With a name like Hyperbubble, you might be forgiven for expecting the kind of hyped-up happy clappy pop that squeaky clean and irritatingly anodyne acts like Alphabeat bounce out and fizz about to, and while their back catalogue may confirm to this style - I don't know, having not heard any of their numerous previous releases - Drastic Cinematic, as the title suggests, is, if not a concept album, a themed collection of songs. The Bubblegum records version comes with three additional tracks not on the Pure Pop for Now People original version, and is billed as 'The Director's Cut'. This album comes with cameo appeatrances from Miranda Rin (of Bis and singer of The Powerpuff Girls theme and Aidan Casserly, who has worked with Kraftwerk's Wolfgang Flur, amongst others.
The cover suggests leanings toward noirish and B-movie trappings, although the music doesn't always sit comfortably within these frameworks, and instead reflects Hyperbubble's touchstones of Giorgio Moroder, Ennio Morriocone, Queen, Jerry Goldsmith and Tangerine Dream. 'Geometry' in particular sounds more like a slice of bad 80s europop than anything else. Sure, there are films with tracks like this on the soundtrack, but none that anyone would want to remember or watch ever again, with landfill sited full of VHS copies of such straight to video shockers.
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The 'samples' between songs are variable in success, and after a while, the formula does feel a little forced, contrived, the snippets of dialogue too short to really create a sense of, well, anything much really, the result being more of a patchwork of clips rather than a continuous, threaded whole.
There are, nevertheless, definite highlights, which include the atmospheric, breathy vocal piece 'Vox Noir' which opens the album and builds a sense of expectation and drama, and the action-scene techno of 'Explosive' works well, in a Miami Vice with flange sort of a way.' Welcome to Infinity Part ' is a little too computer game to really meet the film-themed criteria, but Part 2 is altogether moodier and more cinematic, and there's little doubt over Hyperbubble's ability to shift mood and gear effortlessly and, often, to commendable effect.
Hyperbubble Online
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