Hybrid (British band)

Hybrid

Hybrid is a British electronic music group based in Swansea, formed around the duo of Mike Truman and Chris Healings. They are primarily known as a progressive breaks act, although they overlap considerably with progressive house and trance.

File:Hybrid breaks.jpg

left, Mike Truman, right, Chris Healings.

History

Their first album Wide Angle (released in 1999) garnered attention for its combination of progressive house and nu skool breaks with vocals and symphonic textures. They hired the Russian Federal Orchestra for the string sections. Julee Cruise supplied many of the vocals for Wide Angle. The album was produced and written by the duo along with the third 'original' band member, Lee Mullin. The music's cinematic feel and scope have led to comparisons with Massive Attack and Underworld. Hybrid also supported Moby during a live tour in 2000.

They then returned to a period concentrating on making dancefloor-oriented singles and remixes. They are known as prolific remixers, listing over 100 remixes of over 40 artists, including Radiohead, Alanis Morissette, BT, DJ Rap, The Orb, Jean Michel Jarre, The Future Sound Of London, UNKLE, Moby, and The Crystal Method. An album's worth of these remixes were digitally mixed and released as a CD in 2001. A complete list can be found here: Songs remixed by Hybrid

For the follow up to their first album, 2003's Morning Sci-Fi, they added semi-permanent vocalists and guitarists, Adam Taylor and Tim Hutton (both on the album and when performing live) with a guest appearance from New Order alumnus Peter Hook. This album had a generally darker feel to it than Wide Angle, though still retaining the cinematic undertones for which Hybrid are known. In addition to this, Morning Sci-Fi features a more diverse range of influences than its predecessor — Chris Healings stating in an interview that, "We've been listening to absolutely anything other than dance music. I suppose that is because dance music is so ingrained into what we do naturally. We've been listening to stuff like The Doves, Radiohead, Soulwax, New Order and lots of jangly indie guitar bands and classical music, particularly the work of Arvo Part and Alexander Gretchaninov."

Three of Hybrid's songs were featured on In The Groove 2, a popular dance arcade game, which was released on June 18, 2005. The songs by Hybrid included on this game are "Know Your Enemy", "Out of the Dark", and "Visible Noise".

In 2006, Hybrid released their third studio album, I Choose Noise, with 3 tracks featuring well known vocalists Kirsty Hawkshaw and Perry Farrell. The epic symphonic sound of these pieces seemed to confirm a return to the grand orchestral scope of Wide Angle. A short symphonic track "In Good We Trust (Soundtrack Edit)", featured on their Y4K album (a compilation of other artists selected by Hybrid) was taken by many as evidence of this approach.

Hybrid played at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 29, 2006.

US Spring 2007 Live Tour

On 8th March, Hybrid will kick off their US Spring 2007 Live Tour in support of their third album I Choose Noise. Hybrid will be joined by John Graham, Peter DiStefano & Charlotte James, and other special guests. Tour dates and locations can be found on the groups official homepage.

Trivia

• Hybrid is the group that suggested to Linkin Park to adopt their name over their initial one, Hybrid Theory (via threats of legal action). Linkin Park would use the Hybrid Theory name as the title for their debut album instead.

• In November 2006, one of Hybrid's songs All I Want was featured in a Channel 4 advert for their show 'Unanimous'.

• Hybrid's music has been frequently used in the motoring TV show Top Gear during the car reviews. Much of it, however, comes from an unreleased CD entitled "Scores", distributed to a number of different advertising agencies and broadcasting houses for promotional work, and is thus very difficult to get hold of.

• Finished Symphony was featured in the video game: SSX Tricky, though it´s a bit shorter than the original version, but longer than the Radio Edit, featured in the Finished Symphony single.

• Three versions of Higher Than A Skyscraper are featured in the Xbox 360 game: Crackdown.

• Their third album, I Choose Noise, was made in collaboration with Harry Gregson Williams & Kirsty Hawkshaw.

• Kirsty Hawkshaw also sings in the song Blackout from their Morning Sci-Fi, and Hybrid Present Y4K albums.

• I Know where used as sample, in the song Desnudame, from Achillea's second album Amadas Estrellas.

• In 2006, Hybrid worked with Harry Gregson Williams on the Deja Vu soundtrack.

• On Hybrid´s website ([1]), an unreleased track, titled Cascade, can be heard.

• The Man On Fire (Remix) track on the Man On Fire soundtrack (composed by Harry Gregson-Williams) was remixed by Hybrid

• As of now, Hybrid is working on a remix of a Dave Seaman & Stefan Anion song.

Discography

• Wide Angle (1999)
• Wider Angle (2000)
• Remix and Additional Production by... (2001)
• Morning Sci-Fi (2003)
• Hybrid Present Y4K (2004)
• Scores (2005?)
• I Choose Noise (2006)

External links

• Band's official website
• Major fan site (acknowledged by the band in the Morning Sci-Fi inlay)
• Entry at discogs.com
• Audio files of Hybrid DJ sets and other notable and new progressive artists
• Template:MySpace-music