Hybrid

Hybrid is Mike Truman and Chris Healings from Swansea, South Wales. They are the accomplished architects of house and progressive breakbeat who ventured further beyond the ecstatic knee-jerk response of the dancefloor by fusing their beats with powerful orchestral and cinematic soundscapes. Hybrid formed back in 1993 after bonding over Truman's remix of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall." Their debut LP, Wide Angle (released 1999) and its sister release Wider Angle (remixes and live recordings of Japan tour) sold a total of 100,000 copies worldwide. This lead to Mike and Chris DJing and performing live in the UK, Asia, Australia and USA.

The deep lush strings of Wide Angle were recorded in Russia courtesy of the 90-piece Moscow Federal Orchestra. The album's emotional hit was both subtle and timeless. "We like making music that will last," explains Healings. "Music that isn't disposable. We want people to listen to it over and over again in the future." "Music you can play before you go out and listen to when you chill out," continues Truman.

Hybrid opened this decade with "Kid 2000" featuring the sensuous vocals of The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde. "When you hear very formulated European house music the emotional content is almost nil," explains Truman. "You know exactly where it’s going, you can even tell where the samples are from. There's nothing in it to make you happy or melancholic. We aim to instill a strong emotional content into our music."

Back in 2003, their second LP, Morning Sci-Fi, is the next ingenious step forward. The task of crafting new influences around their ever-mutating breakbeats has been a lengthy progression. "We've been listening to absolutely anything other than dance music,” explains Healings. “I suppose that is because dance music is so ingrained into what we do naturally. We've been listening to stuff like The Doves, Aqualung, Radiohead, Soulwax, lots of jangly indie guitar bands and classical music, particularly the work of Arvo Part and Alexander Gretchaninov."

The live guitars and some of the bass sections were courtesy of Adam Taylor; Richard Thair (Redsnapper) supplied the drums for "Marrakech" and "I'm Still Awake"; John Creamer opens the album with a spoken word intro exploring the nature of his dreams. All the strings were recorded last December in St Petersburg courtesy of the world-class Hermitage Orchestra. Yet one of the album’s strangest collaborations came about after Hybrid's manager met New Order's Peter Hook in Manchester last July where they both ranted about the merit of a good bass line in a dance track. "Non of these bloody dance remixers ever use my bass lines," argued Hook. "I put in all this time and effort and they use Bernard’s vocals but they don't bloody use my bass."

The following week Hybrid sent over a couple of tracks and Hook rang back and agreed to play his "bloody bass" on "True To Form" and "Higher Than A Skyscraper." Thus the album was complete. Now Hybrid's resounding second LP is raising the next nagging question: Is the third album ready yet? Hybrid has also remixed over 40 artists including Radiohead, Alanis Morissette, Future Sound Of London and Moby.

Hybrid is a trio of remixers based in the Welsh city of Swansea: Mike Truman, Chris Healings, and Lee Mullin. Meeting while going to clubs in the early '90s, the three made their own remixes of recordings, eventually earning assignments from record companies to pursue their hobby professionally. Finally, they were signed to Distinct'ive Records and embarked on making an ambitious first album, Wide Angle, in Moscow, using such talents as singer Julee Cruise and the 90-piece Russian Federal Orchestra. "Finished Symphony," which reached the U.K. singles charts in July 1999, featured the orchestra. It was followed into the charts in September by "If I Survive," featuring Cruise on vocals, and by Wide Angle itself. Picked up for release in the U.S. by Kinetic (distributed by Reprise, a division of major label Warner Records), Wide Angle was reconfigured for its American appearance in September 2000. The group then served as the opening act on Moby's U.S. tour that same fall. A host of full-length material followed during the next three years, including two volumes of the compilation series Remix and Additional Production By as well as the mix album Y4K. The proper studio follow-up to Wide Angle, Morning Sci-Fi, followed in 2003. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide