New Mind (band)

New Mind is an electro-industrial band from Cumbria, Great Britain. New Mind is the solo flagship project by Jonathan Sharp, who also records as Bio-Tek and who was also a member of Cyber-Tec Project, Hexedene, and Hyperdex-1-Sect.
History
New Mind was formed as a solo project of Jonathan Sharp in 1990. Jonathan was a classically-trained musician who was inspired by experimental guitar oriented music in the vein of Swans, as well as early industrial and electronic music including and Helden. Prior to creating New Mind, Jonathan played guitar and sampler in an experimental band and thought of electronic and industrial musics as being distinct. It was when Jonathan took a suggestion to listen to Skinny Puppy that he had a revelation that led to the creation of New Mind.
The first New Mind demo, Bacteriophage, was recorded on 4-track in 1991.
The first New Mind album, Fractured, was released by Machinery Records in 1993. This was the only release on Machinery as the label did not find the initial material for the second album, Zero To The Bone, to their liking.
Also in 1995, Jonathan became a founding member of Cyber-Tec Project along with Jean-Luc De Meyer and Ged Denton. Jonathan was unexpectedly replaced in the band by Marc Heal after the release of the band's first album.<ref name="culture_shock_1_97" />
After setbacks with both Fifth Colvmn and Cyber-Tec, Jonathan sent initial demos of tracks from Forge to Stefan Herwig at Off Beat. This led to a multi-album deal with Off Beat.<ref name="culture_shock_1_97" />
Jonathan considered New Mind to be his main musical project and did not wish to constrain his musical output under that name to any particular genre or style. His affinity for "European" EBM, however, led him to develop a second solo project, Bio-Tek, as an outlet for that particular style.<ref name"sonic-boom-1996" /> While releasing music as New Mind on Off Beat, Jonathan secured a deal with seminal German record label, Zoth Ommog, to release music as Bio-Tek.<ref name"culture_shock_1_97" />
The relationship with Zoth Ommog led to a collaboration between Jonathan and André Schmechta of X Marks the Pedwalk that became Hyperdex-1-Sect. Their album Metachrome was released by Synthetic Symphony in 1997 and featured tracks that Jonathan had originally written for Cyber-Tec Project, reconstructed by André and reformatted with female vocals.<ref name"culture_shock_1_97" /> Also in 1997, Jonathan formed Hexedene with Katie Helsby and Ian Palmer.<ref name"sonic-boom-1996" />
During the 1990s, Jonathan produced many remixes as New Mind for bands such as Aïboforcen, Birmingham 6, Scar Tissue, Inertia, Aghast View, and Attrition. He also recorded many one-off compilation tracks under various names, including: Datura, Gunhed,<ref name"sonic-boom-1996" /> Lashtal,<ref name"culture_shock_1_97" /> Nova, Psionic, Tyrophex 14, Vent, and Zodiac.
Discography
As New Mind
* Body Politic (12" EP, 1991, Sadisque)
* Fractured (LP, 1993, Machinery Records, Think Tank)
* Zero to the Bone (LP, 1995, Fifth Colvmn Records)
* Forge (LP, 21 October 1997, 21st Circuitry, Off Beat)
* Deepnet (LP, 1998, Off Beat, Gashed!)
* Phoenix (LP, 2001, Doppler Effect)
As Bio-Tek
* A God Ignored Is A Demon Born (LP, 1996, Zoth Ommog, Cleopatra)
* Darkness My Name Is (LP, 1997, Zoth Ommog)
* Punishment For Decadence (LP, 1999, Doppler Effect, Wire Productions)
* The Ceremony Of Innocence (LP, 2002, Doppler Effect, Wire Productions)

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