Vitesse

The synth-pop duo Vitesse united keyboardists Hewson Chen and Josh Klein, the latter a onetime drummer for Toulouse who also served as a staff writer at the cult-favorite weekly The Onion. Their first joint effort occurred in 1997 when the pair composed a piece for an Intro to Music Composition class at the University of Chicago. Recording as Vitesse, they completed their debut LP A Certain Hostility in roughly 36 hours during late 1998 and issued it on Hidden Agenda the next spring. Hidden Agenda followed with the lush, morose Chelsea 27099 one year later. What Can Not Be, But Is... came next, a full-length compilation of leftover tracks and covers that the band jokingly calls a "surprisingly long EP." In fall 2002 the poppy You Win Again Gravity appeared, an impressive record that recalled the vintage sounds of OMD and New Order.