Hype Williams is probably the London-based duo with Inga Copeland and Roy Blunt. Or they might be Karen Glass and Roy Nnawuchi. However, it’s not impossible that Hype Williams consists of a larger collective. In any case they are right now one of Europe’s most interesting bands on the hip scene made up of smeary hiphop, g-funk, woolly postpunk, cheezy syntpop and cosmic dub that, in lack of better, goes by the name of hypnagogic pop.
Hypnagogy is a psychological state of mind between wakefulness and sleep. Yet the music of Hype Williams is too sharp to blend into the background. Even if beats and melodies often seem to fall apart, there is a clear intention for how old and new melts together.
It’s like Hype Williams cooks a bizarre, low-budget soup with elements of Ariel Pink, Aphex Twin, Drake, Sade, Don Cherry, Throbbing Gristle, 23 Skidoo, LTJ Bukem… Or pick five other names. Or labels. Or epochs. Or films. Hype Williams will still be more, less, gorgeous, airy, free, weird than the sum of the parts. A hazy experience you don’t want to miss.