Cat No ZZZCD0012

Tip Top Dynamo is the debut album from the Danish multi instrumentalist Hess Is More aka Mikkel Hess. This debut is a personal piece that fuses with ease various styles of music but never loses it’s magic. With Tip Top Dynamo, Hess Is More has created a soundtrack, a cinematic experience, and a trip into the unexpected musical landscape of this talented Danish composer. All 10 tracks are put together with fantasy and a cleverness seldom seen. The use of weird, funny and sometimes home made instruments speaks for itself. Hess Is More’s love for music and to play around shows in his arrangements where he brings out the most innocent and beautiful melodies you can imagine.Parts of the album were originally written and used for the play “Wind in the willows”, at The Royal Danish Theater. Mikkel Hess performed the music live on the prestigious old stage, and a limited soundtrack was sold from the website, a couple of local shops here in Copenhagen, Büro Discount in Switzerland and Rough Trade in London.

Now a year later, a new version of the album sees a full worldwide release with 4 brand new songs added to the list including the Chris Coco hyped title track and the very sophisticated and beautiful “Walksong” song by Brazilian songstress Eduarda Fardini. This song was recorded during Hess’s two-month stay in Brazil in the beginning of 2002. The beat is constructed by sounds from the streets of Rio de Janeiro, and the lyrics ask us to pay attention to the magic around. “Walksong” is also featured on the Music For Dreams compilation Lufkastellet 2.

After Brazil Mikkel moved on to New York where he thanks to Ben Perowski (Lounge Lizards) was introduced to legendary vocalist Dean Bowman. Hess presented a track, put together by sounds from his Brazilian refrigerator, and a story about a man who climbs in to a fridge and gets stuck there. Bowman totally locked in, and did his amazing vocal performance for “In the fridge” in one go, drawing on his experience from gospel and spiritual music. Hess was overwhelmed, almost in tears: “Dean! That was mind blowing!!” Bowman replied in his cool Harlem style: “Yeah, I’m the one-take kind of guy”