Hellacopters frontman Nick Royale and Tony Slug from Amsterdam's Nitwitz had planned on doing a side-project sometime, since 1996 and record a demo with covers by their all-time favourite group, the - at the time - criminally underdocumented Sonic's Rendezvous Band.
The Hellacopters' relentless touring schedule put these ambitions on hold for several years, but when Slug put Scott Morgan in touch with the 'Copters during their US tour, one thing quickly led to another.

In February 1999, the three got together in Amsterdam joined by Theo Brouwer on the four strings, and rehearsed for the next six days, conjuring up enough material for a full live set and an album, combining Sonic's Rendezvouz Band repertoire with originals.

After three try-out gigs in small Dutch venues the Hydromatics gelled into a tight, solid riffing unit and were ready to record their debut album "Parts Unknown". It's release, on the Swedish White Jazz label, was followed by a month-long European tour together with Zen Guerrilla and the Hellacopters headlining, with Nicke double-tasking two sets every night. Heleft the band shortly after this tour and was replaced by by Detroit powerhouse Andrew Frost before the Hydro's recorded a second album, titled "Powerglide".

Naturally, another extensive and gruelling tour followed. This time the band toured on their own, travelling "uncomfortably numb" sardined in a van for 8 to 10 hours a day, yet rocking the hell out of every dive between Stockholm and Sevilla, and playing several festivals such as Serie-Z (Spain), Barbarella (Sweden) and Roskilde (Denmark).

Two days before a third month long Spartan tour was to start, bassist Theo decided to go AWOL and moved to Spain, making chances of a succesful tour look pretty dim. In the nick of time, monsieur Laurent Ciron of Parisian punque veterans The Dogs came to the rescue, learning the songs while on the train, en voyage to Amsterdam the following day.

Realising they were essentially a band without allies, and that they had achieved their initial goals, namely documenting the Sonics Rendezvous Band repertoire, the group decided to call it a day. Scott and Nicke would continue a fruitful collaboration with their soul music project, the Solution, enjoying considerable (chart) success in Scandinavia. Scott's band back in Detroit, Powertrane, made a name for themselves, with star studded line ups featuring the Stooges' guitarist Ron Asheton, Radio Birdman's Deniz Tek etc. Tony returned to the Nitwitz, who in ever changing line-ups, continued struggling, releasing records and touring all over the European continent despite the most adverse conditions.

Quite a few sweat-soaked Hydromatics shows have unintentionally been recorded on cassette tapes or from the board on DAT over the years. Some of these found their way to a limited edition 10" live mini album on the French Pitshark label.

After a 3 year hiatus, the Hydromatics return with Kent Steedman from Australia's Celibate Rifles on guitar and Ries "rocktopus" Doms on drums to record a third full-length album, "The Earth Is Shaking" for the Dutch Suburban Records label.
It's release was followed by yet another month-long European tour that wouldn't be complete without bassplayer Theo Brouwer cancelling once more one or two days before the band was to get on the road. Former Nitwitz bassplayer Paul Smith came to the rescue filling in on bass for the Earth is shaking tour