Description
Hypnotape is a crash course for becoming a mutant.
A genuinely sprawling collection of high-fidelity mutation music that suits the compact disc format perfectly, Hypnotape is the third consecutive Sunburned album of studio assemblages following 2019’s Headless and 2021’s Pick A Day To Die. Recorded throughout 2021 & 2022, it’s an album possessed with a peculiar runaway locomotion which jump cuts feverishly between unusual atmospheres yet maintains a beguiling consistency – throbbing, twisting, undulating rhythmic blast offs suddenly kick the door down into serene realms of nuanced acoustic privacy which are unexpectedly plunged back, face first into a miasma of shirtless, raging thuggery, ad infinitum.
The album is notable in the group’s monstrous catalog for a few reasons: first, it showcases founding member Conrad Capistran stepping out from behind the keyboards & electronics to spread his smooth, buttery baritone atop the majority of the tracks. From his velvet cooing above the pulsing whirlwind of opener “People Person” to his vivid & febrile musings as a trip reporter on the frontlines of the meltdown zone on “Roger” (where Capistran fully embodies the age old tango between euphoria & dread) his honeyed vocals guide the listener Virgil-like through the inferno all the way to the album’s finale where he duets with Ron Schneiderman on the old Dino Valenti / Quicksilver chestnut (and potential Boomer epithet, sung by the group’s two actual boomers!) “What About Me”.
Secondly, it features the recorded debut of Sunburned’s longtime friend & collaborator Mark Perretta after years of touring with the group. Some of you may remember Mark from his days stomping across the primordial Boston underground of the late 80’s/early 90’s with the mighty Subskin Cables or his solo career as Deluxx but most, no doubt, will be familiar with his stint with Lou Barlow, John Davis & Bob Fay as Deluxx Folk Implosion, most notably when Mark’s whimsical ode to fatherhood “Daddy Never Understood” was used in the opening sequence to Larry Clark’s beloved coming of age tale “Kids” in 1996.
Finally, with Hypnotape, Sunburned steps into the hallowed VHF arena after decades of hovering along adjacent corridors. Now the group’s penchant for transforming sketchy, Masshole dysphoria into fleeting puddles of enlightenment can ooze comfortably alongside the esteemed discographies of label mates & compatriots like Vibracathedral Orchestra, Astral Social Club, Ashtray Navigations, Pelt et al. Cover artwork by Anthony Pasquarosa.
