The story about DEFACED BUT BEAUTIFUL begins in 1996 in Vojvodina (northern Serbia)

Sharing a passion for industrial, heavy and experimental music and underground ethics Fritz a.k.a. DJ Vrhovny (VIVIsect, Skattor Minox, Massmördercorp., Hoi Lul!, NOIZBLEED, Dead Skull etc.) and Stevan Lenhart (Pamba, Random Group, ex Pessimist) were doing correspondence and trading tapes of their own projects via snail mail. After a few telephone talks they have met each other in person and started to collaborate. At first Fritz did post-production of some Random Group’s recordings and included it on limited edition split release with his project Skattor Minox.

Inspired by variety of ambient, industrial, dark electronic and avantgarde music the duet was recording material under the name DEFACED BUT BEAUTIFUL in Fritz’s home studio in Novi Sad. The recorded tracks were based on heavy bass guitar riffs and rhythm repetition (Stevan) combined with trance-inducing synth sounds and samples (Fritz).

Critical situation in Yugoslavia in 1999 caused hiatus of DEFACED BUT BEAUTIFUL. Fritz left the country and went to Hungary, where he worked on project Großturwaller Muzikanten, while Stevan started playing within the project Pamba. The two continued correspondence via snail mail and e-mail and in the meantime Fritz even did some remixes of Pamba material (included on release “Vamped & Twisted”); then he soon went to Netherlands and focused on such projects as Hoi Lul!, Noizbleed and Dead Skull… In addition to his playing in Pamba, Stevan started doing his own printed fanzine Black Syrup and the first issue included a comprehensive interview with Fritz.

DEFACED BUT BEAUTIFUL finally resurrected in 2009. Duet decided to unleash the ghosts of the past and release them in form of EP album with 5 instrumental tracks, full of down-tuned basses, hypnotic synth sounds, twisted rhythms and overall isolationist sensibility. The release is a co-production between CyberfArts and Black Syrup Recordings. Although its members are living in different parts of Europe today, there is a chance for recording some new material of Defaced in the future.

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