Thee Hyphen – Re.Sound (Album – BOREDOMproduct)
Genre/Influences: Electro-Pop, Experimental-Pop.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: After having re-released Thee Hyphen’s debut album “Incidental Tools Of Confusion”, we now get the second album. “Re.Sound” was originally released in 1996. Twenty five years later, the French project driven by ‘Member U-0176’ is back on track. The ten original songs have been cleaned up while there’s an extra bonus track featured.
Content: “RE.Sound” moves on where the debut album stopped. It remains a very minimal experience in Electro-Pop; sometimes reminding me of Depeche Mode, but without the melodies. Several songs are clearly revealing the later sound of Celluloide –and that’s not a coincidence as Member U-0176 went on with Celluloide. The vocals remain sweet, sometimes even fragile. And just as for the re-release of “Incidental Tools Of Confusion”, we get a remix of one song as a bonus cut.
+ + + : It’s amazing to see how contemporary and refreshing this work sounds today. The Depeche Mode influence is present, but Thee Hyphen sounds as an Experimental exposure of Electro-Pop. The magic of analogue sound treatments resulting in multiple effects and sweeps has something very personal. It’s not exactly ‘happy’ Electro-Pop, but definitely a sound from another dimension. There are several cool songs featured, but the more dancefloor driven remix of “Mind.Polluted” is absolutely cool.
– – – : Electro-Pop without explicit melody lines sounds maybe as Hard-Rock without a guitar solo… and that’s maybe one or the reasons this band remained rather unknown.
Conclusion: I rediscover Thee Hyphen and their sound has an even greater impact on me today than when it was originally released.
Best songs: “Mind.Polluted Remix”, “Veiled.Words”, “Pink”, “Leaves.Me.In.The.Cold”, “Drink.In.Your.Mouth”.
Rate: 7½.
Artist: www.theehyphen.online.fr / www.facebook.com/theehyphen
Label: www.boredomproduct.online.fr / www.facebook.com/boredomproduct Read the news on ‘Re.Sound’.
About Thee Hyphen
Thee Hyphen is the solo project of the French electronic musician known as Member U-0176, who also plays keyboards in the synthpop band Celluloide. The project works with minimal analogue electronics and releases through the French label BOREDOMproduct.
Thee Hyphen emerged in the mid-1990s with “Incidental Tools Of Confusion” in 1994 and “Re.Sound” in 1996, followed by “Organique” in 1998 and “Consolidated Green” in 2004. The catalogue then went out of circulation for years.
BOREDOMproduct began reissuing the back catalogue in 2021 with remastered CD editions of “Incidental Tools Of Confusion” and the album reviewed here. The reissue programme continued with a remastered digipak CD of “Organique” in May 2025, carrying four bonus tracks recorded during abandoned 2002 sessions, and a five-track EP titled “Digital” in January 2025.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
