Terra
Hypercube

We are getting onto the Hypercube, an adventure in many dimensions with plenty of drama and shapes not often heard of. It could have been like that but, looking at the cover it becomes pretty obvious that it probably isn’t anything like that. Instead we are getting ten tracks with influences from metal, rock, pop, folk, samba, bluegrass, and plenty of other things. It starts with two four minutes long tracks that sets a decent tone, but from there it takes a different direction, towards long tracks and becomes something that never ends – something like being inside the movie Cube, or Hypercube.

The band is the project of Brazilian artist Lucas Barbosa and he does most everything but play the drums on this album. He is certainly a skilled musician, but not a terrific vocalist and perhaps that is why there are quite lengthy instrumental parts on this album. Problem is that these instrumental parts are worse than the parts with the slightly subpar vocals. I think the album itself is varied, but as the shifting between styles are smoothed by long crossovers it becomes a slow-moving album that feels like it never takes off.

You need to do more than just mix sounds from different genres when you are looking to make something stand out. The idea on Hypercube isn’t flawed, but I think you need to dare more, to risk making faster transitions and dare to think more outside the box. Barbosa does what most other musicians do, and in some regards it sounds decent enough, but I doubt that there will be much of an impression made by Hypercube. Perhaps Barbosa should have rethought his idea before putting it on record.

Hypercube is an album that is too long, it lacks real excitement, and it is pretty slow. Quite a dull album that fails to move me in any way. The problem isn’t in the ideas or anything itself, it is just that the songs on Hypercube aren’t good enough, and without good songs you cannot make a good album. I don’t think this one should have been released, and you’d be wise to look elsewhere for your next album.

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