Psykosonik

Psykosonik
Origin	Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Genres	Techno
Years active	1992–1997
Labels	Polystar, TVT, Wax Trax!
Members
Paul Sebastien, Daniel Lenz
Past members
Theodore Beale, Michael Larson

Psykosonik was an American techno music group.

History

Their first album, Psykosonik, was a hard-hitting techno album with cyberpunk-esque lyrics.

Their follow-up album, Unlearn, had a completely different sound. The DJ/techno stylings, aggressive vocals, and sampled guitar riffs were replaced by lush electronic sound scapes and mellow vocals. About half the tracks were instrumentals. The lyrics continued to focus on cyberpunk and extropian themes: Virtual Reality, AI, cybernetics, life extension, and science.

The band's third album, Spiritual Machine, was completed by 1997 but was never released by the band's label, Wax Trax! Records, who were by this time owned by TVT Records. The experience led to the subsequent disbanding of Psykosonik.

Daniel Lenz went on to produce a single album under the band name Hednoize with a new vocalist, Brent Daniels (aka Free). The album saw a bit of a departure for Lenz in regards to the sound and feel of Unlearn. Opting for a more industrial sound, the album was a hard hitting debut. Unfortunately, label support was minimal, involving mainly a website and a handful of LA club shows.

Being at this point tired of record labels, in 2001 Daniel Lenz launched a short lived project called PsykoHed on MP3.com. He released his debut solo album, Stuck in a Dream, in 2008, featuring guest appearances by Brent Daniels of Hednoize and Paul Sebastien of Psykosonik. Besides producing music for various film and TV soundtracks, he is reportedly currently working on new Hednoize material with Daniels.

Paul Sebastien went on to found Basic Pleasure Model, teaming with Wideband Network founder Caesar Filori. Michael Larson went on to become the audio director for Epic Games and produced the soundtracks for the Gears of War series.

Personnel

Members

• Paul Sebastien (1992–1997) – vocals, composition, engineering, lyrics, mixing, production
• Daniel Lenz (1992–1997) – composition, engineering, lyrics, mixing, production

Former members

• Theodore Beale (1992–1994) – composition, lyrics
• Michael Larson (1992–1994) – samples, percussion

Studio contributors

• Doug Schwartz (1993) – mastering
• David Sears (1993) – engineering, mixing
• Brent Daniels (1995) – additional programming
• Tom Garneau (1995) – engineering, mixing

Former Management

• Dex van de Werken (1992–1994) – AKA Dietrich Dexter, Management

Discography

Albums

Title	Release date	Notes	Label
Psykosonik	US: 1993-02-02 Japan: 1993-11-01		US: Wax Trax!/TVT Japan: Polystar
Unlearn	1995-11-06		Wax Trax!/TVT
Spiritual Machine	n/a	Unreleased album.	Wax Trax!/TVT

Singles

Song	Release date	Album	Notes	Label
"Silicon Jesus"	1993-05-25	Psykosonik	Released as four-track vinyl and six-track CD.	Wax Trax!/TVT
"Welcome To My Mind"	1993-11-23	Psykosonik	Released as five-track vinyl and seven-track CD.	Wax Trax!/TVT
"Unlearn"	1995-08-08	Unlearn	Released as five-track vinyl and ten-track CD.	Wax Trax!/TVT
"Panik Kontrol (PQM's Deephead Pass)"	Unknown	Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack	Released only as a white label promo.	Wax Trax!/TVT

Movie and Game Soundtracks

Song	Release date	Title
Various	1993	X-Kaliber 2097|Activision
Various	1994	CyClones|Strategic Simulations, Inc.
"Unlearn (Josh Wink's Live Mix)"	1995	Mortal Kombat
"Theme"	1995	Marathon 2: Durandal
"Theme"	1996	Marathon Infinity
"It Has Begun"	1996	Mortal Kombat: More Kombat
"Panik Kontrol"	1997	Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

External links

• Psykosonik at Discogs
• Psykosonik at Last.fm
• Psykosonik discography at MusicBrainz
• Daniel Lenz on MySpace
• Paul Sebastian on MySpace
• Basic Pleasure Model on Myspace
• Psykosonik discography
• Psykosonik Artist Main on Yahoo! Music
• Basic Pleasure Model's Sunyata mp3 on Download.com

See also

• Hednoize
• Basic Pleasure Model
• Power of Seven (publisher)