HYPO

In a lot of ways “random veneziano” by Hypo is the oppositional work to Fennesz’ “Venice”, and if it weren’t for the coincidentally analogue namedropping in the title of the records, of course, I never would have come onto that idea. Fennesz’ work has been critically acclaimed almost all over the place. Hype is still waiting for that to happen. I am not sure if it ever will. To unique, to weird and to idiosyncratic is his mix of synthie-pop, electronic glitches, electro-pop, groovy home-organs and even some great lounge-crooning directly from the acid-filled daydream of a speed-techno-freak, e.g. in the fabulous “Benny Björn has gone forever” – a track vibrating between goofy comedy and eerie chill that for instance also clowns are able to evaporate and thereby scare off children.[1]

Musically, everything is possible in the world of Anthony Keyeux, the French individualist and rule-bender and –breaker. Amongst a wide variety of electronic music styles, you’ll find sounds from computer games, children’s singing, wild stereo-effected beats, easy listening oozing and so on and so on. Unlike most electronic artists, hectically perusing their record-collections and musical memory, Hypo leads a straight path through his world of connotations, though at first it might be hard to detect. Underneath all that heterogeneous rubble and layers of quirky electronic music, definitely is some solid ground. Hypo does a lot more than just turn on his machines and let his creativity run wild.

The two recurring and therefore allegedly main coordinates are post-modern electro beats and pop-music from forlorn decades like the Eightes. To name Pet Shop Boys or Frankie Goes To Hollywood, now, would be aiming to high. Hype is definitely more interested in the B-rated superhits and one-hit-wonders from back then, and it is almost twenty years gone by now. E.g. “Porn Potato” almost perfectly imitates the synthie-pop-sounds from the mid-Eighties pop-Charts and because I still own vinyl seven inches of “Self Control” by Laura Brannigan and “I like Chopin” by Gazebo, and herald them greatly, I also like that part of Hypo a lot, never minding its ostentative cheesiness and cheapness.

Another instance of greatness, is the mix of early disco-background choirs with a sampled, cut and looped songpart from an Eighties-pop-starlet mixed into distorted beats and lots of breaking glass, named “The lost operette”. The drums on the next track “Killed Banano”, with so much echo on their cheap drummachine-sound, are just the cream on top. I don’t think that a lot of producers seriously use those sounds anymore; except maybe for some like Dragana Mircovic. Am I mistaken, if I hear a reference to that kind of music in “Free Days”?

Another polar opposite is detectable in the character of Hype, and these two main parts are humour and cynicism; always a delightable dialectic pairing (See V/VM or µ-zig). Putting a “vocal version” of an “Instrumental” on your record is one thing. Offering a collection of songs, produced and mixed in a way to mainly produce irritation and bewilderment in most listeners, is something completely different. To slash widely through the current music production and to put mainstream music and alternative music and electronic all in one basket to be thrown away, is another thing completely as well (though he has a point in denouncing the modern “alternative scene” as just another, smaller mainstream).

[1] Of course, the title actually refers to the pseudo-classical synthie-band Rondo Veneziano from the Mid-Eighties, which is even more frightening than the clown in Stephen King’s „It“.

