Bubblegum Records is pleased to announce the release of the fourth Hyperbubble album, Drastic Cinematic. While Hyperbubble's previous album, Candy Apple Daydreams, was a Technicolor cartoon triple -layer wedding cake with 16 tons of frosting and a cherry on top, Drastic Cinematic is exactly the opposite: A stripped down soundtrack of black & white audio noir. This is Hyperbubble's very un-ambient Music For Films. Jess (lead vocals, synthesizers and electronic drums) and Jeff ( synthesizers, sequencers and vocals) dedicated the album to the films of Jean-Luc Godard, and pay musical homage to some of their favorite synth-driven soundtracks by Giorgio Moroder, Issac Hayes, Goblin, Ennio Morricone, Wendy Carlos, Jerry Goldsmith, Queen, Barry de Vorzon, and, of course, Tangerine Dream. To jump start your imagination, each track begins with sound effects and dialogue by voice actors from the groups Crevice (US), S/T (Germany), Echo, and Minimal (France). Hyperbubble have cast themselves in the starring roles: Imagine if Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo were the stars of Alphaville. Guests singers include Ireland's Aidan Casserly (known for his work with Empire State Human and Kraftwerk's Wolfgang Flür) and Manda Rin, member of the Scottish pop group Bis, and singer of The Powerpuff Girls Theme. The Pure Pop For Now People label's limited edition vinyl-only release featured 10 songs. This Bubblegum Records CD and MP3 Directors Cut adds a remix of "Geometry" by Haberdashery and two remixes of " Welcome to Infinity", one by I European, and one by Mark Towns, who previously worked on The Very Best of Erasure. The album's first single " Welcome to Infinity", was released January, 2011 to unanimously rave reviews, and promised a bold new direction for Hyperbubble. With the release of this new album, Jess and Jeff have made good on that promise, leaving their cartoon world behind, embracing the dark side of the bubble, and forging the future of music, while at the same time celebrating the cinematic past. Welcome to infinity, indeed. REVIEWS OF DRASTIC CINEMATIC: More wonderfully straightforward danceable pop from the Texas-based band Hyperbubble. This band is the duo comprised of Jess Decuir and Jeff Decuir along with various friends and guest artists lending helping hands. Drastic Cinematic is the duo's tribute to some of their favorite soundtracks created by artists like Giorgio Moroder, Goblin, Ennio Morricone, Wendy Carlos, Jerry Goldsmith, Queen, Barry de Vorzon, and Tangerine Dream. The Decuirs have a sound that incorporates lots of vintage analog synthesizers and sounds from early techno/dance bands from the 1980s. Like the band's last album, this disc is a non-stop fun experience from start to finish. Totally cool upbeat modern pop tunes presented with gutsy imagination and plenty of style. Groovy cuts include "Midnight Cruiser," "Geometry," "Blame It On The Bot," and "Welcome To Infinity Pts 1 & 2." Totally cool vibes here. TOP PICK. 5/5 Stars. LMNOP * dONW7 - BABY SUE MAGAZINE Husband-wife duo Hyperbubble's latest CD is Drastic Cinematic. If ‘70s rockers Mountain could record a “Theme from an Imaginary Western,” there’s no reason San Antonio synth-pop duo Hyperbubble can’t record a soundtrack for an imaginary Jean-Luc Goddard film. On “Drastic Cinematic,” a 13-song disk dedicated to the French-Swiss filmmaker, Hyperbubble trade in their cartoony, retro-futurist bubblegum pop for a moodier, darker, and…well, cinematic… feel. But don’t expect gloomy ambient soundscapes here. This is still a catchy – though largely instrumental – pop record where the band pays homage to the soundtrack works of Giorgio Moroder, Issac Hayes, Wendy Carlos, Queen and Tangerine Dream. The simple melodies and repetitive, catchy choruses also evoke Kraftwerk on several songs... Hyperbubble keeps vocals to a minimum here, preferring to limit them to repetitions of song titles during choruses, as in the Gary Numanesque “Geometry,” where Jess (lead vocals, synthesizers and electronic drums) trades off with Jeff (synthesizers, sequencers and vocals), his voice robotically altered by a Vocoder. Elsewhere, as in “Quiet on the Set” and the title track, breathy sighs, whispers and laughter weave in and out of the mix like instrumental tracks. The duo also drops bits of spoken dialogue into song intros, several provided by