XP8 is Marco Visconti and Marko Resurreccion

What Benny Benassi is for pink-shirt-wearing mainstream girls, XP8 is for the alternative electro scene: and Italy’s most successful export in that field, these days.

The band, started in 2001 as a trio including previous singer Paul Toohill, composes an airy blend of EBM, electronica, techno and trance, bringing their various visions and talents to life with synthetic vibrancy and danceable beats, crossing electronic genres with relative ease.

Aimed at the heart of the dancefloor, the music keeps listeners moving through the night in timeless waves, emitting subtle hints of the 1980s while slipping easily into sounds of the new millennium: glitchy patterns, sharp simulated strings, and clear vocals travel through bright sequences and brooding atmospheres.

After having released their first demo, Forgive, on the now defunct mp3.com website, and receiving good feedbacks, they signed a deal with the Polish label Black Flames Records, who would reissue the demo on May 2004 as Forgive[n], quickly followed by the RE_Productions EP in October 2004.

In several interviews though, the band seem to consider their real debut the 2005 album Hrs:Min:Sec, released on the acclaimed German label Infacted Recordings.

Over the years, XP8 made a name for themselves due to their energetic live performances: the band played all over Europe, from their native Italy to Russia, and attended prestigious festivals like the Wave Gotik Treffen in Germany. Also their remix work is much sought-after, and bands as different as Attrition, Mortiis, Icon Of Coil and Dope Stars Inc. (among the others) has been remixed by XP8.

Their third studio album, The Art Of Revenge, released on January 18th 2008 once again on Infacted Recordings, immediately received good reviews, and was subsequently licensed in North America to Sigsaly Transmission Media and in Russia to Gravitator Records: meanwhile, it reached place 1 at the Dutch Underground Charts and peaked at 5 at the famous Deutsche Alternative Charts, proving once again how XP8 is constantly on the rise.

Summer 2008 saw XP8 undertaking their first US tour with System Syn where they were enthusiastically greeted by rabid fans from New York to Los Angeles and everywhere between. The accompanying promo video for The Art of Revenge has also seen heavy rotation in several Italian music TV channels and even reached the 1 position in Music Box’s top 20 in October 2008.

Pushing forward even harder in 2009, XP8 worked extensively on the eagerly anticipated new album, titled Drop the Mask: demos of the new album found their way to Metropolis Records who signed them for North America.

Drop The Mask is a further evolution of the band’s sound by showing the duo of Marco Visconti and Marko Resurreccion taking their collective music prowess to new heights.

The album is introduced by the single Want It, a groovy and sexy electro-industrial tune who also features the guest vocals of Daniel Graves of Aesthetic Perfection fame, who lends XP8 his mighty screaming which turns the song into a pure dancefloor smasher.

 

Awakenings, the first chapter of the Adrenochrome short novel

A strong pain, that’s all.
You’ve got something heavy on your face, as you do have a face. And a body. Probably.
But everything is hidden behind this pain you feel. There, beyond the blackness.
Then all you seem to understand writhes, twists and turns sickly over itself: you are the heavy thing on your face and that hardness you feel against it is the floor, or whatever it is you’ve got underneath you.
Slowly, very slowly, you come to know something else above the pain, beyond the blackness, and it’s a horrible stench: the smell of decay, mixed with a stinging memory of madness and synthetic oil.
Darkness…

I’m blind…
Everything is black and I can’t remember closing my eyes. For a short while I think of nothing and then, bit by bit, an idea of reality flows back into my head. It makes me want to scream, but all I can manage is a weak moan.
I know I am in a strange position, but it isn’t yet clear which way is up and which is down.
When I do get it, I realise I should perform some sort of movement with my shoulder to straighten me up.
I am not supposed to support all of my weight on my face.
But I still can’t muster the will to move the wreck pretending to be my body.

When memories flooded back into Liam they did it all at once, mercilessly.
His brain overflowed and he longed for the sweet unconsciousness of just a few seconds before.
He tried to open his eyes to push the darkness away and, when that failed, he cherished a new wave of panic. He was so scared of moving his body that he stiffened the muscles of his legs, breaking the delicate balance that had kept him face down on a rusting pile of scrap metal, his left check smashed against the asphalt.

 

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