LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Hooverphonic
built 634 days ago
After dEUS, Hooverphonic is here to prove that pop legends can indeed come from Belgium. Their ambient trip hop music gained international recognition after their track “2Wicky” was featured in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty which was followed a year later by their debut album New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular. Geike Arnaert who replaced original vocalist Liesje Sadonius, guitarist /multi-instrumentalist Alex Callier, keyboardist Frank Duchêne and guitarist Raymond Geerts, made four more outstanding records up until 2005.
Source:
Hooverphonic is a Belgian rock/pop group from Flanders, formed in 1995. Though early on categorized as a trip hop group, they quickly expanded their sound to the point where they could no longer be pigeonholed into one genre. The band originally called themselves Hoover, but later changed their name to Hooverphonic after discovering other groups were already using the Hoover name and to avoid any legal issues with the vacuum company.
Source:
Hooverphonic's music has long defied definition. From the trip-hop tracks of A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular (1996), to the electronica/acoustic fusions of Blue Wonder Power Milk (1998) and the accomplished, string-laden arrangements of The Magnificent Tree (2000), the band's sound is continually evolving.
Source:
Belgium's dream pop trio Hooverphonic has seemed to creatively move beyond their icy smooth seascape found on 1998's Blue Wonder Power Milk and shift into a darkwave mood on their third full-length, The Magnificent Tree. Classic embryonic vocalic beauty from Geike Arnaert still carries the translucence of the band's signature ethereality, and she shines as hard as she did on the band's previous releases. However, musical composition on songs such as "Pink Fluffy Dinosaurs" and "Frosted Flake Wood" are more intricate and sonically defined. Chief songwriter and programmer Alex Callier and guitarist Raymond Geerts aim for abstract theatrics; multi-instrumentation is brooding and creeping, but Hooverphonic's distinct maturation cannot overshadow the gorgeous, flowing soundscapes they previously laid down. It's not disheartening by any means, for Hooverphonic does compose an attractive depiction of revamped new wave elements and twisted synth-pop in the face of new millennium teendom. They are far from manufactured label-conscious musical fascism, yet still are represented by a major label.
Source:
Thanks to the radio ubiquity of "2Wicky" (from their debut album, A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular), Hooverphonic won mainstream attention and early admission into the trip-hop pantheon. But this Belgian group's sound was always closer to the warm etherealness and pop aspirations of bands like Australia's Single Gun Theory than the wispy experimentalism of Britain's Portishead. Well, they'll probably still be labeled a trip-hop band, but Blue Wonder Power Milk is essentially an electronica-tinged symphonic pop album--and a very strong one, at that. The breathy coo of new vocalist Geike Arnaert melds effortlessly with the languid beats of tracks like "Club Montepulciano" and "Eden" as well as with the more muscular drum & bass of "Battersea." In fact, almost all the songs--many of which are augmented by simple string arrangements--possess a beguiling beauty guaranteed to keep your finger on the repeat button. Highly recommended.
Source:
Hooverphonic is based in Belgium, a small European country with a strong music scene featuring an open air festival tradition that starts as early as 1959. Hooverphonic's career has been marked from the beginning by international recognition, when the song '2 Wicky' was chosen for the movie 'Stealing Beauty' by Italian director Bernardo Bertlolucci. From then on, their music kept appearing in movies, TV shows and commercials in the States, as well in Spain and Japan.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Hooverphonic