Hard-edged electronic music maverick, Bill Leeb, has released his new digital single “Demons,” accompanied by a bleak, industrial visualizer video. It follows previous track, “Terror Forms” featuring Shannon Hemmett (Actors), as a second taste of Leeb’s debut solo album Model Kollapse. The full-length is due out on vinyl, CD, and digital formats, September 13th, via Metropolis Records. Catch the new single and more below.
Pre-order Model Kollapse here: https://frontlineassembly.bandcamp.com/album/model-kollapse
Stream “Demons” here: https://ingrv.es/demons-d79-g
The mastermind behind the highly influential electro-industrial band Front Line Assembly and ambient-pop duo Delerium, Bill Leeb got his start with Skinny Puppy. Leeb says, “The song is inspired by how much darkness and evil exist in the world. How we have to carefully navigate ourselves through all of this on a day-to-day basis and still try and find a reason to get up, be happy to be alive, and try to be creative. Technologies are here to stay. Demons exist everywhere in our minds, in our hearts, and every aspect, so we have to fight.”
Based in Vancouver, Bill Leeb is also a key member of other occasional recording projects, including Noise Unit, Intermix and Cyberaktif. Almost four decades on, his new album was recorded and produced in Vancouver, Toronto and Los Angeles with assistance from Vancouver/Toronto-based production duo Dream Bullet and long-term FLA/Delerium cohort Rhys Fulber, plus regular mixing engineer Greg Reely. An instant industrial-EDM classic, “Demons” plunges listeners into a menacing, synthetic underworld. With a career spanning back to the early 1980s, Leeb’s signature blend of creeping electronic darkness and high-octane energy once again delivers an adrenaline-fueled sonic assault. This album also involves contributions by LA-based artist Mimi Page, a long-term Delerium collaborator, and Jason Corbett (Actors) and Jacknife Sound Studio.
Not long ago, Leeb shared the first single – “Terror Forms” featuring Shannon Hemmett of Vancouver post-punk quartet Actors (and also Leathers), exploring the intricacies of artificial intelligence and the very survival of humanity itself. Quite fitting with the overall theme for this album, which explores the dystopian, nihilistic world we have created in so many different ways, ultimately asking the question “When will the human voice be lost to AI and technology….or will that be what saves us in the end?”
Model Kollapse marks Leeb’s first solo venture since the mid-80s days of Front Line Assembly, when he used to make recordings in his bedroom and released them on limited edition cassette format. Caustic yet melodic, danceable and very much song-oriented rather than soundscape-driven, Model Kollapse carries traces of hard-edged electronic dance music pioneers such as Front 242, DAF, KMFDM and Skinny Puppy. Videos were created by Tim Hill, with album artwork provided by Allen Jaeger.
The term “Model Collapse” refers to a phenomenon in artificial intelligence where trained models, especially those relying on synthetic data or AI-generated data, eventually degrade over time. Leeb posits the notion that “as we forge forward on an unprecedented technological scale, it makes me wonder how much longer we can remain in control of various aspects of our lives. Automation has already taken over many industries. With technology running much of the world, will the entire planet eventually be vulnerable to a Model Kollapse? Chaos would surely ensue.”
Leeb formed Delerium in 1987, exploring dark ethereal ambient trance and pop. Since debuting with the Semantic Spaces album, Delerium has enjoyed two Juno awards and many collaborations, involving Leigh Nash (Sixpence None the Richer), Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance), Kirsty Hawkshaw (Opus III), Emily Haines (Metric), Jacqui Hunt (Single Gun Theory), Matthew Sweet and Kristy Thirsk (Rose Chronicles). Their worldwide hit “Silence” with Sarah McLachlan reached #1 in numerous countries, its remixes also hailed among the greatest trance songs of all time.
Model Kollapse tracklisting:
01 Demons
02 Exotic Matter
03 Neuromotive
04 Folded Hands
05 Pinned Down
06 Terror Forms
07 Muted Obsessions
08 Simulation
09 Infernum
10 Erosion Through Time
11 Sound Mirrors
Follow Bill Leeb:
https://music.apple.com/ca/artist/bill-leeb/187074
https://www.facebook.com/frontlineassembly
https://www.instagram.com/leebbill/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0kEvfoqW1Dngp5DvbyzmXW
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