There are multiple artists named Scanner:

1. Scanner is a Power Meta… Read Full Bio ↴There are multiple artists named Scanner:

1. Scanner is a Power Metal Band from Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
2. Scanner is multimedia artist and sound designer Robin Rimbaud from London, United Kingdom.
3) A German EBM and Synthpop label founded in 1999 by Francesco D'Angelo Spine Of God.

1. Scanner

Was previously known as:
- Reinforce (1977 - 1982)
- then as Lions Breed, a German Metal act that released the 1985 album on the Earthshaker label entitled "Damn The Night") the group changed vocalists and drummers and became Scanner in 1986, adopting an on stage sci-fi image.

SCANNER appeared in 1987 with the opener track "GALACTOS" on the "DOOMSDAY NEWS" compilation by NOISE RECORDS, Berlin. The group’s debut album, "Hypertrace", was produced by Eloy vocalist Frank Bornemann and was released in 1988. Backing vocals for this outing were contributed by Ralph Scheepers (see Primal Fear[[/artist]). The Japanese Release of this album added the exclusive track "Galactos" from the DOOMSDAY NEWS compilation.

In 1991 the second album, "TERMINAL EARTH", had been released the group had parted company with vocalist Michael Knoblich and replaced him with the Yugoslavian born ex-Angel Dust front man S.L. Coe. When personality clashes erupted between Coe and his band mates the vocalist was forced out in 1993.

Guitarist and bandleader Axel Julius (also producer aka Nigel Boston) recruited a new line up for SCANNER to release the "MENTAL RESERVATION" album in 1995 for the MASSACRE RECORDS label and JVC Victor Entertainment, Japan. The band comprised Polish vocalist Haridon Lee, bassist John A.B.C. Smith and drummer D.D. Bucco for this album, although Smith was succeeded by Marc Simon shortly after the record was released.

1997’s "BALL OF THE DAMNED" would prove an ambitious affair as the band took on cover version of QUEEN’s epic "Innuendo". Ralph Scheepers, by now in PRIMAL FEAR, also appeared once more lending vocals to "Puppet On A String". Touring to promote the album saw headline European dates with support act UNREST before a further round of shows on a package billing with FATES WARNING and OMEN. In summer ‘97 SCANNER appeared first time at W.O.A., Wacken Open Air, Germany.

SCANNER ‘s 2002 release was brandishing the new studio album "SCANTROPOLIS".
At this stage the new look band comprised female vocalist Lisa Croft, guitarists Axel Julius and Thilo Zaun, bass player Marc Simon, keyboard player Johannes Brunn and drummer Jan Zimmer. The album closes with an unaccredited version of "Till The Ferryman Dies" recorded live in Stockholm.

In 2003 Greek vocalist Efthimios Ioannidis joined the band and is SCANNER’s most constant singer until today’s line-up. SCANNER played a lot of shows whole of Europe in the past years and will come up with their 6th album, "THE JUDGEMENT", in January 2015 (Release Date: January the 23rd, 2015, MASSACRE RECORDS).

2. Robin Rimbaud (born in 1964) is an electronic musician who works under the name Scanner due to his use of cell phone and police scanners in live performance. He is also a member of the band Githead with Wire's Colin Newman and Malka Spigel and Max Franken from Minimal Compact.

Rimbaud is also a writer and media critic[citation needed], multi-media artist and record producer. He borrowed his stage name from the device he used in his early recordings, picking up indeterminate radio and mobile phone signals in the airwaves and using them as an instrument in his compositions.