francophone collaborators (remember the Goddard thing?). At the opening of the second tune, “Midnight Cruiser,” a man and woman speak over the sound of pouring rain. “Do you have it?” he asks, to which she replies, “Shhh. Get in the car.” It’s a perfect reminder that the ensuing music is meant to accompany something fascinating and mysterious onscreen – perhaps a sequel to Goddard’s science fiction-meets-film noir “Alphaville.” Things get their most soundtracky on “Infinity, Pts. 1 and 2,” where the track’s bubbly first half welcomes the listener to infinity amid analog bleeps, bloops and ascending scales. The longer second half moves through a dark, dirgy introduction before a fanfare of French horns drop in and it concludes with a burbling Tangerine Dream-ish sythensizer figure and a voiceover (in French, of course). Hyperbubble has already proven it can churn out bouncy, lyrically clever synth-pop with the best. So it’s a kick to see the duo further expand its sonic palette while keeping the same cheeky retro sensibilities that made their earlier disks so refreshing. “Drastic Cinematic” is a welcome addition to Hyperbubble’s already solid catalogue — and a worthy tribute to the filmmaker who inspired it. Sanford Allen - MISSIONS UNKNOWN Dedicated to the films of Jean Luc-Goddard, HYPERBUBBLE have forsaken their cartoon bubblepunk as exemplified by their last album Candy Apple Daydreams, and recruited a number of willing collaborators including Aidan Cassidy of EMPIRE STATE HUMAN and Manda Rin from BIS with her cat Akiko for a journey into the darker side of the Moog. Saying that though, this isn’t witch house or industrial goth; Drastic Cinematic is still very much HYPERBUBBLE. With no conventional lead vocals as such, Jess and Jeff Decuir have paid homage to the electronically derived soundtracks of GIORGIO MORODER, WENDY CARLOS, ENNIO MORRICONE, JERRY GOLDSMITH and TANGERINE DREAM to accompany their own widescreen filmic adaptation of The Avengers; Jess as electro’s answer to Emma Peel and Jeff playing John Steed as an eccentric synthmeister. The album does what is says on the tin and is a largely instrumental based celebration of monochromatic audio noir using synths, snippets of dialogue and the odd French horn. Starting moodily with the Middle-Eastern textured Vox Noir, the ambience is disrupted by the pulsing spy drama of Midnight Cruiser. The title track features drones of different timbres to a seemingly random beat before the ambient interlude Rue Des Dames. Geometry is perhaps what one would expect as more typical of HYPERBUBBLE’s sound, very pop with Manda Rin paraphrasing a singular “Geometry” as a vocal point. Blame It On The Bot is characteristically retro-futuristic Sci-Fi before the more JOHN CARPENTER influenced Explosive which could easily be a collaboration with ORBITAL. As Quiet On The Set creepily stutters and claps, the Part 1 album take of Welcome to Infinity is Vince Clarke-styled sequenced magic which then breaks down into Part 2, bookending the esoteric section of Drastic Cinematic with some more textured ambience. After the abstract first half hour, the three bonus tracks are more conventionally synthpop with remixes by I EUROPEAN, HABERDASHERY and MARKYMIX. As with HYBERBUBBLE’s other albums, the collection is short but sweet. However, this departure explores other synthetic depths and can be enjoyed at all levels. - ChiMing Lai - THE ELECTRICITY CLUB Unlike their last album, which was techno- colorful and infiltrated by cartoons and playfulness, Jess (lead vocals, synthesizers and electronic drums) and Jeff (Synthesizers, sequencers and vocals) have created a a high contrast, bold black and white album paying tribute to their favorite synth-driven soundtracks honoring artists like Giorgio Moroder, Issac Hayes, Wendy Carlos, Queen and Tangerine Dream. The 13-track album is full of imaginative intros and dialogue from voice actors in groups like Crevice, S/T, Echo and Minimal. The album opens with an intro called “Vox Noir”. This track is characterized by slowly increasing layers of echoing, ghostly verses. The droning vocals and eerie tone in this piece will have listeners feeling small, all alone and surrounded by infinite darkness. The intro transitions into a piece called "Midnight Cruiser", where the first dialogue is introduced: Man: “Do you have it?” Woman: “Shhh. Someone’s Listening. Get in the car” This track embodies paranoia. It has a running, steady beat full of adrenaline as the two characters begin to escape, nervously cruising in the dark. Bursts of jerking electronic sound effects contribute to the paranoid constantly- checking–behind-your-back vibe this song creates and listeners, who will begin to feel paranoid themselves, will appreciate Hyperbubble’s ability to paint a vivid picture through music. “Explosive” opens with the dialogue: Man: “Freeze” (car screeches) Woman: “Look out!” Perhaps the midnight cruiser is not cruising anymore. This track is laced with electric siren-like sound effects and strong, bold, pounding heart beats. It has a frantic, panicked vibe and listeners will be able to use their imagination to pair this song to the ultimate chase scene. One of the last tracks on the album is called “Welcome to Infinity (Remix by I European)”. True to its title it is full of circular, repeating, endless phrases as ‘welcome to infinity’ is repeated in French and English throughout the track. If listeners close their eyes they will be able to visually imagine the music in this track traveling in circles as Jesse sings “around and around and around and around”. All of the tracks on this album provide a structured framework where listeners can freely let their imaginations go wild. - Whitney Lewis - WHITTY WITH IT Hyperbubble is the project of two Americans who have used voices and keyboards to create a film without images, dedicated to Jean-Luc Godard. The CD unites previously released tracks with secret bonus tracks. Dark, atmospheric, intriguing, it is an album of pop tightrope walking, balancing between pretense and charm. 80 percent instrumental, Drastic Cinematic is based around two minute musical synthpop scenes, comprised of layered keyboards, guest voice actors, and sound effects. The album mixes the film "Breathless" with "The Avengers" TV show as well as classic science fiction radio shows...A very interesting disc, I must admit. Jon Moor - LA GANZUA (translated from Spanish) I imagine Jess and Jeff sipping Bloody Marys at the Diario Rio Motel's turquoise swimming pool in San Antonio, Texas, where they live. Dressed in orange jackets...hair gel...and hiding behind sunglasses for effect, they're chewing gum and Jess is singing in a voice sweet as Brigitte Bardot's, "Tu es rose pâle comme mon bubble bubble gum (You're like my pink bubble gum bubble)". Brigette's praises apply to Hyperbubble, who are often described as the meeting of Eurythmics in their infancy, and Josie & the Pussycats, mixing kitsch, vintage synths, and hypnotic robotic rhythms. Aude - IF Magazine (translated from French) That DRASTIC CINEMATIC creates brain movies and is reminiscent of 70's and 80's film music is no coincidence. Hyperbubble conceived and created their fourth long player as an homage to visionary electronic soundtrack composers, and equals their efforts. All 13 tracks are centered around the synthesizer, with understated, mystical female vocals. In addition, the duo from Texas worked with many guests to realize their futuristic mix of Dark Electro, New Wave, Shoegaze and Power Pop. After years of using more traditional songwriting forms, Jess and Jeff have been driven to take a more unconventional approach to achieve their latest musical vision. They successfully bind the the pieces of DRASTIC CINEMATIC together with dramatic "movie dialogue", creating unusual of Electro surfaces and then merging them with voices to intensify the experience. This mixture of joyful synthesizer experimentation, acting and singing creates strong mental imagery, thus Hyperbubble's future dark pop head music" actually works. Arne- MUSIC SCAN (translated from German) REVIEWS OF THE SINGLE, WELCOME TO INFINITY (2011) TRIP TV: "A lovely piece of electronic pop by Hyperbubble... Welcome to infinity feels just right for the time. " INDIEMP3.COM - " A fast paced burst of electro pop complete with an infectious beat... Space Age vampiness...Report to the dance floor!" THE ELECTRICITY CLUB - "A slice of lovable super synth funk... Pulsating Vince Clarke styled synth magic." ELECTRO AND POP - Jeff is frantic on the synthesizer... perfect with the voice of Jess... inevitably, it resonates in your head." TRISICKLE: "Welcome To Infinity is impossible not to like – even if you’re really trying."