Hook And The Twin

Hook and the Twin; the Kraut-leaning drums and digital duo from Bristol is going places: Initial digital only release RACE FOR THE BONE was crowned Drowned in Sound’s Single of the Week. And B-side THEY’LL GET YOUR HEAD was “Track of the week” on BBC Radio One’s tastemaker DJ Zane Lowe’s show. Their legion of fans quickly included further prominent radio support from DJs Rob da Bank and John Kennedy. BBC Radio One’s Steve Lamacq predicted big things when putting them into his DEFINITE LIST OF BAND’S TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2009.

Friends since the age of 10, Marcus Efstratiou and Tom Havelock spent most of their recent lives making music together, including a long stretch in an abandoned World War 2 hospital. Isolated in the middle of woods, surrounded by collapsing brick bunkers (half of them full of strange toys left behind by 60s hippies) they turned the place into a makeshift studio, setting up their equipment to overlook a colossal rusting water tower. Against such an inspiring backdrop the idea was borne to plug themselves and their instruments into a specially constructed bank of machines that would allow them to create samples and loops live on stage, surrounding their songs with layer upon layer of sound as they shifted from guitar to microphone to synthesiser.

Early experiments went surprisingly well, and they stepped up to London at the start of last year via a short stint in Bristol’s music scene - this year has already seen them performing a specially commissioned live soundtrack to Fritz Lang's Metropolis in front of a sell-out crowd at Bristol's Arnolfini gallery. Their semi-automated setup found a perfect role accompanying Lang’s extraordinary images of a robotic woman unleashing chaos in a city run by machines.

Their semi-automated live performances sees the duo re-create the sounds of the record as they go along; Efstratiou’s plays relentless motorik drum beats while triggering synth sounds, while maverick Havelock is busy using loop pedals putting layer after layer of bass riffs over guitar hooks and vocal harmonies while creating some of the band’s electronic sounds on the keyboard.

Such exhilarating live shows have already been part of Moshi Moshi and XFM Xposure nights, Young Knives and Boy Crisis supports, playing the Insomniac’s Ball, Secret Garden Party and France’s most prestigious festival of all TRANSMUSICALES in December 2009.

While the first single, Race for the Bone combined Havelock’s fierce repetitive vocal mantra over the motorik beat of Efstratiou’s drum their second offering Bang Bang Cherry is a much more melodic, dynamic pop song than their first single and immediately took the band to the next level!

With the album production for their debut nearing completion and a new single out in late spring things for 2010 are looking very promising indeed for HOOK & THE TWIN.