Ten long years after their debut self titled LP, Singapore shoegaze trio Stellarium have finally released its powerfully diverse follow up, simply called or not called Untitled. Sporting nine tracks, it begins with the instant winner, ‘Summer Bloodbath’, a take no prisoners piece of classic disorienting shoegaze with a variety of twists and a melodically beautiful bleed. If one thought that would set the sonic scene for the album what follows is an interchangeable smorgasbord of genres that do battle but ultimately make perfect peace with each other all ensconced inside a dominant shoegaze aesthetic. Fuzzed out jangle, dream and noise pop, post-punk, melodic, psych and stoner rock and even slight nods to metal and hints of rockabilly all feature to blow expectation right out of the water. A stellar mix indeed!
It would be easy to make a mess out of such ambition and many a lesser band has come up short in trying. The key to Stellarium’ success here is the holistic approach taken and the exquisite skills behind it. A deep respect elementally for all the styles and genres they employ is clear as is the fact they see each as fundamentally equal in importance to realising the end game. As a result, the compositional qualities gel immediately and the control amid the chaos is quite breathtaking. If you’re coming across this South East Asian band for the first time, you’re in for a real treat. If you’ve waited the ten years, to say the wait has been worth it would be an understatement.
Listen to the ‘Summer Bloodbath’ and pick up a copy of the record here. It’s also streaming via spotify below. Highly recommended. You can also here this and the seven minute wonder ‘Io’ at the beginning of our Post-Punk Wave Shoegaze & Post Rock Playlist here on Spotify.
Tracklist
1. Summer Bloodbath
2. Paradox
3. Io
4. Still
5. You Die / Inside
6. Space Candy
7. Dynasty
8. Punkchat
9. Down
Summer Bloodbath
Stellarium (SIN)
From the album, ‘Untitled’, Self Released.
Audio Stream