June 02, 2002

To further pique your interest about Flux Information Sciences (whom I've been recommending since I caught them live in early 2001, dashing off superlative expletives like "Holy fucking shit" and throwing darts at reference points like Army of Lovers, the Beastie Boys, Swans, PiL, Negativland/Throbbing Gristle/Crass, the funny-looking bass player from the Stranglers, Devo, and if you insist, Fischerspooner), I'll link you to this page dedicated to their 1997 "Volt Project."

We (sebastien Brault and Tristan Bechet) had been playing in a noisy, decadent, drunken lounge band called TWA for a couple years. On our own, we started to experiment, looking for something else. We wanted to achieve something radically new. One day, we found the annual report of Volt Information Sciences, a multinational that sells information technology services. The corporate language of this document was impersonal, threateningly efficient and powerful. We took the name and logo of the company, made music under its aegis, and then decided to go to New York to meet them and make a deal. We proposed a joint project to Volt for a performance in which we would promote the image of the company through a presentation of its functions and technologies, in the form of a concert/infomercial/art performance. We wanted to marry media, genre, the "arts," the spheres, their lawyers, etc...Obviously, they rejected our proposal, fearing that we would misrepresent the company and devalue their stock shares....