The Klinik [Special]

In 1978, Dirk started as singer and guitar player in the punk band Slaughterhouse, but broke up the group one year later to form the more new wave minded project The Few.

Influenced by bands like Suicide and Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft and the UK electronic scene, he appears from 1980 on under the name Absolute Body Control on several compilations. The first single Is There An Exit ? became a local underground hit. The line-up changed very soon but with Eric Van Wonterghem he finds himself a partner for the next coming years regarding mixing, producing and collaborating.

In 1985, Verhaeghen joined forces with two other bands, “Absolute Body Control” (with Dirk Ivens and Eric van Wonterghem), and “The Maniacs” (Sandy Nys) to form one “super group” “Absolute Controlled Clinical Maniacs“. This rather unwieldy name was soon dropped in favour of the shorter name “The Klinik“. Nys soon left the band to form “Hybryds“, followed in 1987 by van Wonterghem, leaving The Klinik as the “classic” duo of Dirk Ivens and Marc Verhaeghen.

The Klinik soon made a name for themselves with their cold and harsh EBM sound and their live shows, where both Ivens and Verhaeghen performed with their heads wrapped in gauze, wearing long black leather coats. Ivens’ hissing vocals and minimalist lyrics were complemented by Verhaeghen’s synthesizer skills and distorted trombone playing (the latter giving the music a slightly feverish sound). This however, did not last forever; after Time, an album neither member was fully pleased with, musical differences became too great, and they decided to go their separate ways.

Ivens concentrated on his own project Dive, and Verhaeghen continued as Klinik (dropping the definite article from the bandname at this point); sometimes as a solo project, sometimes with various other members. Recently, Klinik is a Verhaeghen solo project, making mostly instrumental dark ambient techno.

Most Klinik members have also been active outside the band. Ivens has been in bands such as Absolute Body Control, Dive, Sonar, and Blok 57; Eric van Wonterghem played with Ivens in Absolute Body Control, and has later been part of or collaborating with bands such as Insekt, Monolith, Dive and Sonar. Sandy Nys formed Hybryds already around his departure in 1986, a project which is still active.

Verhaeghen has been involved in several projects outside Klinik, including Noise Unit (with Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly), D.Sign (with Philippe and Eliane Fichot of Die Form), X10 (with Niki Mono, Marc Ickx of A Split-Second and Vidna Obmana), and ParaSabine Voss). (with his own wife

Ivens and Verhaeghen briefly reunited for a few concerts in 2003/2004, one of which was released as a CD in September 2004.

Related pages:

• Unofficial Website
• Official Website of Dirk Ivens/Dive
• Dive, Sonar & early Klinik
• The PIAS/Antler Mailing-List
• Noise Unit
• DAFT Records
• Zoth Ommog
• Minus Habens Records

[Discography]
The Klinik – End Of The Line [2001]
[part1] [part2] [part3] [part4] [part5] [part6] > pass: by_kulup
The Klinik – Black Leather [1990] > pass: nova-express
The Klinik – Insane Terror / Brain | Get Out [split] [1989] / Paracont – Zoom
The Klinik – Box (1989) [part1] [part2] > pass: by_kulup
The Klinik – Face To Face-Fever [1988] > pass: nova-express
The Klinik – Fever (12”) [1988]
The Klinik – Melting Close + Sabotage [1987]
The Klinik – Walking With Shadows MLP [1986]
The Klinik – Pain And Plasure (12”) [1986]

Projects:
The only link with The Klinik of this release is the fact that it features all the side-project of Marc Verhaeghen (musical mind of The Klinik). This Belgian master of dark electronics has been involved in numerous projects during the great Klinik period ( with legend Dirk Ivens), but especially during the last years of the first period of the band. The main and most famous side-project has been for sure Noise Unit, which he set up together with Bill Leeb and Rhys Fⁿlber (Frontline Assembly). I remember the first albums of this project released on the great Antler label. The sound was quite FLA-like (the early years) with the more experimental approach of M. Verhaeghen on top. We here get back to the debut-cd (originally released on vinyl in 1989) “Grinding Into Emptiness” and “Response Frequency” (from 1990). Quite efficient and convincing back in time, the songs now sound quite out of time. And yet I can’t leave a smile and some satisfaction when hearing back tracks like “Dry Lungs”, “Ritualistic”, ôHomageö and especially “Agitate”. The first disc ends with X10 (featuring Tec Trance) another late project of M. Verhaeghen. The extracted songs dated from the album released in 1992. This project was the less darker one of the Klinik-writer, but couldn’t never totally convince the scene. The tracks extract from the “Semblance”-album, which here appears on the second disc were a bit more attractive. Marc Verhaeghen here collaborated with N. Mono. Anyway X10 has been never a worth to listen for me! Another project featured on the second disc is Para. This was a project he set up with Sabine Voss. Being partly more atmospheric than The Klinik, several songs were definitely very Klinik-like (but without the vocals of Dirk Ivens). The more Klinik-like songs remain the best ones and I’ll mention here “Dich”, “Achterbahn”, “Fit Of Diffimus” and “Nachrichten”. A last project on this album is D.Sign, which resulted from the common efforts of Die Form and M. Verhaeghen. It’s a pity that we only get one single Mcd from this project entitled “Burning Cells”. You for sure recognize the typical Die Form sequences and the vocals of Eliane P. The song “Brain Overload” remains quite efficient (even nearly 17 years after date)!

The Klinik – Projects (2CD) (2008)
http://rapidshare.com/files/119837677/Klinik.part1.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/119836153/Klinik.part2.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/119834586/Klinik.part3.rar
http://depositfiles.com/files/5768286
http://depositfiles.com/files/5768484
http://depositfiles.com/files/5768494

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