Demos

The Hype Foundation - Demo

Chris Helsby 00/00/0000

Rating: 4/5

Grand name. And grand ambitions, by the sound of it. Their website, press release etc. are covered with the names of other bands. Bands they aspire to be like, bands more successful than them.

Which does them a disservice, 'cause it makes them seem way to reverential. The Hype Foundation's material stands up on it's own without the band needing to list every poster they have on their bedroom walls.

This three track demo, plus the three tunes that are available to download from their site, show a band who fit in well with what's going on in the indie world at the moment but can stand-up next to many of their competitors. They're like The Music and Bloc Party with something a little more ambient. They mention Sigur Ros.

Best tune I've heard is Digital Piracy, of their site. It starts off like early New Order, high-end bass with a simple, picked-out guitar riff, then in come the grinding vocals and the groove changes to something more like the Verve. There's a big sense of melody here, not just in what the singer is doing but throughout the whole band, that makes the tunes uplifting and inspiring.

The Hype Foundation are good, very good. They write catchy, four-minute pop tunes that have something weird behind them that makes your ears prick-up. That they try to be like their heroes is inevitable - every band must have listened to a million records before they picked-up a guitar - but they need to give themselves more credit for what they can do on their own.

http://www.thehypefoundation.co.uk/