[tweetmeme]The recently resurrected Wax Trax! Records imprint next month will commemorate the 30th anniversary of Front 242′s first U.S. show by releasing a new 7-inch single featuring a pair of tracks recorded live by the EBM pioneers at concerts in Chicago in both 1984 and 2011.
Pressed on red vinyl and limited to 500 copies, the 7-inch is the second release from the relaunched Wax Trax! and the first Front 242 release on the label in 25 years. It will be sold only at Front 242′s three U.S. dates — in Tampa, New York and Chicago — this September, according to the label.
The single will include a remastered recording of “Take One” performed on Sept. 28, 1984, at Medusas’s in Chicago — the group’s debut American performance — and a version of “Im Rhythmus Bleiben” recorded at the Wax Trax! Retrospectacle concert in 2011.
Julia Nash, daughter of late Wax Trax! co-founder Jim Nash, relaunched the label earlier this year. Of the Front 242 release, she says, “This is our way to mark the important history and bond between the band and label started 30 years ago.”
Formed in 1981, Belgium’s Front 242 released a number of acclaimed albums and singles on the original Wax Trax! imprint, up through the group’s 1989 single “Never Stop!” According to the label, the band’s 1988 album Front By Front remains Wax Trax!’s top seller.
