About eight years ago, I was browsing through a music shop in Duesseldorf, and stumbled on an album that just caught my fancy. I’d not heard of them before, but the name and cover just appealed to me, and I made an impulse purchase. It was an excellent album called “A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular” by the Belgian band “Hooverphonic“.
I’ve not looked back. They’re an excellent band, and I return to their music frequently – more so in the recent months whilst I’ve been working from home and needing background music. It’s a real shame they’ve not really hit the big time here in the UK, as they’re every bit as good as the comparable(ish) Portishead (at least in their earlier work), and the lyrics and music are very much top league.
On another spur of the moment, I decided to see what their web presence was, and to my horror I discovered two new albums had been released that I hadn’t known about. Neither were they very easy to buy online in this country. So after a fair bit of hunting, found that Proxis.com ships from Belgium, and I was able to pick up “Jackie Cane” (their most recent studio album) and “Sit down and Listen To” (an even more recent acoustic collection) for just shy of €30, including postage, which works out at just about Ł10 per album: A bargain if I say so myself for hard to come by albums.
And what excellent stuff the albums are too. Geike Amaert’s vocals are beautiful to listen to, and acoustically she’s every bit as good as I’ve come to expect. They’ve certainly changed a lot since “A new stereophonic sound spectacular”. But then evolution, change and experimentation is what you want in a band. I’m sure I’ll be listening to them a whole lot more over the next few weeks. They come highly recommended, and I’m excited to read at hooverphonic.com that a new album is in the works. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that they’ll pay a visit to Glasgow on their next tour 
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July 10th, 2006 at 7:58 pm
[...] I always feel quite chuffed when I recognise a piece of music in an advert, especially if it’s from somebody more obscure. Saab are, I think, using one of Aphex Twin’s tracks (”Shiney Metal Rods”, from Selected Ambient Works Vol 2), I think we all discovered a new talent in JosĂ© González with the Sony Bravia adverts. And More4 are using “No more sweet music” from Hooverphonic for their trailer for “The Swenkas”. [...]