Tulipomania - You Had To Be There
Magnification doesn’t always yield detail.
Maybe you had to be there…
When the observer and the observed exchange places – at what point do we hold ourselves accountable?
Philadelphia-based art-rock duo Tulipomania present 'You Had to Be There', the first single from their new album 'Dreaming of Sleep', slated for release on November 17 via Sursumcorda Records.
This is Tulipomania's fifth album, featuring cover artwork by Michael Speed, previously senior designer at Beggars Group London. and involving Executive Producer Howard Thompson, renowned for his contributions as a record industry executive (Elektra, Island, Almo Sounds), having discovered such artists as Adam and the Ants, Billy Bragg, MC5, Mötorhead, PiL, Psychedelic Furs, Robyn Hitchcock, The Sugarcubes and Suicide, and others.
On this album, Tulipomania has immersed themselves fully in electronic means of creation – the exception being a sole accent played on electric guitar.
Alternately categorized as cult synth punks, glam-leaning, post-punk, art-rock and muscular chamber pop, Tulipomania is made up of Tom Murray (lead vocals, synthesizer, electronic percussion) and Cheryl Gelover (synthesizer, background vocals), who first began their collaboration through projects for experimental film and animation classes. The duo now known as Tulipomania has evolved from those experiences.
As its first single, 'You Had To Be There' establishes the conceptual viewpoint of the album – embracing contradiction invites accountability. Cheryl Gelover says, "The Dada-esque stance channels a hopeful innervating energy. When navigating the morass – trust the teller – or the tale? You had to be there... maybe."
Created frame by frame, the animation includes animated lip sync and vintage found footage in an exploration of varied states of disintegration and recombination, created on thousands of individual sheets of black or white paper.
"There has been an overwhelming sense of dread and mistrust obviously brewing for a long time. In the post-Trump post-pandemic now - if it is or ever will be possible to be post either of those cataclysmic events – I wonder what the future will ask about it all," says Tom Murray.
"I wonder what the future will not understand and want to clarify about the self-serving lies, liars and grifters, and the foolishness of many who were here but not present in any real sense – unable or unwilling to see what was and is happening as everything rolls up to the very well placed few. I don't know what we can tell the future that can make this recent history any clearer. Maybe it is and has always been – and will always be this way. Maybe, you had to be there."
Described as ‘artistic and inventive’ and ‘gorgeous', Tulipomania's animated music videos have been featured in film festivals worldwide. Numerous such festivals have already showcased this new video as an official selection, including the Leeds International Film Festival (UK), StopTrik (Croatia, Poland), AniFilm (Czech Republic), Insomnia (Russia) and Malatesta (Italy) with the Montreal International Animation Film Festival - Animaze awarding it an Honorable Mention.
The pair also recently created two animated music videos - 'Hush' and 'Shock To The Body' - for Cabaret Voltaire co-founder and frontman Stephen Mallinder in support of his solo album 'Tick, Tick, Tick', released last year on Dais Records.
As of September 20, the single 'You Had to Be There' is available from fine music platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp. On November 17, the full 'Dreaming of Sleep' album will be released on CD, vinyl and digitally.. It is available for pre-order via Bandcamp.