Born in in Southfields, London, Scanner was interested in avant garde literature, cinema and music while growing up. When he was a teenager his family was bereaved when his father was killed in a motorcycle accident.[1] He attended Kingston University in Surrey, earning a degree in Modern Arts (BA). There, he formed a musical project The Rimbaud Brothers with fellow student Tony Rimbaud, releasing cassette editions in the early 1980s, later becoming Dau Al Set with the addition of Chris Staley.
He released Peyrere compilation cassette album in 1986, featuring the work of Nurse with Wound, Derek Jarman, Current 93, Coil and Test Dept. That same year, he composed the soundtrack to a short film A Horse with No Name, directed by Phil Viner, shown at the London Film Festival.[2]
In 1989, he was commissioned to contribute to the Cultural Icons publication (Bloomsbury) edited by James Park, writing many articles on contemporary art, literature, music and dance.
His debut Scanner CD was released in 1992 on Ash International, a subsidiary label of London's Touch Music label. He continued to produce the first dozen releases with Mike Harding of Touch, including Scanner², Mass Observation, Blind, and Runaway Train, a real-time recording of the captivating radio contact between Alfie, controller of the line and Wesley, the driver of a runaway train. Location: New Brunswick, Canada, recorded 9 March 1948.
In 1994, he pioneered one of the first webzines, in the very early days of the internet, I/O/D, in collaboration with Matthew Fuller and Graham Harwood. In 1998, he presented Surface Noise on a London bus, commissioned by Artangel, and won the Imaginaria 99 Award for Digital Arts, ICA London the following year. He re-soundtracked Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville movie in a series of performances around the world, whilst playfully presenting 16 concerts in one evening using a series of Scanner look-alikes to perform in his absence. For 2003, he installed a permanent installation in Raymond Poincaré hospital in Garches, France as part of the bereavement suite Channel of Flight.[3] In 2004, Tate Modern commissioned Sound Surface in collaboration with Stephen Vitiello as their first sonic arts work. In the same year, he composed Europa 25, an alternative National Anthem for Europe that was freely distributed via 10,000 CDs and a website.
He has continued to collaborate with classical musicians – Michael Nyman for Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, Musique Nouvelles in Belgium for their 'Play Along' collaborative string quartet, and opera singer Patricia Rozario for a new untitled work in 2007.
From 1994–2000, he set up and "curated" The Electronic Lounge music club at London's ICA, where these monthly sessions presented nights of music in a social environment. Nights included presentations with the record companies Warp Records, Irdial, Ninja Tune, Touch, Mego, Leaf Records and many others.
Since 2000 he has featured on BBC Radio 4, as a commentator on issues relating to popular music on a number of occasions.
Working with choreographer Wayne McGregor, he created Nemesis for Random Dance in 2002, Detritus for Ballet Rambert in 2003, and Qualia for the Royal Ballet in 2004. He continues to work with dance, with new works for Shobana Jeyasingh and Siobhan Davies in 2007. In 2006 he created the sound for Merce Cunningham's E:vent at London's Barbican theatre.
In 2006, he created Night Haunts, a monthly online artwork, working with writer Sukhdev Sandhu and designers Mind Unit. He sound-designed Aitan Errusi's new British horror film Reverb. In 2007 he soundtracked British filmmaker Steve McQueen's film installation Gravesend, at the 52nd Venice Biennial.
In 2008 he was President of Honour at the Qwartz Music Awards in Paris, and scored the musical comedy Kirikou & Karaba in Paris, which was later released on DVD (EMI). He premiered his six-hour performance show, Of Air and Eye at the Royal Opera House London in late 2008, and sound-designed the new Philips Wake-Up Light with Philips Electronics in NL, a lamp to wake you up with natural light and sound.
In 2009 He showed Atlantida, an HD film installation at the Canary Islands Biennial, created in collaboration with filmmaker Olga Mink. In the summer of 2009 he composed the soundtrack to the opening ceremony of the World Swimming Championships in Rome, broadcast in 164 countries, and soundtracked the new Samburg Corby telephone campaign in Italy.
In 2005, he was a contributing curator 'J’en rêve' at Fondation Cartier Paris, and in 2006, jointly curated the video art exhibition 'Mobile' at Espace Landowski Paris.
His BBC radio production of Jean Cocteau's The Human Voice won the Prix Marulic Award and recently, he won First Prize Neptun Water Prize for his installation Wishing Well in Austria, in collaboration with Austrian artist Katarina Matiasek. In 1998, he became 'Professor Scanner' at John Moores University in Liverpool. In 2009 he became Visiting Professor at University College Falmouth UK, and Visiting Professor at Le Fresnoy National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Tourcoing France.
He recently contributed a chapter to Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (The MIT Press, 2008) edited by Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky. In 2010 Rimbaud working with The Post Modern Jazz Quartet on Blink of an Eye with a very subtle touch, embedding his sounds into those of the New York jazz ensemble seamlessly as critics observed.[5]
In 2013 Rimbaud dueted with Alexandra Strunin on the song "Robot" from her EP called Stranger released on 29 October 2013.

