hipnotica

"Hipnótica - best kept secret from portuguese alternative music is about to emerge to the world"

A new musical movement is emerging in the old and narrow streets of Lisbon. The rhythm fever brought by the Africans and Brazilians, the influences of electronic music from northern Europe, the melancholy of the traditional music like Fado, creates a unique scenario in which new bands are rising and producing music that urges to be heard abroad. Bands like Hipnótica, Cool Hipnoise, Space Boys, Sam the Kid, Loopless, Blasted Mechanism, Melo D, Coldfinger, Nicorette, Elastic Void, Buraka Som Sistema, Type, A Shrimp, Shelter Avenue, Saturnia, along many others, are at the forefront of this “revolution”.

Hipnótica has just released “NEW COMMUNITIES FOR BETTER DAYS” their 4th album. For now the release was only in Portuguese territory but now the band is initiating contacts with other labels to license and/or distribute it all across Europe. One of its tracks is already being licensed to Japanese label KSR and it was part of a compilation released in June 2007.

The album was produced by Wolfgang Schloegl from the Viennese Sofa Surfers, recorded in Lisbon, mixed in Vienna and it was mastered at New York by Jim Brick (OutKast, Mosdef, Jullee Cruise, Peter Murphy) at Absolute Audio Studios.

This new album is for sure the most ambitious and it’s a personalized crossover of rock new directions, electronic, hip hop and jazz. To create these musical pieces the band had valious contributions from special guests that shared their vision and inspirations with the band. Riz Maslen from Neotropic, Nanar Vorperian singer from Break Reform, the Japanese multi-instrumentist Hidekazu Wakabayashi, Francisco Rebelo bassist from Cool Hipnoise and the jazz musician Abdul Moimême form the large “community” that made this album create its final shape.

BAND BIO

The first album called “Enter” was released in 1999 and the critics acclaimed it as one of the best Portuguese albums of that year. After its release the band performed an extensive tour in Portugal and Spain and in parallel composed their second album that was released in 2001 under the title of “Decode”. In 2002 London based SWEAR releases a Hipnótica song in a compilation distributed in England, France, Japan and Portugal. The compilation name was SwearHead Vol I and the song was “Search the purest form on you”. During 2003 the band played across Portugal with an instrumental score “Short Stories of an instant called hipnotic life” based on the projection of 5 short movies. Also during last year the portuguese label Nylon released all over Europe a compilation called Nylon Showcase # 3 containing a Sofa Surfers remix of an Hipnótica song called “Reopen the Door”, this song was present in the playlist of some european radios.

The third album “Reconciliation” was released in 2004 and once more it became acclaimed by the press as one of the best indie albuns of the year. In some publications it was even considered the best Portuguese album of 2004.

In 2005 the band released a book+cd with texts from some of the most relevant portuguese music journalists, about the band and its context in portuguese music, entitled “stories under the influence of hipnótica”. In the same year the band composed the musical score for a movie entitled "Pele" that was premiered at Indie Lisbon Film Festival and screened at the Edinburgh movie festival.

In June 2007 Hipnótica participates in a compilation released in Japan through KSR record label, where artist like Koop, S-tone, Ive Mendes are also featuring.

During these years the band has performed live across Portugal and Spain from small venues to main festivals sharing stage with bands like: The Cure, Patti Smith, 4 Hero, Transglobal Underground, Tindersticks, Plaid, Fennesz, Roni Size, Kid 606, Ladytron, among many others.

in 2008 the band is playing across Portugal and Europe with the intention of having its album released in other european countries