Drastic Cinematic
Encyclopedia
Drastic Cinematic is an LP
by the American
synthpop
/electro pop band Hyperbubble
from German label Pure Pop For Now People. It debuted in Europe and North America on April 2, 2011 as a limited edition of 100 copies with handmade covers. The album includes Welcome To Infinity, released earlier in the year as a single by UK Bubblegum Records. Guest vocals are provided by Aidan Casserly of Empire State Human for the title track. The song "Geometry" includes vocals by Manda Rin of the Scottish bands Bis
and Data Panik
as well as sampled sounds from her cat, Akiko.
A CD/MP3
reissue of this limited edition vinyl album, Drastic Cinematic – Director's Cut, debuted on July 1, 2011 through Bubblegum. The reissue shares the same front cover and adds three remixes by I European, Haberdashery and Mark Towns, who previously worked on Hits! The Very Best of Erasure.
) film" – the French director to whom the CD version is dedicated. Accordingly, the music includes cameo vocals "with distinctive accents… to add foreign intrigue," including "little dialogues in English, French and German." Hyperbubble utilizes "their slick melodies as themes instead of verses or choruses, per se, and lets listeners fill in the gaps."
The album constituted a change from the band's usual cartoon bubblepunk to more dark and atmospheric moods or "black and white audio noir." Peek-a-boo music magazine noted that the vocals "in combination with the drums and synthmelodies give… a Kraftwerk
-feeling." The three bonus tracks provide more conventional synthpop.
babysue called it "a non-stop fun experience from start to finish. Totally cool upbeat modern pop tunes presented with gutsy imagination and plenty of style."
LP record
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
by the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
/electro pop band Hyperbubble
Hyperbubble
Hyperbubble is an international visual and performing arts electro pop/synthpop duo from San Antonio, Texas formed by Jeff DeCuir and Jess Barnett DeCuir...
from German label Pure Pop For Now People. It debuted in Europe and North America on April 2, 2011 as a limited edition of 100 copies with handmade covers. The album includes Welcome To Infinity, released earlier in the year as a single by UK Bubblegum Records. Guest vocals are provided by Aidan Casserly of Empire State Human for the title track. The song "Geometry" includes vocals by Manda Rin of the Scottish bands Bis
Bis (band)
Bis are a Scottish indie pop band composed of Steven Clark , John Clark , and Amanda MacKinnon . Formed in 1994, the band broke up in 2003, but reformed briefly in 2007 for a series of concerts.-History:...
and Data Panik
Data Panik
Data Panik were a Scottish rock band—Steven Clark , John Clark , Amanda MacKinnon , Stuart Memo and Graham Christie ....
as well as sampled sounds from her cat, Akiko.
A CD/MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
reissue of this limited edition vinyl album, Drastic Cinematic – Director's Cut, debuted on July 1, 2011 through Bubblegum. The reissue shares the same front cover and adds three remixes by I European, Haberdashery and Mark Towns, who previously worked on Hits! The Very Best of Erasure.
Critical reception
With Drastic Cinematic, Hyperbubble produced what was variously dubbed a tribute to soundtrack composers of the '70s and '80s, "a film-noir/futuristic soundtrack," and "a soundtrack for an imaginary Jean-Luc Goddard (sicSic
Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
) film" – the French director to whom the CD version is dedicated. Accordingly, the music includes cameo vocals "with distinctive accents… to add foreign intrigue," including "little dialogues in English, French and German." Hyperbubble utilizes "their slick melodies as themes instead of verses or choruses, per se, and lets listeners fill in the gaps."
The album constituted a change from the band's usual cartoon bubblepunk to more dark and atmospheric moods or "black and white audio noir." Peek-a-boo music magazine noted that the vocals "in combination with the drums and synthmelodies give… a Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
-feeling." The three bonus tracks provide more conventional synthpop.
babysue called it "a non-stop fun experience from start to finish. Totally cool upbeat modern pop tunes presented with gutsy imagination and plenty of style."
Track listing
All songs written by Jess and Jeff DeCuirMusicians
- Jess DeCuir – Lead Vocals, KeyboardsElectronic keyboardAn electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
, Electronic Drum PadsElectronic drumAn electronic drum is an electronic synthesizer which mimics an acoustic drum kit.The electronic drum usually consists of a set of pads mounted on a stand in a disposition similar to an acoustic drum kit. The pads are discs with a rubber or cloth-like coating. Each pad has a sensor which generates... - Jeff DeCuir – Backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
, SequencerMusic sequencerThe music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
, SynthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s, VocoderVocoderA vocoder is an analysis/synthesis system, mostly used for speech. In the encoder, the input is passed through a multiband filter, each band is passed through an envelope follower, and the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated to the decoder...
Additional personnel
- Akiko – Sampled voice
- Aidan Casserly – Vocals
- Gavin DeCuir – Synthesizer
- Joachim Gaertner – Spoken vocals
- Manda Rin – Vocals
- Beatrice Rougier – Spoken vocals
- Armand Rougier – Spoken vocals
- Bryan Stanchak – Spoken vocals
- Joli Stokes – French Horn
Production
- Producers – Jess and Jeff DeCuir
- Head Engineer – Jeff DeCuir
- Engineer for Aidan Casserly vocals, Side 1, Track 3 – Aidan Casserly
- Engineer for Beatrice Rougier and Armand Rougier vocals, Side 1, Track 3 and Side 2, Track 5 – Armand Rougier
- Engineer for Joachim Gaertner vocals, Side 2, Track 3 – Joachim Gaertner
- Engineer for Manda Rin and Akiko vocals, Side 1, Track 5 – Stuart MemoData PanikData Panik were a Scottish rock band—Steven Clark , John Clark , Amanda MacKinnon , Stuart Memo and Graham Christie ....
- Design – Jeff DeCuir
- Photography – Joe Wallace