Voice Industrie
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Voice Industrie is an overlooked and underrated electronic music act hailing from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Along with Alan Levesque (music, lyrics, electronic drums, production), VI was formed in 1989 by Alex Brodsky (keyboards), Lance White (keyboards), and later joined by Richard Abbass (electronic drums). The group performed their inaugural live show in 1992 at the Bronx in Edmonton, and went on to open for 2-Unlimited and other prominent bands of the era. White left VI in 1994 and the band continued as a three member act opening for the likes of Cassandra Complex and others. Brodsky and Abbass left VI in 2005, a mere 10 days prior to VI's "The Anatomie" scheduled CD release and opened the door for keyboardist Francis Tetrault to come in and fill the vacancy.
In 1994, VI was signed to indie label 'Factoria Records', then in 1997 to 'Interdimensional Industries'. Both labels helped the band get noticed locally and abroad, culminating in an appearance in Sideline Magazine's 'Heartbreaker Top 10' section with VI's 'Transmission' in 1997, but it wasn't until VI was signed to the A Different Drum synthpop label out of Salt Lake City that the band began receiving serious global attention. (VI's music is currently available through the A Different Drum label website).
From the DM-like offerings of the early years (Psychotica - 1992) to a more industrial period (The Anatomie - 1995), the music never remained stagnant. It continued to evolve -- touching on pseudo-trance infused soundscapes (Transmission - 1997) and eventually found a trance synthpop flavour in the final VI offering (Power - 2003). Critics cited Power as Depeche Mode meets Underworld and one review claimed "VI makes music for the mind that shakes the behind."
After many years of performing live with the likes of KMFDM, Assemblage 23 and numerous other talented artists, five full length albums, numerous compilation appearances and remixes, VI disbanded in 2005 and Alan put VI on the shelf in 2006.
Alan went on to play drums for and produce "THE BASEMENT TAPES", a 5-track CD for Robyn Bright's "Cockatoo". He left the band in the fall of 2007 and is currently working on a new electronic project entitled "Aktivater" which is to be released on A Different Drum sometime in the future.