Hipodil

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Hipodil

Background information
Genre(s) rock
Years active 1988-
Members
Nikola Kavaldjiev, Nikolay Savov, Miroslav Tellalov, Petar Todorov, Svetoslav Vitkov

Hipodil (bg: Хиподил) is a Bulgarian rock band, founded 1988 in Sofia by four classmates from the Mathematics High School in Sofia. The main music style played by the band is punk, but there are many ska, hard rock and heavy metal elements in their music, too. And also, but really rare, folk motives. All this complemented with some jazz touches, mainly in the first two albums. The band's lyrics are aggressive, a little bit vulgar and sarcastic, but always with a good sense of humor. Because of that Hipodil are known as a "scandalous and rebellious" band. Their main goal is to entertain the listener and themselves; most of the lyrics concern topics such as alcohol, sex, women; they frequently ridicule famous Bulgarian and non-Bulgarian people (and sometimes songs). Nevertheless, the band has some pretty serious tracks with complex and socially-oriented lyrics. All the lyrics are in Bulgarian and are written by vocalist Svetoslav Vitkov (Svetlyo). Most of the music is composed by guitarist Petar Todorov (Pesho). In a great number of songs, guest musicians take part, adding mainly to the brass section.

Contents

[edit] History

The four classmates from the Sofia's Mathematics High School Nikola Kavaldjiev, Miroslav Tellalov, Nikolay Savov and Petar Todorov formed in 1988 a punk band which played from the very beginning only self-written songs sung in Bulgarian. The first public performance of the band was in the Sofia's Summer Theatre with the song "Zidaromazachi" (Wallplasterers), a parody of the ruling communist regime at that time, which got them into trouble with the government.

After a couple of line-up changes, Hipodil - having recruited the new vocalist Svetoslav Vitkov - recorded in 1992 the songs "Bira s vodka"(Beer with Vodka), "Bira" (Beer), "Chift ochi" (A Pair of Eyes), "Himna"(The Anthem), "Jenata"(The Woman) and "Klitoren orgasm"(Clitoral Orgasm). Next year the band released their first studio album called Alkoholen delirium(Alcoholic Delirium). They made immediately a national tour, with all the costs taken by the band. The tour was quite successful, but in a concert in the town of Varna, after massive disorders and clashes between the audience and the police, all group members and some of the audience were arrested. So, at the very beginning of the band's career, Hipodil received their "scandal aura".

In the next album, recorded and released in 1994, there is a song about the incident in Varna - "Hipodili". This song became some kind of an anthem of Hipodil. The sound in the album is harder than the previous one, and the lyrics are darker and rebellious, all an idea of vocalist Vitkov, influenced by metal music and the band Slayer - one of his all-time favourites.

The third album, released 1996, experiments with other styles, mostly ska. There are some very serious and complex lyrics in the record, e.g. in the tracks "Drashtya s nokti" (I Scratch with my Nails), "Kato slantze" (Like a Sun) and "Sprete ni toka" (Shut Down our Electricity). The rest is the well-known funny-cum-vulgar party stuff and mockery with the simplicist lyrics of the chalga music. The final track "Nova gratska pesen" (New Town Song) is an interesting mix between tango rhythm and heavy guitars.

The fourth album of Hipodil is probably the most scandalous one in the history of Bulgarian showbusiness. The Bulgarian Ministry of Culture disallowed any release of the album in CD format and got the band under trial for pornography because of the explicit lyrics. Despite that the pilot song "Bate Goyko" became the greatest commercial success of the band ever. Furthermore, it was the first song of Hipodil entering the radio charts and receiving a video clip. The first ever instrumental track of Hipodil is also on this record, just like one of the best ballads of the band - "Otnesen!" (Scatter-Brained) and a dose of the traditional mockeries with famous people.

In the end of 1999 the vocalist Svetoslav Vitkov went to the USA to work, but despite that the other band members decided to start recording new material, inviting several singers from other Bulgarian bands, who replaced Vitkov on the vocals. The new album, called Hora ot naroda (People of the Folk), appeared on the Bulgarian music market in the year 2000. The music style is similar to the previous works of Hipodil, but a little bit more soft-sounding and mainly ska-influenced. Not so typical for the band is also the often usage of keyboards. Vitkov appears as a lead singer only in two of the songs - "Partizani" (Partisans) and "Drugo nyama" (There's Nothing Else), and as a backing vocalist in the track "Choveche" (Dude).

[edit] Trivia

  • The band's name is a pun. It is a mix between hippopotamus and crocodile (in Bulgarian: HIPOpotam and KrokoDIL / ХИПОпотам - крокоДИЛ). Vocalist Vitkov explained once in a TV-show (probably joking or maybe not) that the hippopotamus and the crocodile are actually two male exemplars, who got stuck together while mating.
  • The vocalist Svetoslav Vitkov has a released book, containing all the lyrics of Hipodil's songs (written by himself), as well as many self-written poems, thoughts and revelations.

[edit] Discography

[edit] External links

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