HYPO Random Veneziano CD, Active Suspension

Lay bare those parts of your record collection you really always wanted to hide, especially in front of your oh so cool friends from the alternative scene and electronic crowd? There are no clean-cut, polished ambiences in Hypo’s music, everything is quirky, weird, mixed together and you’ll be reminded of the worst times of your teenagehood. Do you remember those small keyboards and their dozen pre-set sounds – here is where you’ll hear them again in a completely new, liberated setting. Hypo is actually trying to sit between the stools, to make you uncomfortable and to confront you with some unpleasant news about yourself. Everything you know is false, everything you do is wrong? At least, mistakes are meant to be made and there is a godlike beauty in broken things.
In a lot of ways “random veneziano” by Hypo is the oppositional work to Fennesz’ “Venice”, and if it weren’t for the coincidentally analogue namedropping in the title of the records, of course, I never would have come onto that idea. Fennesz’ work has been critically acclaimed almost all over the place. Hype is still waiting for that to happen. I am not sure if it ever will. To unique, to weird and to idiosyncratic is his mix of synthie-pop, electronic glitches, electro-pop, groovy home-organs and even some great lounge-crooning directly from the acid-filled daydream of a speed-techno-freak, e.g. in the fabulous “Benny Björn has gone forever” – a track vibrating between goofy comedy and eerie chill that for instance also clowns are able to evaporate and thereby scare off children.[1] Musically, everything is possible in the world of Anthony Keyeux, the French individualist and rule-bender and –breaker. Amongst a wide variety of electronic music styles, you’ll find sounds from computer games, children’s singing, wild stereo-effected beats, easy listening oozing and so on and so on. Unlike most electronic artists, hectically perusing their record-collections and musical memory, Hypo leads a straight path through his world of connotations, though at first it might be hard to detect. Underneath all that heterogeneous rubble and layers of quirky electronic music, definitely is some solid ground. Hypo does a lot more than just turn on his machines and let his creativity run wild. The two recurring and therefore allegedly main coordinates are post-modern electro beats and pop-music from forlorn decades like the Eightes. To name Pet Shop Boys or Frankie Goes To Hollywood, now, would be aiming to high. Hype is definitely more interested in the B-rated superhits and one-hit-wonders from back then, and it is almost twenty years gone by now. E.g. “Porn Potato” almost perfectly imitates the synthie-pop-sounds from the mid-Eighties pop-Charts and because I still own vinyl seven inches of “Self Control” by Laura Brannigan and “I like Chopin” by Gazebo, and herald them greatly, I also like that part of Hypo a lot, never minding its ostentative cheesiness and cheapness. Another instance of greatness, is the mix of early disco-background choirs with a sampled, cut and looped songpart from an Eighties-pop-starlet mixed into distorted beats and lots of breaking glass, named “The lost operette”. The drums on the next track “Killed Banano”, with so much echo on their cheap drummachine-sound, are just the cream on top. I don’t think that a lot of producers seriously use those sounds anymore; except maybe for some like Dragana Mircovic. Am I mistaken, if I hear a reference to that kind of music in “Free Days”? Another polar opposite is detectable in the character of Hype, and these two main parts are humour and cynicism; always a delightable dialectic pairing (See V/VM or µ-zig). Putting a “vocal version” of an “Instrumental” on your record is one thing. Offering a collection of songs, produced and mixed in a way to mainly produce irritation and bewilderment in most listeners, is something completely different. To slash widely through the current music production and to put mainstream music and alternative music and electronic all in one basket to be thrown away, is another thing completely as well (though he has a point in denouncing the modern “alternative scene” as just another, smaller mainstream). Artists like Hypo, who regard no rules and know no boundaries in their search for the pop music of the oncoming century, like Jean Bach at times or Inox Kapell, are definitely on the forefront of creating new pop-music. Especially, when they are so backwardsminded as Hype is to the Eighties, because everything goes in loops anyway. In these times, when everything is so speeded up, when everyone is frenetically downloading music from the internet and thereby completely forgetting the long, detailed and rich history of that artform, in favour of a complete digital catalogization, the pendulum is bound to turn and swing back heavily and harshly. (Just remember, that a meagre 100 years ago, everyday life was completely devoid of music, except for whistling or singing to yourself when alone.) When the music industry finally has destroyed itself, I can see Hypo wandering from one small pub to the next, giving people some broken-down pop-music of long gone decades mixed with is own dreams and visions. And then, finally, people will start to listen and to like what they like not what they are told to like. [1] Of course, the title actually refers to the pseudo-classical synthie-band Rondo Veneziano from the Mid-Eighties, which is even more frightening than the clown in Stephen King’s „It“.

CD, Active Suspension