Super Hyper Giant - 'Always'
Info: Super Hyper Giant is the performance name of Dublin musician Jonathan Savino and band whose debut album, Retro / Futuristic, will be launched in Whelans on the 4th of March. Savino has spent the last year and half in and out of the studio making an album that blends everything Super Hyper Giant loves about music, he made a forward thinking album using an old style of simple sincere song writing recorded through the sounds of an imagined future. The Album is called "Retro/Futuristic" and it is an album that moves from experimental to pop to electro to rock to folk, somewhere in between lies the true sound of Retro/Futuristic and Super Hyper Giant.
Retro / Futuristic opens softly with one of my favourite tracks on the album, 'The Universe' (below), a critique of the hold that religion has on people, it's futility and how much it distracts us from living in the here and now. Savino's vocals and the accompanying female harmonies provide a calming but determined backdrop to the song. The albums second track and first single which was released last month, 'Always' (above) ups the tempo straight away, a good choice for a single with strong pop elements and jovial digital soundbites, interestingly backing vocals on this one were provided courtesy of Smashing Pumpkins' bassist Nicole Fiorentino.
Super Hyper Giant - 'The Universe'
'Sometimes' has a pleasurable mania about it, from it's deep toned guitar progressions and building disquiet, it sounded to me like a mixture of recent alternative rock and 70's heavy rock, QOTSA meets Black Sabbath-lite. On 'Train Tracks' Savino has a Lennon White Album era vocal working over the track's contemporary folk vibe and there's a nice psychedelic twist to the music making an interesting concoction to say the least. On tracks 'Fantastic Voyage' and 'Heaven Awaits' the melding of pop notes and escapist electronic soundscapes are easy to find yourself happily lost in and by this point you've been endeared to a good degree by the frontman's voice, you can tell that Retro / Futuristic has been made as much for us as it has for it's creator.
Super Hyper Giant bring the curtain down with the gorgeous 'Debris', one of the key strengths to this album, aside from the sheer variety proffered, is the transcending of the sincerity and investment put into making it from the songs to the listener, exemplified perfectly by this final track. While the overt pop elements on some of Retro / Futuristic may initially not sit well with some (excluding myself), additional listens should see those feelings fade quickly, there is a lot of creativity across the 11 songs and it is an album to be absorbed and enjoyed over time. I'm actually genuinely intrigued by how it's going to unfold in a live setting and that has given added impatience for the 4th of March.
Like / Listen & Follow:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/superhypergiant
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/superhypergiant
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperHyperGiant
