''Live in London'' is the first live album by American
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. It debuted worldwide on November 22, 2015. It captures their November 22, 2014 show at The Lexington in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
[ Retrieved December 11, 2015.]
The performance was part of a concert hosted by
Helen Love
Helen Love are an indie band from Wales whose music is a combination of punk rock, bubblegum pop and disco dance music. The band was formed in 1992 by Helen Love (vocals, guitar) with Sheena (guitar, keyboards), Roxy (bass, drum machine), an ...
with whom they previously collaborated. It drew from their first three albums including their debut ''
Sol!d Pop'' along with live versions of "Kinky" from their untitled 2004 compilation with S/T (informally called ''Hyperbubble + S/T'',
[Hyperbubble compilation discography](_blank)
/ref> ''s/t hyperbubble split EP'' or ''Minicar'') and their cover of Love's "Better Set Your Phasers to Stun
''Better Set Your Phasers to Stun'' is a 2009 EP by the American synthpop/electropop group Hyperbubble. The recording was in collaboration with the Welsh band Helen Love. Retrieved April 12, 2017 The title tracks cover Love's 2000 song with the ...
" from Hyperbubble's eponymous 2009 EP. The latter song sampled another Love creation, "We Love You". The concert recording included a variation of "Red Delicious Overture" from their ''Candy Apple Daydreams'' album retitled, "Robo Intro".
Orders of the CD obtained through affiliate bandcamp
Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...
included three Hyperbubble buttons.
Critical reception
''Live in London'' is Hyperbubble's first live album, a "highly (sic) quality recording featuring a set that could be regarded as Hyperbubble's greatest hits," according to Chi Ming Lai of The Electricity Club and echoed elsewhere. One critic noted that the live show afforded listeners the opportunity to hear the band "let loose with heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...
more structured songs. The result shows just how talented they are at re-inventing the synthpop wheel." Eleven music magazine further wrote, "the beats are aggressive but not overstated, the basslines bouncy and the synths pulsating beneath (lead vocalist) Jess’ exquisitely catchy vocals."
Generally commenting on their style, The Big Takeover
''The Big Takeover'' is a bi-annual music magazine published out of New York City since May 1980 by critic Jack Rabid.
History Establishment
Jack Rabid and Dave Stein began publishing ''The Big Takeover'' in May 1980 as a fanzine dedicated to N ...
magazine described ''Live in London'' as at "the edges of keyboard minimal, groove, like Danceteria
Danceteria was a nightclub that operated in New York City from 1979 until 1986 and in the Hamptons until 1995. The club operated in various locations over the years, a total of three in New York City and four in the Hamptons. The most famous locati ...
flashbacks filtered through modern noise. It's upbeat and happy, putting electric dreams with twitches of Devo
Devo (, originally ) is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a ...
, Thomas Dolby
Thomas Morgan Robertson (born 14 October 1958), known by the stage name Thomas Dolby, is an English musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher.
Dolby came to prominence in the 1980s, releasing hit singles including "She Blinded Me ...
, and Saturday morning cartoons into your mind."
Track listing
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 ...
, Theremin
The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...
* 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 ...
, 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 ...
s, 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 ...
Production
* Producers – Jess and Jeff DeCuir
* Head Engineer – Jeff DeCuir
* Graphics – Jeff DeCuir
* Cover Photo – Trevor Odd Box
* Photography – Trevor Odd Box, Hyperbubble
* Hyperbubble Tour Button photo – Kent
References
Synth-pop albums by American artists
2015 albums
{{2010s-pop-album-stub