An unholy meeting of minds between 'The Black Neon' and 'The Squire of Somerton'..........................................................................................
The seeds of Higamos Hogamos were planted three Christmases ago when Toby Jenkins and Steve Webster found themselves alone in London for the holidays. They stocked up on fine wine and seasonal inebriators and listened to their favourite old Kraftwerk and Harmonia records. At the peak of their intoxicated inspiration they recorded a jam, thinking, “… this sounds fantastic!!” Upon listening to it the next day it was the worst music ever, setting out to correct this offence to digital tape they decided to form a band. A band willing to explore the 'motorik' rhythm and its similarities to the original primal rock 'n' roll beat, posing the questions, what would happen if you were to mix Tangerine Dream with the Cramps? Is there a link between techno and rockabilly?
With such notable former incarnations as The Black Neon (Webster), The Squire Of Somerton (Jenkins) and Fort Lauderdale (both of them), Jenkins and Webster’s musical caliber is obvious from the outset. But some ineffable quality of Higamos Hogamos stands out further yet from this list of divergent talent past – perhaps it’s something in the unholy union of a fetishism for analogue synthesizers and the sexual exuberance of 70’s rock n’ roll, an electronically enhanced blend of swaggering kosmische that somehow naturally fits into the wyrdest end of the English psychedelic tradition.
Displaying such fantastic deviancy as this it is only natural that Higamos Hogamos found their way to DC Recordings, whose long experience as a conduit for musical oddities has proved helpful in birthing their exotic musical spawn. So it is that in 2009, an eponymous album and a series of singles and remixes will be sent out into the cosmos.
Finally, to pre-empt the inevitable question: What’s with the name?: “It’s kind of nonsense really,” says Steve. “A friend of ours told us a story about the philosopher William James from the early 1900s. Supposedly he’d experiment with drugs - nitrous oxide was one of his favourites - to aid his philosophical musings. One night he was sort of ‘out there’ and thought he’d discovered the meaning of life, which he jotted down on a piece of paper. When he woke up in the morning from his stupor, he was really excited as he searched for this paper. He couldn’t remember what he’d written but knew it was very profound. When he found it, it just said: HIGAMOS HOGAMOS”.*
HIGAMOS HOGAMOS
"HIGAMOS HOGAMOS" (DCR99)
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