Buy or Die
Scanner Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Alice has planned her shopping day
She takes the bus to downtown
She'll have to give all her money away
To buy all the nice things around

See 'em on a shopping tour
Thirty elder ladies
Blankets and pillows and pills for the brain

Other little somethings

No matter how can you pay
(Cash or credit)
Calculate what you can afford
Before you

(Buy or die)
Prices can rise every day, every hour
(Buy or die)
You are forced to consume
(Buy or die)
Prices can rise for the goods you desire
(Buy or die)
Feel like Alice in a woolworthland

All the heavy metal fans
Go to see a live show
Merchandise odds and ends
Keep the money goin'

No matter how you can pay
(Cash or credit)
Calculate what you can afford
Before you

(Buy or die)
Prices can rise every day, every hour
(Buy or die)
You are forced to consume
(Buy or die)
Prices can rise for the goods you desire
(Buy or die)
Feel like Alice in a woolworthland

Housewives run into the store
Rush and run from door to door
Special offers advertised

No matter how you can pay
(Cash or credit)
Calculate what you can afford
Before you

(Buy or die)
Prices can rise every day, every hour
(Buy or die)
You are forced to consume
(Buy or die)
Prices can rise for the goods you desire
(Buy or die)
You are forced to consume
(Buy or die)
Prices can rise every day, every hour
(Buy or die)
Forced to consume
(Buy or die)
Prices can rise for the goods you desire
(Buy or die)
Feel like Alice in a woolworthland

(Buy or die)
(Buy or die)
(Buy or die)

(Buy or die)
(Buy or die)

Overall Meaning

The song "Buy or Die" by Scanner depicts the culture of consumerism that pervades our society. The singer, Alice, goes on a shopping spree to downtown, where she is "forced" to buy all the nice things around her, giving away all her money. The lyrics describe how different demographics, from elderly women on a shopping tour to heavy metal fans at a live show, are caught in the cycle of constant consumption, where prices keep rising for the goods they desire. Housewives rush into the store, enticed by special offers advertised, adding to the frenzy of the shopping culture.

The chorus repeats the words "Buy or Die" several times, which drives home the message of the song - that we have become a society that is addicted to consumption, where we feel compelled to buy things we may not need, just to keep up with the pace of the market. The lyrics suggest that we are trapped, forced to consume more and more, with no escape from the demands of the market.

In conclusion, "Buy or Die" is a cautionary tale, warning us against the dangers of consumerism, where we are reduced to mere consumers who are forced to buy things to survive. The song encourages us to be more mindful of our spending habits and to calculate what we can afford before reaching for our wallets.

Line by Line Meaning

Alice has planned her shopping day
Alice, like many others, has decided to dedicate a specific day to buying various items

She takes the bus to downtown
Alice travels to the city center, a common destination for shoppers

She'll have to give all her money away
Alice expects to spend all of her available funds on her shopping trip

To buy all the nice things around
Alice intends to purchase any interesting, visually appealing, or otherwise attractive items that she comes across

See 'em on a shopping tour
The song observes numerous shoppers moving from store to store

Thirty elder ladies
A group of thirty senior women are among the shoppers

Blankets and pillows and pills for the brain
Various goods, such as bedding and medications, are on offer

Other little somethings
There are many other small and insignificant items available for purchase

No matter how can you pay
Regardless of whether you pay in cash or with a credit card, the rules of consumerism remain the same

(Cash or credit)
These are the two methods of payment traditionally available to shoppers

Calculate what you can afford
Be mindful of your budget and spending limits before making purchases

Before you
Prior to reaching the point of no return, i.e. making a purchase

(Buy or die)
You are expected to make a transaction or face consequences, as consumption culture becomes increasingly pervasive

Prices can rise every day, every hour
Merchandise costs are subject to constant fluctuations, and often increase with inflation or demand

You are forced to consume
Society urges and expects individuals to expend money on goods and services, regardless of their actual needs or desires

Feel like Alice in a woolworthland
Echoes Alice's journey into a strange and fascinating wonderland, but in the context of consumerist culture

All the heavy metal fans
A group of fans dedicated to heavy metal music attending a live performance in a different setting than Alice's shopping trip

Go to see a live show
The heavy metal fans attend a concert to watch their favorite musicians perform

Merchandise odds and ends
Various items related to the performers or event are available for purchase

Keep the money goin'
Fans typically purchase merchandise to show support for the musicians and keep the overall machine running

Housewives run into the store
As previously observed, individuals with distinct identities and statuses make up an oddly uniform crowd of consumers

Rush and run from door to door
Shoppers move with frenzied haste from one store to another in pursuit of desirable goods

Special offers advertised
Retailers may draw in certain demographics of customers with incentives such as exclusive deals or discounts

You are forced to consume
The obligation to consume imposed by consumerism remains regardless of where and how you choose to shop

(Buy or die)
The same slogan reiterates that buying is a necessary component of navigating this system

Forced to consume
The theme of obligation and potential consequences surrounding consumption is further emphasized

Feel like Alice in a woolworthland
The commonality of this sensation between different shoppers bolsters the previously established idea of consumerist culture-as-wonderland

(Buy or die)
The song concludes with a final insistence on adhering to the expectations and structures of consumption, regardless of the cost

Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: SHELKO COE, AXEL JULIUS, THOMAS SOPHA

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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