Bunnyhug

Josh and Joe conform one of the most exciting duos of the moment; they combine home electronics with timeless pop without any kind of prejudices; risky and turbulent techno-pop, their lyrics talks about television, youth, personal relationships and a forthcoming grey future... They are influenced by electro and eighties techno-pop, with a look that resembles late-seventies punk and after punk outfits, they are an impossible mixture of JOY DIVISION, KRAFTWERK and THE HUMAN LEAGUE. BUNNYHUG can sound pop and icy at the same time.
 

They meet at Chicago University in 1998 while attending a music composition class. Josh had previously studied percussion and Joe had done bass. Both had played in punk bands during their high-school years. Bored with the composition classes and their university tasks, they decide to form a band.
 

Songs are primarily worked out live; once the song is clearly defined they come into the studio. The recording takes place at home, with a computer and many analogic synthezisers, plus several weird noise-making appliances used to create a dislocated, noisy rhythmic mood. Joe and Josh share a penchant for beatboxes and synthezisers. When Joe was at high-school he had an old Korg Ms-10 he used to play and write songs with. Josh always brings his beatbox to the toilet, puts his headphones on and builds up song patterns; a pretty curious way to write songs that works perfectly with him.
 

Their first record is out in 2000: a seven inch vinyl with two songs ("Kittie Porn" and "Harmonicon") under the name of DJ HAMSTER AND BUNNYHUG. The single is released by Fevrier Records, a small Canadian label set in Toronto. They play live several times and record new songs that are sent to different labels. On early 2002 they first contact Elefant Records, which plans to release a single with the four songs in the demo tape sent by the band; at the time the band is involved in the process of composing new songs, in which vocals play a more prevailing role and the music gets enriched by some of the band‚s closest influences: KRAFTWERK, IF, NEW ORDER, FAD GADGET... There‚s enough material to make a complete album so the initial idea of the single is laid back. "Like kissing an ashtray" is ready and the production process begins!
 

Notorious Mute Records label (DEPECHE MODE, DAF, ADD N TO (X), CAVARET VOLTAIRE, FAD GADGET, MOBY, NITZER EBB, YAZOO...) gets interested in BUNNYHUG and offers to take part in "Pre-set, new electronic music", a compilation that selects the best demos received by Mute in the last months. On February 3, 2003, the compilation is out, including "Napalm girl" plus eleven more tracks by DISPLACER, BUOY, CURSOR MINER, JODY K.,JENKINS, T.E.M.P, NIMP among others; a sound adventure BUNNYHUG are really pleased to join.
 

Now, here‚s their debut album, "Like kissing an ashtray"; full of sensations and encounters with the best Electro Funk (HASHIM, CYBOTRON, NEWCLEUS, JOZUN CREW...), eighties techno pop (O.M.D., THE HUMAN LEAGUE, DEPECHE MODE, VISAGE, NEW ORDER...), the cold aesthetics of German music (KRAFTWERK, D.A.F., RHEINGOLD, GRAUZONE...) and many other current names (I.F., FISCHERSPOONER, G.D. LUXXE, ARTIST UNKNOWN, LADYTRON...) that share with them a passion for the essence of the first steps of electronic-tinged pop and the darkest, most experimental after-punk.