I can't believe how overlooked this band is! I am happy to have stumbled upon them recently after hearing Club Montepluciano and I fell into their spell! I really like their first three records, really chill and nice vocals from all the female vocalists. I have yet to check out the most recent singer, how is she?
I was a huge fan of the debut in the mid-90s, but only got into a couple of tracks on the second and third. I haven't spun the debut in a few years, but I would completely agree with your assessment. When they're on their game, chill just doesn't get much better.
Hooverphonic was never really my cup of tea, but there are some other Belgian bands that really deserve to be heard by a lot more people! Here's some albums that come to mind: dEUS - Worst Case Scenario dEUS - In A Bar, Under The Sea dEUS - The Ideal Crash Soulwax - Much Against Everyone's Advice Millionaire - Paradisiac Admiral Freebee - S/T The Black Box Revelation - Set Your Head On Fire I'm forgetting a lot more great albums, the Belgian music scene output has been of a very high level for at least the last 20 years. Recently I've been listening a lot to Bed Rugs - Rapids. They play some real good 70s psychedelic beatlesque pop rock! Really really good!! Here's the single Blinds of Rapids:
I'm with you, really cool sounds. The only band that lets me enjoy samples. "Waves" from The Magnificent Tree is magic!
I have "The Magnificent Tree" and "No More Sweet Music" and love them a lot. Very relaxed and good written pop songs with a good measure of trip hop thrown in the mix. Great stuff. A bit like Morcheeba, who I love as well. I only got "No More Sweet Music" a while ago and I was lucky to get the special edition, with the whole album added as very worthwhile remixes and both (regular album and remixes) in amazing 5.1 mixes. Surround works perfectly for this kind of music.
I don't like the album with their new singer (Noemie Wolfs) quite as much as I did the string of albums they made with Geike Arnaert. I also liked Geike's solo album a lot!
Wow, what a cool use of a sample from "Walk On By". Never heard that song before. Looks like I need to check out the earlier Hoverphonic albums as well.
Agreed. I love Geike's vocals. If you haven't heard it yet, check out a little side project that she did called Dorleac in 2010. It's really wonderful stuff.
And just for the hell of it, my favorite version of You Love Me To Death, done live as a medley with Saragni from their first album.
Sorry for bringing back an oldish thread, but my brother in Vietnam just posted a video of this "new to me" band and I love it. Has that Portishead sound to me. Anyway. I'm gonna dig a little deeper and see if I can find some vinyl. This is a live version (I watched the official one earlier)....sweet.....
If anyone in the US missed out on the deluxe box of A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular that was released a few years ago, I noticed that there are new ones for ~$77 in Amazon Marketplace this morning. I ordered one and I think there were three left. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...0?ie=UTF8&condition=new&sr=8-1&qid=1428159665 http://www.discogs.com/Hooverphonic-A-New-Stereophonic-Sound-Spectacular/release/4028514
I got an email from Music On Vinyl listing a Blue Wonder Power Milk reissue for RSD this month. Alas, limited to 1000 translucent blue copies, and it's for Europe only, it seems... http://www.musiconvinyl.com/catalog/hooverphonic/blue-wonder-power-milk#.VSABtvnF_h4 Hopefully a non-limited version on black vinyl will follow.
I read somewhere 1500 copies on clear vinyl. I'm quite sure they will appear on ebay at decent price after a couple of days. The 6th singer of Hooverphonic "Noemi" left the band last week, different artistic vision. She wants to do something different, maybe a little more alternative. According rumours she's dating one of the Balthazar-members, so that could be an interesting influence for new material. Up to number 7 They're doing still quite well in Belgium and Italy.
Not crazy about the new singer, but The Night Before is still one of my favorite albums of the last several years. So many great retro-pop songs on it. The follow-up didn't stick with me, for some reason though.
God, I would LOVE to hear that. Looks like it's a PAL-only thing, though, so I wouldn't be able to play it on my PS3.
Nope, they did finish their concert tour for "Reflection" last week in Belgium. There were rumours about an "idol-something" tv-show on Belgian television to find a new singer, but the band said that's not true. I guess they will take their time, because they just finished their tour / promoting latest album.
Eventually I'll get an Oppo and not have to worry about it, but financially that is a long ways away.
Wow, I didn't realize they were up to singer number six! Hooverphonic seem to be incubators for singers looking for solo careers!