In a sense, the Danish Tomas Høffding has everything he’s ever wished for in his life. He is happily in love. He is the singer and bassist of the trio WhoMadeWho, a band that, thanks to their tongue-in-cheek disco indie-rock and their enthusiastic shows, can always count on the raging applause of their international crowds. Together with a handful of friends, he owns an old farmer’s house in Sweden, into which he can retreat after exhausting tours and nerve-wrecking studio sessions.
Despite all of these perfect conditions, until recently, the man from Copenhagen was missing something that he created and defined on his very own. Something that would make him artistically independent of WhoMadeWho. Something to which his colleagues Jeppe Kjellberg and Tomas Barfod would, if at all, contribute nothing more than well-meant tips.
Instead of mixing other peoples’ tracks, he decided to produce them himself. He wanted to create tracks which he could present at live solo performances in clubs with a small setup, consisting of a computer, chimes and a theremin. Tracks you would start moving to on the spot. For the past two years, whenever he was not touring with WhoMadeWho, he has been working almost non-stop in his new equipped studio. He experimented with several of his electronic devices and once in a while, he picked up his acoustic guitar. His spontaneous ideas were transformed into sparkling dance pop. “I wanted to write songs that weren’t composed in the classical sense. Everything needed to come directly from the heart. This is why the most stuff on my first solo album was created without any big thoughts”, the Dane, who is always in for a joke, comments.
Under the pseudonym Bon Homme, he now releases 10 songs on his debut album which is due for September 17th. Their electronic tinge is groovy in a subtle way, and the atmosphere of many songs is carried by the noise of analogue synthesizers. The music lives of spontaneously created melodies that we, in fact, only know from Krautrockers such as Cluster. He combines poppy hooks with dry techno rhythms, almost childlike tone sequences meet psychedelic loops, and in the next moment, it seems like Hot Chip teamed up with Kraftwerk. Bonne Homme has got hardly anything in common with WhoMadeWho. Not just because of the predominating electronic sound, but also because of Høffdings‘ vocals, which contain much more passion. He almost continuously wallows in emotions, adding to them an electrifying glamour that can easily compete with the work of a musician like Sebastian Tellier.
The first single to be taken from Bon Homme´s debut album will be the hypnotizing song „Mother“ which gets the remix treatment by Hugo Capablanca providing his own touch. Hugo has recently contributed to the Gomma Dance Tracks Compilation and is the dude behind Bananamania, a new label which is dedicated to breathing new life into old gems and classics. So peeps you know the score!
Checkout:
Original
[audio:http://www.cutthenoize.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/prelisten-Bon-Homme-Mother-Original.mp3|titles=prelisten Bon Homme – Mother (Original)]
Hugo Capablanca Remix
[audio:http://www.cutthenoize.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/prelisten-Bon-Homme-Mother-Hugo-Capablanca-Remix.mp3|titles=prelisten Bon Homme – Mother (Hugo Capablanca Remix)]