C/A/T

The first phase of C/A/T (pronounced "cat") ran from 1998 through early 2008 and encompassed 3 full albums, 2 EPs, multiple limited edition releases and countless compilation appearances.

Phase One of C/A/T began with a series of low-run CDR releases on the Crunch Pod label from 2001 through 2004. This early period of C/A/T featured a raw and experimental approach to electronic music and live performances were carried out solely by Crunch Pod and C/A/T founder Ben Arp.

The first notable release for C/A/T during Phase One was the EP "Worldwide Totalitarian Control" which kept the more free from experimental style of previous recorded material by C/A/T and was thematically a political and conspiracy theory based work. The WTC EP was followed in mid-2005 by the first full length C/A/T album called "The Prisoner". "The Prisoner", borrowing heavily from the television show of the same name, took the political ideas presented on the WTC EP and took them one step further. Aurally, the sound began to evolve more towards beat-heavy electronic music and gained more structure.

The next major shift in Phase One was the addition of a new live member, Kat, in Summer of 2005. Kat would remain in the band as a live member until the end of Phase One on February 10th, 2008. The addition of Kat also brought about the next C/A/T album "The Rogue Pair" in late 2005. "The Rogue Pair" featured a decidedly hard beat / rhythmic noise style and featured eight original tracks and remixes from Endif, Caustic, Terrorfakt and Manufactura. "The Rogue Pair" was very well received and the positive response opened many doors for C/A/T to perform live across North America.

June 6, 2006 found the release of the limited edition "ATF" EP, which featured the new tracks "Smashed" and "(We Make) Music To Piss You Off" as well as some alternate takes of previous C/A/T material and remixes from Terrorfakt and Caustic. September of 2006 found C/A/T adding a third member to live band, Malice of the band Projekt Malice. Malice remained in the band until June of 2007 upon the release of C/A/T's third studio album "Point Of No Return".

"Point Of No Return" marked the final studio album for Phase One of C/A/T and featured a noticeable shift Arp's writing style. "PONR" incorporated vocals into the music for the first time and focused even further on song structure. The album was a far more personal and introspective album than any of the previous C/A/T releases. Notable tracks are "Parasite", "Malice" and "Dead To Me".

After the departure of Malice from the live band, the majority of shows to promote "Point Of No Return" featured Arp and Kat as the core live band and other temporary performers factored in as needed.

Phase Two has now begun.

Phase Two will include three studio albums over the next two years - the first being "The Great Crisis", which was released in June of 2008.