, Josua's first electronic band started and published their first record in 1.984. Wolfran began his DJ career in 1982.

In the beginning our ideas were just to start a project where lots of other people's were able to find a way to express themselves. That's one of the reasons why we use as many collaborators as possible. We don't want to do everything, because we want to share, we want to involve other creative minds into our music and thus, into our lives.

Our releases began in 1.992 with the 12'' "Bass can u hear me?". As a matter of fact, all CK releases have been self produced, self recorded, self published and self distributed. Our goal is to have total freedom on our designs and music. At the time it was only possible using our own resources. For that time, we avoid to go with our music live because we wanted to concentrate on sound researching.

Later in 1993, we self published our 12" "F.T.W. E.P.". Containing 4 tracks with as much ideas as possible (initially it should have been 6 tracks). This vinyl showed our darker face of sound. From this point, we decided to invest all our resources into our own studio, and since then, we never recorded again in a "pro" studio. Going for our "home style" of recording was a challenge, but at the end was the right move, because we found the way and the time to go crazy with our remixing and sound planning.

The time we won was used between other things to develop lots of remixes for some spanish bands. Due to the inmature situation of the spanish record labels, most of them remain unpublished, so we went crazy and published it ourselves!!!

If you move along the discography, you'll see since then we haven't stopped!!. Actually our record label "Out Of Line Records" give us the freedom and the distribution to reach you easily. In any case, we will not stop!!!. The year 1.999 saw us playing live in the "Tierra Electrica 99" tour with other "electro" bands like Kifoth and Hocico.

Along our career, you will see lots of faces coming to our tracks, on the lyrics, sounds and voices. This was one of the main reasons for Culture Kultür to be, and from that point of view, it is "mission acomplished". Actually, the three full-time members of our band are Salva (voices), Wolfran (voices, sampling) and Josua (key+button pressing).

>>CULTURE KULTUR
>>OUT OF LINE RECORDS

Located in Montreal, Canada. Dance floor oriented, Trance-EBM with Electro-Industrial flavours, M3N7A7 (pronounced Mentat) took the local scene by surprise with their first hit song "The Void". While still in it's early stage of development, the project morphed from a solo project to a duo. With great support from dj's and promoters, the band quickly acquired recognition and fans all across the world. Shortly after, work on the first album began. An today it's completion is imminent.

Mentat: Has studied classical piano in college and has been involved into many different types of musical projects over the years. From pure noise, mainstream techno, experimental electro-acoustic to classical orchestral pieces and punk rock. He also involved into Project Memmaker. Mentat does most of the composing, programming and vocals.

Cykikfear: got involved in the project shortly after it creation. First joined as lead singer, then switched to backing vocals, live synths and is a great "muse".

>>MENTAT