taperecorder

a chameleonic interpreter of genres.

marc hug walks into his local watering hole looking a bit haggard and weary. "sorry i'm late, been on the road" he yawns "the big wide open road". this is his first full day back from a 60 day tour as taperecorder and the smile on his face and gleam in his eyes hint at what may have happened. "let's just say that it was filled with adventure, love, late nights, music, and great people."

hailing from the more indie-centric side of electronic music, hug is the mastermind behind the legendary house music collective IFF (intergalactic faerie funk) and the decidedly folkier mossyrock, and now this restless soul has a new incarnation under the charming moniker taperecorder. boosted by bouncy beats, taperecorder fuses poppy electronics with lush pads to create a sort of shoegazing-crunk house hybrid. what? it's a dark and lovely sound that readies you for late night adventures.

bouncing between glasgow and toronto as a small child gave him an early taste of the travel bug that soon found his way into his heart. this and his love of music was the impetus behind putting together a rag tag band armed with samplers and sequencers and hitting the wide open road in a kind of non stop tour of north america. "i was living in vans, sleeping at rest stops, and playing in cities i had only ever dreamed of! my life ruled." and then suddenly one day after a particularly grueling three month tour had finished up, hug found himself alone in a spooky old house set in the middle of the california desert with no band, no van, no neighbours, and no money. IFF was over. "it was a pretty bleak time. bleak with a gorgeous view." he pauses to order a 'sportsman' from the bar. "want one?" he asks while washing down a shot of whiskey with a can of cheap beer. "it was a strange time" he continues "out of the blue the dance parties stopped and i had no one. i'd sit down to write some house music or do some remixes for people and i couldn't do it. i was faking it. the only music it seemed i could make were these songs about beauty and sadness and ghosts and being lonesome." he was playing less and less with his old samplers and sequencers and a lot more with a guitar and mandolin. long before the books and lemon jelly, hug began combining his acoustic instruments with warbly glitches and jumble sale beats. "at the time it was all very lonely and strange. i had no idea what i was doing. little did i know i was just setting myself up for the next great adventure."

after locking himself in a gallery for ten drunken nights of recording and mixing all the new music he had laying around, hug had suddenly found himself living in brooklyn with an art school girl and a full length album on his hands. he put together a new band and called it mossyrock. heavy weight toronto label nice+smooth stepped up and released the album which was titled 'the zero to one sessions' and, much to his delight, hug soon found himself back on the road for the better part of three years. he found himself constantly criss crossing north america and europe playing everywhere from intimate venues to huge festivals while garnering glowing reviews from the likes of resonance magazine and the guardian u.k. after this savage touring schedule, releasing three mossyrock e.p.s, hitchhiking across canada, and a break up with a raven haired lover; hug took a step back. "i went off to berlin and spent a few months in the dark cold winter with nowhere to be and no one to please but myself. wait, that sounds dirty." this is where taperecorder was born.

hug has lived and played all over this lonely planet, and his wandering sensibilities are apparant in the sounds of taperecorder. the pacific rim is blended with the broken windshields of brooklyn and california desert nights walk arm in arm with mornings in berlin. that is to say, taperecorder takes the sounds from around us in the every day and transforms them in to new sounds. all backed up with intricate yet highly danceable beats. it's the haunting feelings that taperecorder captures and will be performing when the born rambler makes his way around the world once again...