An Object Lesson In Badness

The following is precisely the sort of press release that inspired this blog in the first place. Some PR is awful because the person can't spell, some because they can't use basic grammar, some because they're clearly writing about something they don't like or have little or no understanding of. Then there's PR that's awful because it's merely a string of bruisingly tired cliches strung together to fill up a page. This is one of them. From the opening quote ("heads down, sweat-soaked stuff" - great!), through the crapola about blurring musical boundaries - uh-huh - to the use of long-outlawed words like "blitzkrieg" and, heaven help us, "sophomore" - hello? can you open the drapes and get those diapers off my faucet - this delivers again and again and again. Or, as a reader from London's South Bank has it:

This has got to be a joke, right? When I looked on my calender this morning it was 2008, yet I've just received this and, apparently, it's still OK to use phrases like, "Hard to define and certainly hard to ignore" when, as Hyper and his pals are, unfortunately, about to realise, this album will actually be incredibly easy to ignore.

------ Forwarded Message
From: nix [nix@phuturetrax.co.uk]
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:55:07 +0100
Subject: Hyper - the new album "Suicide Tuesday"

HYPER “SUICIDE TUESDAY”

“There's more than a tinge of the rock and industrial to a lot of the material here...This isn't preening music for the beautiful people, this is heads-down sweat-soaked stuff for people who dance hard until the lights come up and the bouncers shove them out of the venue “

Distorting and blurring the musical boundaries, Hyper unleash their dark and satirically-named new album, 'Suicide Tuesday' on Kilowatt Recordings in September 2008. Already creating a stir around the first single, “Centre Attraction”, the second album entitled 'Suicide Tuesday' throbs with punk energy, razor-sharp guitars and bass, and their trademark mashed up beats. Creating their own blitzkrieg electronic sound unlike anything else out there; Hyper's sophomore album is the 'night after the day before' companion to their ground breaking debut album. If Crass and the Pistols had the tech know-how and ended up in a transit van with a French electro sound and Pendulum's stadium beats you'd be close with a bloody nose.

This new rawer sound Hyper have unlocked since their initial success with their first album, “We Control” has been turning heads with the opening single cut, “Centre Attraction”; which has already been snapped up for “CSI Miami”. With remixes from South Central and newbies GeRM, the package is a great appetite wetter for the long player. Elsewhere on the album you find cameos from diverse quarters. Charlotte from indie rock darlings THE SUBWAYS provides vocals on the self assured “I'm an Image” whilst longtime collaborator Leeroy Thornhill (Ex Prodigy) adds the rave to the punk on energy driven standouts such “Let Me In” and “Touch”. Elsewhere on the record you find West Coast American punk rock energies (“It's Sick”) with a slick samples and vocal delivery from new jaw-dropping live vocalist Axe-Girl, and Direct Electro Noise mongering (“Jabba”). Jim Davies' (Prodigy/Pitchshifter) guitar playing again stands out and it's his vocal on debut single “Centre Attraction” which chews over the cult of celebrity before stabbing it directly through the heart. Easy listening this is not. Even when Hyper brings it down a notch (“Deteriorate”) there's always a sense of the suspense.

Already tracks from the record have ended up on key TV shows such as Ugly Betty (Replica), CSI:NY (Centre Attraction) & Sony Playstation games, it appears the record has a wide reaching appeal. Hard to define and certainly hard to ignore, with 'Suicide Tuesday' the band have an album which grabs you by the balls and gets you out of your seat.