Trans-Atlantic venture THE HYDROMATICS purvey back to basics "High energy Rock n' Roll". The group comprises Nicke Royale (a.k.a. Nicke Andersson) of THE HELLACOPTERS and ENTOMBED repute, 'Thumpin' Theo Brouwer of NITWITZ, Tony 'Slug' Leeuwenburgh of NITWITZ, LOVESLUG and BGK and Scott Morgan from the Detroit based SONIC'S RENDEZVOUS. Royale and Slug, a veteran of the Amsterdam Punk scene, had proposed a creative union since the mid 90s. This finally got underway when THE HELLACOPTERS played in Detoit, Michigan for the second time when Royale and Morgan agreed to pursue matters and in February 1999 Royale, Morgan and Slug rehearsed in Amsterdam.

THE HYDROMATICS put in just three Dutch club shows prior to recording the album 'Parts Unknown' for White Jazz, this featuring newly composed songs alongside four SONIC'S RENDEZVOUS re-works and a rendition of MC5's 'Baby Won't Ya'. Promoting 'Parts Unknown', THE HYDROMATICS put in six weeks of touring alongside THE HELLACOPTERS and ZEN GUERILLA. These shows were captured on the 2004 live album 'Fluid Drive', a six track board recording taped in Freiburg, Switzerland.

Upon completion of dates Nicke Royale opted out and was superseded by Andy Frost from Detroit's POWERTRANE. In May 2001, the musicians reconvened in Amsterdam once again to record their second full-length offering, 'Powerglide' featuring no less than seven SONIC'S RENDEZVOUS songs, in Amsterdam for the Italian label Freakshow. Unfortunately, shortly after release Freakshow collapsed, making 'Powerglide' a highly sought after item.