Funprox

JS | December 04, 2005

I have no objection to a great portion of humour in life, but when it comes to music and art in general, I get the shivers of funny attempts. The music can be enjoyable, but should I, as a listener, take it seriously? Or is it all a big joke?

Stelladrine is a project that chose for a humoristic angle in their release. The entire concept of ‘You’ll never see your world again’ is that of a bad science fiction movie from the fifties. Comic-book-style layout and comic-book-style drawings of space-men, ufo’s and space monsters beaming rays to earth. Deliberately cheesy spoken word samples, like ‘People of earth; we will take over your world, unless the leaders of our worlds can unite in friendship’ dominate the record.

Probably very funny but I’m not laughing. So let’s stick to the music. Spacious ambient- electronics is what you can expect from a project with this concept, and it is exactly what you get. But it isn’t bad at all. It’s wild (‘Astrosurfers of tomorrow’), weird, sometimes fast and sometimes even melodic (‘The future isn’t what it used to be’). Swirling electronic sounds, bleeps and high-low frequency shifts makes this record a strange but interesting experience.

I have to say the track ‘Cycloptic disintegrator’ (picture it) is one of the best tracks. Pretty minimal electronic glitch and cut up structures with a pounding sound throbbing in the background, suddenly accompanied by a slightly moderated guitar loop.

So the concept isn’t my piece o’ cake, but I bet there are some comic-book collectors and sci-fi adepts that will rejoice in the fact that there will be an attack of radioactive freaks. This record is for them.

link to original review