The Cassandra Complex | |
|---|---|
 The Cassandra Complex in 2007 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Leeds, England |
| Genres | Industrial music,gothic rock,darkwave,post-punk |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Labels | Rouska,Play It Again Sam,COP International |
| Members | Rodney Orpheus Paul Dillon Andy Booth Chris Haskett Mera Roberts |
| Past members | Jez Willis Keith Langley John Marchini John Galvin Jurgen Jansen Patrick Gordon Gaz Wilson Volker Zacharias Axel Ermes |
| Website | http://cassandracomplex.co.uk/ |
The Cassandra Complex are a Britishelectronic rock group originally formed by Rodney Orpheus, Paul Dillon, and Andy Booth in 1980 inLeeds, England.[1] The current line-up still features original members Orpheus, Dillon, and Booth, with the addition of part-time US musicians Chris Haskett and Mera Roberts.
Over the years, the band's sound has included elements ofEBM,industrial,goth rock,new wave andsynthpop, and the band's sound has been described as a blend ofJoy Division,the Ramones andKraftwerk.[2]
The band was initially composed of Rodney Orpheus and Paul Dillon,[1] who met when Orpheus gatecrashed Dillon's 21st birthday party in Leeds. They began putting on large multimedia shows featuring various avant-garde acts from the Leeds area.[3] Andy Booth was a journalist who interviewed the band and was later asked to join.[4]The band released their first self-financed single, "March", in March 1985.[5] A live cassette followed a month later, and the band signed to local label Rouska.[1] Dillon left the band to get married and the band recruited Rodney's childhood friend John Marchini, withJez Willis and Keith Langley guesting live and in the studio.
They released two albums on the Rouska label,Grenade (1986) andHello America (1987),[1] and added tracks to the compilationsRaging Sun (1985) andZarah Leander's Greatest Hits (1987).[6] Afterwards they signed to the Belgian-basedPlay It Again Sam label,[1] which issued the double-live albumFeel the Width in 1987.[7] During the production of theTheomania album in 1988, Marchini and Booth left, with Orpheus recruiting a new line-up for 1989'sSatan, Bugs Bunny, and Me album.[5] Hamburg guitarist Volker Zacharias from the bandGirls Under Glass joined a year later, and has been a stable member of the group since then.
During this period Orpheus also began work on the bookAbrahadabra, published by Looking Glass Press in Sweden and later republished byWeiser Books.[8]
Orpheus set up a recording studio in Hamburg where The Cassandra Complex recorded their next albums, as well as producing and remixing several records for other German alternative artists, includingDie Krupps andGirls Under Glass.[9] Orpheus had a role in the German vampire movieKiss My Blood, and toured withThe Sisters of Mercy. He was described as a "technopagan" inMark Dery's 1996 overview ofcybercultureEscape Velocity[10]:
To Rodney Orpheus the ease with which such metaphors are turned upside down underscores his belief that there's nothing oxymoronic about the termtechnopagan in end-of-the-century cyberculture. "People say 'pagans sit in the forest worshipping nature; what are you doing drinking diet coke in front of a Macintosh?' " says Orpheus, who in addition to being a card-carrying Crowleyite is ahacker and amind machine aficionado. "But when you use a computer, you're using your imagination to manipulate the computer's reality. Well, that'sexactly what sorcery is all about – changing the plastic quality of nature on a nuts-and-bolts level. And that's why magickal techniques dating back hundreds of years are totally valid in acyberpunk age."
Booth went on to become a lawyer and the head of Company Commercial and Creative Industries atManchester firm Turner Parkinson.[2]
The band continued with Orpheus and Zacharias releasingCyberpunx,The War Against Sleep andSex & Death. In 1995, Orpheus worked with Patricia Nigiani and Markus Giltjes on a side project called Sun God.[4][11]
In 2000, the band released theWetware album on SPV in Europe and Metropolis Records in the USA.[4][12] The album ranked No. 32 on the German Alternative Charts (DAC) Top 50 Albums of 2000.[13] The EPTwice as Good was also released in 2000, ranking No. 84 on the DAC Top Singles of 2000 chart.[14] Orpheus also produced the surround albumsPlanet Earth forLTJ Bukem andA Gigantic Globular Burst of Anti-Static forThe Future Sound of London, and published his second book Grimoire of Aleister Crowley.[15]
In 2007, the original three band members reformed along with Volker Zacharias to play several festival shows in Europe and Brazil. Dillon subsequently left the band again and was replaced by Axel Ermes.[16]
In 2019, the band remastered and re-released their two earliest albums,Grenade andHello America.
At the end of 2020 the band released a studio single:The Crown Lies Heavy on the King (Destroy Donald Trump Mix), which reached number 3 in the German Alternative Chart on December 31, 2020.[17]
The band released a new studio album entitledThe Plague, their first for 22 years, on May 6, 2022.[18] The album went on to spend 4 weeks at No. 1 in the German Alternative Charts.[19]
In 2024 the band reformed their original lineup, along with guest musiciansChris Haskett (who formerly played withRollins Band andDavid Bowie) on guitar, Mera Roberts (Faith & the Muse,Black Tape for a Blue Girl) on cello, and Brent Heinze (Probe 7) on keyboards. This lineup recorded the album Death & Sex, released byCOP International.[20] Like the previous album, this went on to spend several weeks at No. 1 in the German Alternative Charts.
The band are currently spending 2024 on their CX40 retrospective world tour taking in 11 countries across 3 continents.[21]
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