State of the Union is a Los Angeles-based band which produces electronic dance music incorporating elements of futurepop and trance music genres. Conceived by Johann Sebastian, State of the Union started as a studio project in March of 2000. A remarkable blend of industrialism and more accessible forms of electronic body music. State of the Union 's debut album - 'Black City lights' - fuses together expressions and elements of philosophy, politics, and symbolism through the medium of hard hitting and addictive dance music. State of the Union's first three CDs were originally published under the record label WTII Records in North America. Now, "Timerunner" and "Inpendum" are published by Infacted Recordings in Europe and the rest of the world, along with their fourth disc, Black City Lights V 2.0. The band is led by Johann Sebastian the Lyricist/Programmer/Songwriter who provides vocals for the songs and Jimmy Nimra on Drums.
Discography
Black City Lights
Black City Lights was a full album released on May 13, 2002. The debut release from one of the brightest artists to explode on to the scene in sometime. Led by the multi-dimensional instrumentalist/programmer/vocalist Johann Sebastian, State of the Union set out to defy all boundaries with their debut Black City Lights. Fusing an intelligent mix of Electro, Techno, Trance and Synthpop, with Johann's distinctive delivery and emotion has created a sound they can only call their own. Solid from start to finish, Black City Lights is only the beginning of what this band has to offer and provides a glimpse of what is to come in the future. Its tracks are "Enemy of the State," "Black City Lights," "Romancing the Stone," "Citizen," "Vicious Sentiment," "Firewall," "Mankind," "Children of the Night," "World Chaos," and "Walk in my Shoes."
Timerunner
Timerunner was a single released on February 23, 2004. After a greatly inspired debut-cut, comes the “Original version” of Timerunner. It’s an excellent danceable piece combining elements of EBM and a catchy future-pop like melody. There’s a “Radio edit” as well, and the “Quantum state remix” by Koito. The title song is definitely the right appetizer to await the 2nd full length. Among the other pieces left, we get an excellent remix of Children of the night. This is one of the songs extract of the debut album that I kept in mind. This is pure dancefloor sensation, combining a carrying and catchy chorus with body-pop structures guided by the right danceable tempo! Next comes the Experiment 3-cut, which reveals another great piece of music, merging elaborated EBM structures together with some background trance influences. This piece remains instrumental, but perfectly works this way."Its tracks are "Al Principio," "Timerunner (Original Version)," "Experiment I," "Experiment II," "Children of the Night (Resident Evil Mix)," "Experiment III," "Timerunner (Radio Edit)," and "Timerunner (Quantum State Remix by Koito)."
Inpendum
Inpendum was a full length album released on March 29, 2004. After the single 'Timerunner' the full length album 'Inpendum' has now been released. 'Inpendum' is the second cd of the American EBM/Futurepop project around Johann Sebastian after their debut cd 'Black City Lights'. This album contains 13 mostly dancable and powerful electropop tunes with industrial influences and heavy pounding drumbeats. Next to 'Timerunner' there are more clubtracks on this cd. Such as 'Unforgiving Time', 'Afterlife' or 'Lights in the Abyss'. The music is futurepop with influences from Latin-American music added to this. The songs are very well crafted. Something which really stands out in tracks like 'Nara' and 'Makina Mata'. Which is my favorite song next to the 'Timerunner' and 'Afterlife'. Also special are the intermezzo's and musicals, often rhythmical and percussive experiments. the music on all the songs contribute to a very well crafted album. Lyrically and conceptually there's a lot of depth and insight to be found, as the beautiful artwork shows. Politics and philosophy are themes which are dressed up in extremely catchy futurepop tracks. All in all this cd means a consolidation of the position Sebastian had taken with his debut cd. Its tracks are "Inpendum," "Escape," "Timerunner," "Nara," "Unforgiving Time," "Suffer the Fallen," "Makina Mata," "Hypnosis," "Afterlife," "The Search," "Lights in the Abyss," "Rupture," and "Barrenlands."
Black City Lights V 2.0
Black City Lights V 2.0 was released on June 27, 2005. It is a remake of State of the Union's first album, Black City Lights. The instrumentation and vocals have been altered in six songs, the track ordering was changed, and an additional track was added. The tracks on this album are "Enemy of the State," "Black City Lights," "Citizen," "Romancing the Stone," "Vicious Sentiment," "Firewall," "Children of the Night," "World Chaos," "Walk in my Shoes," "Mankind," and "Romancing the Stone (Original Piano Version)."
Compilations
State of the Union has contributed to two compilation CDs published by WTII Records. The song "Enemy of the State" appears on the album The Resurrection and the song "Makina Mata" appears on the album The Resurrection 2. The band has also contributed to several compilations published by Infacted Recordings. State of the Union created the song "Fall From Grace" for the album Infacted Vol. 1 and "Honour (Spanish Version)" for the album Infacted Vol. 2. They contributed "Children of the Night (Resident Evil Remix)" to the album Infactious Vol. 1. State of the Union was one of four bands featured on the album Infact1on Vol. 1, which included the tracks "The Sphynx's Answer," "Fall From Grace," "Fallen Angels," "Blindfold, and "The Color Of My Skin." For Bruderschaft's Forever EP, State of the Union produced the "Darkness Pulls Me Under" remix. They also created a remix of the song "White Wall" by Lights of Euphoria for their album Gegen Den Strom. "Citizen" appeared on the compilation Strangelove Vol. 6, published by the music label "Orkus."
