A Split-Second

After the Belgian synth pop group Extraballe disbanded, Mark Ickx joined up with Chrismar Chayell to form A Split Second, which debuted in 1986 with the dance single "Flesh." The duo quickly took a detour into more industrial sounds with their next single, "Rigor Mortis"; both those tracks and others were compiled on their eponymous debut American EP, which followed their first Belgian album, 1987's Ballistic Statues, by a year. A Split Second's sound had by now coalesced into a mix of programmed industrial beats, synthesizers, heavily distorted guitars, and alternately melodic and vicious vocals; unsurprisingly, they were signed in America to the Wax Trax! label, which issued From the Inside in 1988. A number of singles and EPs followed on both Wax Trax! and the Belgian Antler-Subway label, some later taken from the 1990 album Kiss of Fury, which found the group switching to Caroline for U.S. distribution. Little new material was heard from A Split Second until 1995, when the duo returned with Vengeance. ~ Steve Huey