Metroland

Metroland are a conceptual electronic band from Belguim, that formed in 2012, their music is inspired by Kraftwerk, Komputer and Orbital. The two members are known as, Passenger A and Passenger S.

The band released their first single "The Passenger" in 2012, which was taken from their 2012 conceptual album, about underground rail systems, "Mind the Gap",  The charming "Enjoying The View" was the next single to be released by the band off the album. A remix CD "Mixing The Gap", followed that featured remixes of tracks found on the "Mind The Gap" album.

In 2013 Metroland had a lucky break after being asked to support OMD on their Benelux dates of their tour to promote their album "English Electric", not only that, but Metroland provided official remixes for 2 of the singles OMD released off the album, "Metroland" and "Night Cafe", that was the beginning of a continued friendship with OMD's Andy McCluskey.

During this period Passenger A came up with a 6 second melody what was the catalyst for the track "Thalys", a song about the Thalys rail Company, the singkle was released as a 12 Inch vinyl/CD/Cassette package as well as 4 Digital Download EPs, a standard 4 track EP, and 3 language specific EP's one in German "Thalys Dusseldorf", one in English "Thalys London" and one in French "Thalys Paris".

For their next album metroland chose the intriguing concept of the "Bauhaus Movement". Bauhaus was an influential art and design movement that began in 1919 in Weimar, Germany. The movement encouraged teachers and students to pursue their crafts together in design studios and workshops.

The first single to be released off the album, was the stunning "Zeppelin", 2 EP's were released, a standard 3 track EP, which featured the B side "(We Need) Machines Without Romance" and a 3 track "Spacious Edition" EP, which featured the B Side "The Hindenburg Landing", the singles were realeased in February  2015. In April 2015, the band released their ambitious 3CD album "Triadic Ballet", 3 versions of the album, their own version and 2 remixed versions.

In May 2015, Metroland released the single "The Manifesto", again they released 2 3 track EPs, a standard edition, which featured the B Side "A Man Walked On The Moon", the 3 track "Spacious Edition" EP, which included 3 remixes, including remixes of the lead track and the B side "A Man Walked On The Moon". The final release from this concept project was a remixed version of "Design", titled "Re-Design", released in September 2015, once again 2 3 track EP's were released, the standard edition included the B side "Vers La Côte D'Azur", whilst the "Spacious Edition" EP featured 2 remixes of "Design" and a remix of the B Side "Vers La Côte D'Azur".

Sadly on the 3^rd August 2015, 2 months before the release of the final single, from the album “Triadic Ballet”, their long time friend and sound engineer, Louis Zachert passed away suddenly, this was a bitter blow for the duo, as they saw him, as a brother, and an important part of the sound of Metroland, and had been involved, in everything Metroland had released, up to that point.

As a tribute to Louis, Passenger A and Passenger S decided to release an album dedicated to him, using phrases Louis used to say as track titles.

They released the first single off the album (originally only one single was to be released), called "Under The Roof", and the album "Things Will Never Sound The same Again" on the same day, February the 16th 2006, Louis’s birthday. "Under The Roof" was released as 2 Digital Download packages, the standard EP, included 2 remixes of "Under The Roof" and a remix of "Good Moaning", whilst the Remixes EP featured a further remix of "Under The Roof" and remixes of "Good Moaning" and "Music/Machine".

Two further singles were released from the album "Synthetic Sound", again 2 EP's were released, the standard EP featured 3 mixes of "Synthetic Sound", whilst the Remixes EP, featured a further 3 remixes of the title track. The final track released as a single was "Brother", the standard and Remixes EP's featured various remixes of "Brother", the standard EP also included the exclusive track "See You".

In March 2017 Metroland released the single "Cube" as a Digital Download EP, the EP featured 3 remixes of "Cube" and another new track "Led Me Think", a remix of this track was also included in the release. A brilliant video was also released for the single, which can be viewed here.

In 2017 the band also revealed that they would release a 4 disc Anthology Box Set to celbrate 5 years of Metroland, this would include their 12 Inch Singles, 7 Inch Singles, B Sides and a bonus disc of rarities. The box set called "12X12", and was released in May 2017.

In February 2018 the band released a brand new track called "Man In A Frame", a taster for their next concept album, however, the track was not included on album. Two EP's were released, a standard 2 track EP, which featured the lead track and another new track "F8" as the B side, the Remixes EP, featured 2 remixes of the lead track and a remix of "F8".

Their album "Men In A Frame", was released in April 2018, with the concept being photography. In addition to the "Men In A Frame" album, Metroland also released a lmited edition CD called "Pictures To Listen To", which was a "Best Of" collection, it included the new title track. Initial orders for the "Men In A Frame" album included an exclusive "Retouched EP", this featured, "B-old (Archaic Mix)", "Trust (Reliant Mix)", "Hope (Sincerity Mix)".

A second single was released in September 2018, called "memorabilia", and like the previous single, it wasn't included on the "Men In A Frame" album. The standard 3 track EP included the B side "Sunwriting (Metroland's heliograph)" and a remix of "Memorabilia", whilst the Remixes EP, featured another new track "Sunwriting (Metroland's genesis)", as well as a remix of both the A and B side.

Prior to concluding this concept with a remix album, the band released the "Reframed EP", which featured 3 remixes of the tracks, “Concrete Witness”, , “Creative Rose” and “Shades Of Pale”.

The whole project was rounded off with a double yellow vinyl remix album called "Framed", which featured a remix of every track off the "Men In A Frame" album, as well as, remixes of the singles "Man In A Frame" and "Memorabilia". A companion CD was also released called "Framed Anew", which featured 9 tracks featured on the vinyl release, plus 3 exclusive tracks, alternative remixes of “Memorabilia”, “Man In A Frame” and “Shades Of Pale”.

Metroland hosted their own exhibition in January 2019, in their home town, Mechelen, which was the first time KRAFTman and his family met Passenger A and Passenger S in person. The exhibition featured all the photographs that were used to inspire each individual track on the album, as well as a special documentary multimedia film, made by Gary Hunter, which documented Metroland's history, the band were so impressed with the film they decided to release it on a special USB Pen Drive called "The Key To Metroland", housed in a specially made tin box, which initially was available to buy at the exhibition, however, fans were able to purchase the USB Pen Drive online after the event. Gary also provided exclusive promo video's for inclusion on this release. The film and video's were one third of the content available on the USB Pen Drive, it also included music content, a whole host of remixes, megamixes and exclusive EPs, as well as, pictures.

The prefect way to end this particular chapter, in Metroland's history.

On June 24th 2022, Metroland released a new single called "4.0", a taster for their forthcoming album, due out later this year.

The new 4 track single is available as a digital download and also available on 2 different colours of 12 inch vinyl.

The Digital Download is available from Bandcamp here and the vinyl is available via the AlFa Matrix store here

On October 7th 2022 Metroland released a further 2 EP's, which again features a track from their forthcoming album. The EP's titled "3.0" and "3.1", which showcases the track "Modularity", both EP's feature 4 tracks.

On December 2nd Metroland released a 2 further 4 track EP Digital Download package, that featured the track "Davos" another track from their forthcoming album. The EP's were titled "2.0" and "2.1".

On January 23rd 2023 the band released another track from their forthcoming album, again 2 4 track EP's were released, called "1.0" and "1.1" that showcases the track "4ir Intelligence".

Metroland released their new album "0" on March 25th, 2023. the concept for this album is the "4th Industrial Revolution", which centres around the World Economic Forum and the modern digital age. The album features versions of all the 4 singles released and the double blue Vinyl and CD editions of the album have different track listings and it is also available as a Digital Download.

Metroland released a new EP called "Industry" on February 16th 2024, a taster for the forthcoming album "Forum", which is out in May 2024.

Visit the official homepage of Metroland here

Visit the official Metroland Facebook page here

Passenger S has also started a new project called 808 Dot Pop and you can read about that here