Bio: During his Communication Design studies at the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart, Robin Hofmann already has been working in various advertising agencies and design studios. In 1997 he started to work as a Freelancer and served various clients in the field of print and online.
During this time he was Djing a lot and in 1999 he founded with three friends the music producer team Dublex Inc. and a year later the record label Pulver Records. Many highly acclaimed music productions, international releases and various Dj appearances all over the globe followed.
Since then, new challenges were lying in the artist and label management, the license right and in the planning of events and tours. During this time Robin was taking care for numerous commercial music projects and advertising campaigns. Founding the company HearDis! Corporate Sound in the year 2004 was a logical step to expand those activities.
At HearDis! Robin Hofmann is responsible for conceptual work, the divisions Instore Music and Music Events. Furthermore he's a lecturer for acoustic brand management at the Design Academy Berlin as well as for media design at the DHBW Ravensburg.
Since the Boy & Girl pairing is standard fare for Synthpop it is especially interesting to see (or better: hear) what a band makes with it. Summer Camp is a duo from London (not New York or Stockholm, for a change) that sounds like at least a four-piece: Organic drumming, big guitar or synthesizer melodies, funky bass lines and energetic vocals, often sung as a duet. With a song entitled 1988 they might provoke comparisons with 1980s revival bands like Washed Out, but there also is a load of 1970s soft rock in their sound – a great way to bring a touch of summer to your fall evenings.
With his fourth album in 3 years Robot Koch once again proves he is one of the most skilled and daring German producers of electronic Pop-Music. Unlike in his band Jahcoozi here he is more personal, his productions closer to the emotionality of a Jamie Woon then to the excess of a M.I.A. But hear for yourselves, since we are able to stream the album in full – and the free download of “Heal” is the cherry on the cake.
With his fourth album Joakim continues his journey through music-history. If Milky Ways was inspired by 1970s Kraut- and Psychedelic-Rock, then one can say that Nothing Gold is Joakims version of 1980s New-Romantics. Yes, that also means that it is a little bit more danceable and accessible again – but what else would you expect from such a skilled producer?
Their eleventh album in 16 years shows this Berlin based duo on top of its Post-Rock game. Or is it a Post-Punk game? Or an Electro-Pop one? The two definitely don’t care about genre, more about mood – a sinister mood, that is. But as with a pond filled with tar and water there are a lot of bright reflections on the surface to lighten the situation up.
John Foxx, founding member of Ultravox! and singer for their first three albums, and synthesizer-wizard Benge teamed up to release “Interplay” in the beginning of this year. It is a weird reprise of early Electro and Wave – quite fitting for a band consisting of the man who started Electro-Pop and a man who could easily be described as a historian of electronic music. But the album does not only sound like a re-discovered gem: it also is a lesson in the current state of electronic music.
Bedroom-Producers are always a force to be reckoned with. Isolated they sit in their cozy beds, laptop on their knees, and tinker the most marvelous sounds. 26 year old Rob Jones is no exception and his latest album The Grandad Galaxy is playful proof of his endeavors. The 15 tracks are brimful with creativity and joyfully mix Indie-Rock and Electro-Pop aesthetics into a weird experience.
After 15 years of electronic music Kid Loco can be described as one of the classics – especially with his sixth album “Confessions Of A Belladonna Eater” heavily reminiscing the Trip-Hop and Big-Bit aesthetics of the mid-1990s. The guy featured on the earlier albums sings on most of the tracks and is joined by a female singer, so the sound is very organic, light and uplifting. Overall the sleaziness of earlier days seems to be gone and replaced by sheer joy and optimism. He still might be Loco, but he definitely is no Kid anymore.
With Lupercalia musical wunderkind Patrick Wolf not only releases his fifth studio album, but also once again a melodramatic operetta. Named after an ancient fertility-festival it is an uplifting album about love from the very first moments of opening track and second single “The City”. Although the album gets slower in the middle part and pianos and strings dominate the sound, the straight kicks return at the end and are joined by synthesizers to leave you with a big smile on your face. Well done, Mr. Wolf.
Hearing the beginning of this album one might think it is the soundtrack for a Pulp Fiction sequel, or at least for a surfer drama. But with the next tracks the laid back Surf-Rock of the beginning is joined by Blues and even Country-Music elements, and ballads joined by Rockabilly dance tracks. That said Eilen Jewell’s fifth album is a varied mix of guitar based, American music – not my usual cup of tea, but its creativity just got me.
I’m sure by now everyone of you has seen the new Vodafone-Spot and wondered what the great song is that plays in it. Now you get to know that it is “Way Back Home”, taken from the debut album by Australian DJ-producer duo Bag Raiders. The two are around since 2007, mainly remixing other Australian producers and bands, and are now, obviously, on their way to conquer the other six continents. My company HearDis! carried out the music consulting for this spot and we selected Bag Raiders for their driving Rave-Anthems, heavily reminiscing the glorious days of Acid-House with a light touch of Big-Beat to them. It is a fun dance album, brimfull with creativity and perfectly suited for long nights in the club.
CD Amazon (The Album will be releasedat the end of June)
Andreas Küfer,
Lynn Mayer,
Heike Forbrig,
Janine, Indra, Jennifer,
Julian Daynov,
Heidrun Tröndle,
Miriam Köpf,
Jens Jödicke,
Alex Hornbacher,
Robin Hofmann,
Alex Bohn,
Jörg Haas,