Week in Pop: Caicos, Romantic Thriller, YASSOU

Post Author: Sjimon Gompers

Romantic Thriller

Thrills & romance with Romantic Thriller’s Rebecca Huston; photographed & styled by Jessica Knight (@luvistheslug).

Brooklyn polymath Rebecca Huston today released the magnum opus Romantic Thriller album titled One. A record of many moods, comprised of many suites & a host of stirring sensation—Rebecca’s Romantic Thriller album One is experienced like walking through an ancient haunted brownstone, or adventuring about an abandoned mansion full of charged items & odd artifacts of interest. Huston curates an environmental album that allows the imagination & senses to run wild in a world of its own that is worthy of being the soundtrack to an upcoming art-house thriller, or just the score to its own cinematic event. Rebecca’s work in the DIY synth pop focus school brings forward to the present day all the collective industrial & goth visions of the past into a fully immersive fantasia that the underground 80s musical keyboard creations predicted would always happen at some point. And that someday is now, as we explore the radical & hypnotic aesthetic-estate that Rebecca beckons you to enter with the following invitation:

You might think you know me. You are getting closer… My room is filled with small gestures, dusty crystal and misspoken thought.

The Romantic Thriller album One takes the audience through a mystic house of mirrors where the feeling of mystery & the pull of the unknown permeates all over. Rebecca Huston commences the six-part cycle with sinewy synths & sparse percussion that consumes all the elements with “The Lost Dress” that centers around an elusive homecoming gown. The murmuring, mystic assortment of keys & atmospheres fill the senses like fog machines as Huston recalls the articles of the lost garment, along with all the accessories that allude to cryptic tales of horror & a host of other hollow feelings. The journey into the sea of the surreal continues on “Dream of Dean” where the presence of a ghost-like figure provides insights like a prophetic soothsaying specter showering the mind & senses with a cavalcade of visions. Aromas of spirits sets the song “Smell of Tequila” where Rebecca’s haunting delivery descends like a omniscient narrator that descends like a goddess from the celestial spheres to provide observations of an intuitive nature.
The track “True Romance” serves as something of a one minute & one second interlude where Rebecca transports the listener to another realm that feels like stepping into the inviting glow of a static-blue broadcast of a television tube (that leads to place of infinite wonders). Fittingly this transportive sequence leads to “Surreal Poetry” where the synths swim with an urgency that analyzes the tropes utilized in love notes, that contain myriad mountains of metaphors. Rebecca Huston completes the Romantic Thriller midnight matinee of One with “Zombie Apocalypse” that is not your average cable t.v. serial. “Apocalypse” is a visceral six minute plus epic that recalls the classic & modern auteurs & débutantes of suspense flicks & art house popcorn cinema.



Romantic Thriller’s Rebecca Huston shared the following exclusive insights behind the project with thoughts on the creation of the album One

A manifesto of sorts:

Romantic Thriller is music that I wrote with theatrical performance in mind as a starting point. I wanted to create energy that was somewhat breathable, hypnotic, calming when sung. These tracks have that feeling for me. I also introduced playing violin on stage which was a real trip back to grade school. I have been inspired by Los Angeles Art Deco, old movies on TCM, mystery, tension and suspense. And storytelling which is my usual MO. It’s difficult to say what musical influences I have right now.
Or maybe I am just coy.

Brooklyn’s Rebecca Huston of Romantic Thriller; photographed & styled by Jessica Knight.

(This is a little something extra)

Sometimes you imagine that the world is flat and that you could tip it slightly and watch it all slide right off and float away. But that is just your imagination running wild. It does that sometimes. Romantic Thriller is that thing of where you notice the layers of paint on door frames or maybe you chew your finger nails down to the perfect shape.

Catch the Romantic Thriller release show curated by Caitlin Baucom May 6 at NYC’s H0L0 that is rumored to involve a dinner theater theme.
The Romantic Thriller album One is available now via Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud & everywhere.

Cover art for the new Romantic Thriller EP; courtesy of the artist.