Kris Menace

Christophe Hoeffel began to work as a producer and writer in the mid-1990s for different projects and started using the pseudonym "Kris Menace" in 2005.

Menace's debut single "Discopolis" (in collaboration with his friend Lifelike) was released on Alan Braxe's label Vulture Music in 2005 and was one of the most anticipated house tracks and an Ibiza anthem within the same year. "Discopolis" was later picked up by Defected Records and re-released with various remixes (such as that of Kerri Chandler) and a video directed by Seb Janiak.[1]

Menace later formed his label Compuphonic and continued to release singles under its imprint. In 2006, his track "Jupiter" became one of the most downloaded tracks on the electronic music download platform Beatport.[2] In 2006, Kris also started DJing with Alan Braxe, who was part of "Stardust" with Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk, and together they released the single "Lumberjack".[3] in June 2007 on Vulture Music.[4]

In 2008, he teamed up with the UK band Spooky to release the track "Stereophonic", which became UK's buzz charts #1 spot during the WMC and voted for being one of the hottest records of 2008 for DMC[5] as well as with Felix da Housecat to produce the house anthem "Artificial" or Rex the Dog to produce "POW!".[6]

Kris Menace contributed remixes for Depeche Mode (Mute), Robbie Williams (EMI), LCD Soundsystem (DFA), Röyksopp (EMI), Kylie Minogue (EMI), Underworld (Pias), and many others.[7]

His "Heartbreaker" remix for the band Metronomy became the #1 most popular track on The Hype Machine and therefore the most played track across all blogs in July 2008.[8] His Kylie Minogue remix was featured on Kylie Minogue's Aphrodite special edition album. His remix of LCD Soundsystem's "North American Scum" became part of their album Sound of Silver in different territories like Japan.[9] His remix for Monarchy's "The Phoenix Alive" was used in the FIFA 12 video game soundtrack.[10]

As a DJ, he played all across the world in clubs like Fabriclondon, Razzmatazz Barcelona, Amnesia, Pacha, Space and many other clubs all around Europe, Canada, Japan, Brazil and Australia.[11] In November 2010, Kris did a minimix on Annie Mac's Radio1 show and broke the record of number of used singles with 240 tracks played within five minutes.[12]

From May 2009 to August 2010, Kris Menace had a weekly radio residency at Radio FG in Paris.[13]

Kris Menace released his debut album Idiosyncrasies in May 2009 on three CDs, followed by the singles "Metropolis" and "Idiosyncrasy".[14] The album received an outstanding rating by international press and was re-released as a "Special Edition" in November 2010.[15]

In January 2010, Kris's track "Lightning" was mashed up with The-Dream's "Walkin' on the Moon" by Vancouver DJ/producer U-Tern.[16] Later, UK pop singer Emil resung the samples from "The Dream" and the song became released as "Walking on the Moon". It entered the official US Billboard Charts at #8.[17]

In September 2010, Kris released his Masquerade EP on Steve Angello's SIZE Label, which was followed up by his "Phoenix & Triangle" release in January 2011 as well as "Alpha Omega" with acid house founder DJ Pierre.

Kris is also part of different projects and released under a number of aliases, including Cut Glass (with Maxwell Cooke), Stars on 33 (with Lawrence "LT" Thompson, Love on Laserdisc (with Ludovic Bordas), Jaunt and Black Van (DFA)[18] and owns different record labels like Compuphonic or Work It Baby, where he nurtured artists such as Lifelike, Fred Falke and others.[19]

His disco project, together with New York-based television star Lawrence "LT" Thompson named Stars on 33, released music on Eskimo Recordings as well as a full-length album in 2013 called This Is Love.

The first release of his project Black Van, together with koweSix from Moonbootica, was released on LCD Soundsystem's DFA label and became nominated for the Nu-disco Track of the Year 2009 based on sales.[20] "Black Van"'s follow up single "Moments of Excellence / The Calling (feat. Holy Ghost!)" was released in November 2010 on the label Permanent Vacation and "Inside", which entered the Hypem Charts at #1 on the own label Excellent Music. In 2013, they released the six-track EP The B-Sides. Black Van also remixed for the likes of Oliver (Kitsuné), Aeroplane (Eskimo), Robbie Williams (EMI), The Glass (Plant Music), Paul Weller (Universal) and others.[21]

Kris remixed for Depeche Mode, Bag Raiders and Lana Del Rey and released an album entitled Love on Laserdisc, where he teamed up with Pills ex-member and vocalist Ludovic Bordas, Thomas Azier and Black Hills. Kris is also the co-producer of some Aeroplane remixes like those of Rapture and George Michael.[22] His "Menace" project released its first EP Hz & Tones on Fake Blood's label Blood Music.[23]

In April 2012, he released his new album Electric Horizon, which features live visuals by London based duo Hexstatic.[24] followed by the singles "Falling Star"[25] and "eFeel".[26] One year later, he released a live version of Electric Horizon, recorded in Barcelona, Spain at the legendary Razzmatazz Club.[27]

In November 2012, Kris released his album Features. The first single and video was "Hide", a collaboration with Miss Kittin that received a Vimeo Staff Pick.[28][29] The video for the single "Lone Runner" was presented by MTV.com on 21 December 2012,[30][31] followed by "Trusting Me" in February 2013,[32]

The album includes guest vocals by Julian Hamilton from The Presets, Daft Punk collaborator Romanthony, legendary house music singer Robert Owens, German soul singer Xavier Naidoo, Chelonis R. Jones, Simon Lord, Lawrence "LT" Thompson, Dodgy and others.[33]

On the French/German Art TV Station Arte.tv he gave his first TV Interview.[34]

End of 2012 he released an Album with his long time friend Robin Felder under the Projectname „We Are Are We”. The Song ‚Series‘ was chosen for a worldwide Davidoff Cool Water Night Dive TV Campagne.[35][36]

In November 2013 he released the Album 'The Entirety Of Matter', including 12 Instrumentals and Visuals, concepted together with Boston USA based Graphic Motion Designer Matthew DiVito aka Mr. Div.[37] The Song “The Only Constant is Change” was taken to make the world's first VR Music Video.[38][39]

September 2014 he released the Album “Sun, Moon & Stars” under the project ‚Menace & Lord‘ with MTV Awarded Singer ‚Simon Lord‘ (Ex Simian) from London.[40]

2015 he released some singled with his long time friend „Lifelike“. Die Singles „Ready 4 Love” (Computer Science), „What Time Is Love“ with KLF (Spinnin Records), „Ecstasy“ (Spinnin Records) as well as a Rework Version of their first Single as „Discopolis 2.0“ on Armada Music.[41] [42] [43]

After 5 years, Kris released the Single „Rome“ featuring vocalist Millé on RCA/Famouz/Sony. His Discopolis 2.0 Remix by Mediua reached over 300.000 streams within the first week of its release and charted nr.1 beatport charts.[44]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kris Menace.

• Official website
• Kris Menace on Soundcloud