This double LP is structured as an album of two separate concepts. The first focuses on the machines, the warm melodies and playful percussion, with the second allowing for words to mingle more freely. Nevertheless, at its core Strange Signals is a continuation of Hübert’s interplanetary analogue journey as the Berlin cosmonaut ventures ever deeper into the sounds of his vintage synthesizers with some stunning results.
Malcolm Gladwell, the renowned Canadian thinker and idea postulator, has a new book out, One of the ideas put forward is about our instantaneous knee jerk reaction to make first and sometimes indelible impressions. It’s an interesting notion as many of these initial assumptions are often wrong. The same can be said for music. The first release of an artist. The name of a label. We can easily form judgements and stick to them. With a name like Astro Chicken many a would be listener might be put off the imprint founded by Sebastian Hübert, aka Hyboid. Leave those immediate responses at the door and you’ll be in for some serious enjoyment, especially with a new album just hitting shelves form the boss himself.
It’s been two years since Hyboid’s last album, Wired At Heart, with the new picking up with the previous left off. Steeped in the sleek analogue synth sounds of the 1980s, Strange Signals begins with the misty atmospherics of “Prologue” before the neon streaked “Starcrush.” Tracks are short bursts of energy, across the fourteen on offer few break over the five minute mark. 8bit video games and science fiction films immediately spring to mind with Hübert compositions, both elements coalescing in the joyful title piece. Warm tones mingle with colder hues in the stargazing “Future Fever” with Hyboid going further into the heavens with the elating “Walking The Milky Way.” At times other, less familiar, styles are explored, as in the disco tinted “Cosmic Funk”, however it is the use of vocals that is one of the more surprising elements. From the spoken word of “Restless On Risa” and the playful pop of “Synthetic Band” to the vocoder rich of “Broken-Hearted Üniverse” and “Martian Dreams”, voice and an element of story telling open up new avenues and horizons.
This double LP is structured as an album of two separate concepts. The first focuses on the machines, the warm melodies and playful percussion, with the second allowing for words to mingle more freely. Nevertheless, at its core Strange Signals is a continuation of Hübert’s interplanetary analogue journey as the Berlin cosmonaut ventures ever deeper into the sounds of his vintage synthesizers with some stunning results.
Strange Signals is available on Astro Chicken.
