Hype Williams
Hype Williams is the brain child of Roy Blunt and Inga Copeland.. or is that Roy Nnawuchi and Denna Frances? Or perhaps Karen Glass and Dean Blunt? There's even a tale of Hype Williams being an 18 year relay project in which members pass on the baton once their record is completed to worthy friends of theirs. Formed somewhere between London and Berlin in the summer of 2008, the "duo" focused on creating genuinely quite creepy, downbeat pscyhedelic lo-fi out of "their" (enough of this now) flat in Tottenham.
Relatively regular live outings were made, and the band released a split tape with like-minded friends Hounds Of Hate. We were then offered the download EP 'High Beams', which was perhaps many peoples first introduction to the world of Hype Williams. Tracks like 'Karen Hates The Forest' and 'White Mike' slowly found themselves becoming anthems of the re-emergence of lo-fi which was starting up in the capital with the likes of PENS, Male Bonding and Graffiti Island (who Roy had a brief stint playing bass for until leaving, the reason cited as him having a 'different vision')
Hype Williams - High Beams EP by Three New Ideas
2009 went to bed, and as 2010 decided to chuck on its check shirt, beige trousers and Vans and go and do it's thing, so did Hype Williams. The year saw an endless stream of tracks popping up online out of nowhere, the mysterious world of Hype Williams beginning to take more and more form. Every song was seemingly matched up to an equally strange yet enticing video offering, often featuring Blunt and Copeland with the necessary joint burning away in an ashtray for good measure.
Alongside the videos and mp3's came the bands first and only release on Carnivals Records, 'Untitled' showing Blunt & Copeland at their strongest so far, with their impossivly improvised weed jams recorded on synths and guitars from somewhere out of the 1970s meeting with hip hop and the best of indie circa 1993. The artwork was minimal but fitting in it's accompaniment, featuring nothing but 7 cannabis plant leaves.
The year ended with a supposed tour around West Africa, an impressive Drake cover and another 12", this time entitled 'Find Out What Happens When People Stop Being Polite And Start Gettin Reel', which was again a perfect excercise in homegrown beats, lo fi synths and the idea that in being retrospective it is possible to create something that sounds like the future. As with the last record, all the press that got hold of it sung it's praises and then walked out of their offices, bought a score, and listened to it again.
Hype Williams - The Throning by Three New Ideas
Shortly after the release of 'Find Out What Happens...' Hype Williams put out another record, this time on the Hippos In Tanks label. 'One Nation' saw the band cemented as genuine cult mainstays with the first 1,000 copies of the record pressed selling out almost instantly, with many waiting on tenterhooks for the re-pressing. It was rumoured to be recorded over one weekend in a North London flat on a strict diet of mitsuibishis, and what we get in return is the most fully formed perception of Hype Williams world possible. The band are also set to go on a short tour of the record which they've said will be their 'first and last' set of live dates.
Hype Williams - Warlord by Three New Ideas
Ultimately it's a red pill/blue pill deal with Hype Williams. Take the red pill and you're free to side step everything that's going on in their world. However, pop the blue pill, and prepare to enter into a smokey lair of leftfield video, mitsubishi's, down tempo beats and the idea that once you get in you don't so much become a fan of theirs, as a part of it.
TOUR DATES
March 23 – London, Plastic People (UK)
March 24 – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club (UK)
March 25 – Bristol, The Croft (UK)
March 26 – Belfast, Black Box (UK)
March 27 – Dublin, Whelans (UK)
March 29 – Grenoble
March 30 – Geneva, CAVE 12
April 01 – St. Gallen w/Lee Scratch Perry, PALACE
April 02 – Dudingen w/Lee Scratch Perry, BAD BONN
April 04 – Stockholm
April 05 – Gothenburg
April 06 – Copenhagen
April 07 – Brussels DOMINO FESTIVAL
April 08 – Köln
April 10 – Dijon
April 11 – Milano
April 12 – Roma
April 13 – Tarcento, HYBRIDA
April 21 – Malmo
April 23 – Hasselt, KUNSTENCENTRUM