''Drastic Cinematic'' is an LP by the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...

band

Hyperbubble Hyperbubble is an international visual and performing arts electropop/synth-pop duo from San Antonio, Texas, formed by Jeff DeCuir and Jess Barnett DeCuir. The music of this American group is variously described as "early Eurythmics meets Josie and ...

from German label Pure Pop For Now People. Guest vocals on the title track were provided by Aidan Casserly of Empire State Human, with whom the band would later work on the single, " Aidan Casserly Vs. Hyperbubble". The song "Geometry" included vocals by

Manda Rin Manda Rin (real name Amanda MacKinnon, born 22 March 1977) is a Scottish singer, artist and songwriter. She is the singer and keyboard player of the Scottish indie rock band Bis, later fronted the Kitchen and also released a solo album. She al ...

of the Scottish bands Bis and

Data Panik Data Panik (stylized as data Panik) were a Scottish rock band—Steven Clark (Sci-fi Steven), John Clark (John Disco), Amanda MacKinnon (Manda Rin) (all formerly of bis at the time), Stuart Memo (of Multiplies) and Graham Christie (ex Ken ...

as well as sampled sounds from her cat, Akiko. The song was later reprised in a second collaboration with the singer on the EP ''

Hyperbubble + Manda Rin Hyperbubble is an international visual art, visual and performing arts electropop/synth-pop duo from San Antonio, Texas, formed by Jeff DeCuir and Jess Barnett DeCuir. The music of this United States, American group is variously described as "early ...

''.

Release history

The album was released twice. It debuted in Europe and North America on April 2, 2011 as an edition of 100 copies with handmade covers. A CD/

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

reissue In the music industry, a reissue (also re-release, repackage or re-edition) is the release of an album or Single (music), single which has been released at least once before, sometimes with alterations or additions. Reasons for reissue New aud ...

of this limited edition vinyl album, ''Drastic Cinematic – Director's Cut'', debuted on July 1, 2011 through Bubblegum. The reissue shared the same front cover and added three remixes by I European, Haberdashery and Mark Towns, who previously worked on ''

Hits! The Very Best of Erasure ''Hits! The Very Best of Erasure'' is the second greatest hits album by English synth-pop duo Erasure, released on 20 October 2003 by Mute Records. Capitalising on a resurgence of Erasure's music after their successful covers album ''Other P ...

''. The album included "Welcome To Infinity Pt. 1" and "Pt. 2". An earlier upbeat and poppy version " Welcome to Infinity (Singles Only Mix)" was released earlier in the year as a single by UK Bubblegum Records. The "B" side included the reissue's less frenetic I European mix. The original track was later added to the band's 2017 compilation album, ''Pretty Plastic'' with a slight parenthetical change to the title – "(Singles Club Mix)". The group released a music video for the single "Explosive" on Mar 21, 2013. The video directed by Hyperbubble member Jeff DeCuir was shot on location at Portmeiron in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

as an homage to the TV series, ''

The Prisoner ''The Prisoner'' is a 1967 British television series about an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village, where his captors designate him as Number Six and try to find out why he abruptl ...

''. The first track on the album, "Vox Noir", was used in the soundtrack for a 2012 stop-motion film by Sabra Booth.

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 'sic''.html" ;"title="sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''film" – the French director to whom the CD version is dedicated. A reviewer for ReGen magazine described the music as "evocative of ever changing tensions in its fictional narrative backbone... [that] unlike classic electronic acts occupied with film scores like Tangerine Dream, ...is not constrained by the necessity to remain committed to one mood or a singular theme." The compositions included cameo vocals "with distinctive accents ... to add foreign intrigue," "little dialogues in English, French and German" and even the

Wilhelm scream The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect that has been used in a number of films and TV series, beginning in 1951 with the film ''Distant Drums''. The scream is usually used when someone is shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from a ...

. 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," Retrieved April 12, 2017. though still a continuation of "Hyperbubble's commitment to retro," such as in "Geometry" – "an old school synth track that's very catchy." Peek-a-boo Music Magazine noted that the vocals "in combination with the drums and synthmelodies give ... a

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

-feeling." The three bonus tracks provided 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 DeCuir

Personnel

Musicians

* Jess DeCuir –

Lead Vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

Keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, Electronic Drum Pads * Jeff DeCuir –

Backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

Sequencer Sequencer may refer to: Technology * Drum sequencer (controller), an electromechanical system for controlling a sequence of events automatically * DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sam ...

Synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

Vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

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 The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

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 Memo * Design – Jeff DeCuir * Photography – Joe Wallace

References

{{Authority control Synth-pop albums by American artists 2011 albums