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.
Puppet on a String
Scanner Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
But the gap is wide open yet
So we move straight to the might
Far to some demon's delight, I know
Some of them white
They always got right
How can they dare [that] there's nothing to share
And I do, no better than anyone else,
who's helping who, in any way
And I see, too many things not changed,
In a ";thousand-years"; time
Now I know, why I'm yearning
Cause life is never turning
Puppet on a string
Deliverance, roar for deliverance
And you know why I'm yearning
Cause life is never turning
Puppet on a string
Is a captive thing
Look this man is watching me
He's always been a part of me
And I see, left on the right
reflecting my body and soul, always
And I see, I look at myself into the mirror of time
Now I know why I'm yearning
Cause life is never turning
Puppet on a string
Deliverance, roar for deliverance
And you know why I'm yearning
Cause life is never turning
Puppet on a string
Is a captive thing
Save me, guardian of the poor
Watching every gamble, playing for high score
You may say I'm blind, right or wrong
Anywhere I belong
I can't deny, but my will ain't strong
All this fake
Sparkles out of gold
Did you ever die for
What your parents told
You may say I'm blind, right or wrong
Anywhere I belong
I can't deny, but my will ain't strong
Everyone a child of the sun
But the gap is wide open yet
So we move straight to the might
Far to some demon's delight, I know
Now I know why I'm yearning
Cause life is never turning
Puppet on a string
Deliverance, roar for deliverance
And you know why I'm yearning
Cause life is never turning
Puppet on a string
Is a captive thing
The lyrics of Scanner's song Puppet on a String are introspective and speak on the themes of individuality, freedom, and self-discovery. The opening lines of the song “Everyone a child of the sun, But the gap is wide open yet” suggest that everyone has the potential to be free and live their life on their own terms, but there are still societal constraints and limitations that prevent this. The lyrics then go on to explore the idea further, with lines like “And you know why I'm yearning, Cause life is never turning, Puppet on a string, Is a captive thing”. This suggests that life can sometimes feel like being a puppet on a string, controlled by outside forces, and the yearning for freedom is a natural human desire.
The lyrics also touch on the idea of rebellion against societal constructs that limit individual freedom, with lines like “Did you ever die for what your parents told”. The song seems to be asking the listener to question their beliefs and not blindly follow what is expected of them. The chorus of the song, which repeats the line “Puppet on a string, Deliverance, roar for deliverance” seems to be a cry for help, for someone or something to deliver them from this feeling of being controlled.
Overall, the lyrics of Puppet on a String are thought-provoking and encourage the listener to think about the concept of individual freedom and the limitations that prevent it.
Line by Line Meaning
Everyone a child of the sun
We are all human beings, born with the innate right to happiness and freedom.
But the gap is wide open yet
Unfortunately, there is still a great difference between the privileged and the disadvantaged.
So we move straight to the might
We work hard and strive to achieve greatness despite the odds against us.
Far to some demon's delight, I know
Those who seek to oppress and take advantage of others find joy in our struggle.
Some of them white
Those in power often come from a privileged, white background.
They always got right
These people are often given an unfair advantage and are assumed to be in the right.
How can they dare [that] there's nothing to share
It is hypocritical for those in power to claim that there is nothing left to share when they have so much.
And I do, no better than anyone else, who's helping who, in any way
It is difficult to determine who is truly helping others, as many people have their own hidden motives.
And I see, too many things not changed, In a “;thousand-years”; time
Despite all our progress, there are still many issues we have not been able to solve over the course of human history.
Now I know, why I'm yearning
I have come to understand why I feel such a strong desire for greater freedom and justice.
Cause life is never turning
Unfortunately, life can often feel like it is not moving forward or progressing.
Puppet on a string
I feel like I am being controlled and manipulated by external forces beyond my control.
Deliverance, roar for deliverance
I am asking for help and fighting for my own freedom and liberation.
And you know why I'm yearning
You can understand why I feel the way I do.
Is a captive thing
I am trapped and unable to break free from my current situation.
Look this man is watching me
There are those who keep an eye on us and control our every move.
He's always been a part of me
Those in power have always had a say in my life and my future.
And I see, left on the right
The constraints placed upon me by society and the expectations of others are difficult to escape.
reflecting my body and soul, always
My experiences and struggles are a reflection of who I am as a person.
And I see, I look at myself into the mirror of time
I am looking back on my life and the way my experiences have shaped my current situation.
Save me, guardian of the poor
I am in need of someone to protect and assist me, as I am unable to do so myself.
Watching every gamble, playing for high score
There is always someone keeping a watchful eye on us, hoping to take advantage of any mistakes we make.
All this fake
There is so much insincerity and falsehood in the world.
Sparkles out of gold
Materialistic possessions and wealth do not necessarily bring happiness or fulfilment.
Did you ever die for
Have you ever truly stood up for what you believe in?
What your parents told
Are the beliefs and expectations passed down from previous generations truly relevant or helpful?
You may say I'm blind, right or wrong
Others may not understand or agree with the way I see the world and my experiences.
Anywhere I belong
I feel like I do not fit in or belong anywhere in society.
I can't deny, but my will ain't strong
I know that I need to fight for my freedom and liberation, but it is difficult to find the strength to do so.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Downtown Music Publishing
Written by: BILL MARTIN, PHIL COULTER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind