The Southern California native has been playing drums since childhood and on his self-produced debut album, Blue Lights to Saturn, Star incorporates hints of electronica, nu-jazz, lounge and house around expansive drum sets meant to be played live.
Star experiments with jazz freestyle drumming and heavy electronic influences on this album, evident from the very first beats of album opener “Stellar”, the most played track on his MySpace page. Entirely written, produced and mixed by Star, Blue Lights to Saturn recalls early 80’s New Wave yet surfs along the same wave as current albums by such synth wizards as France’s Sebastien Tellier and M83.
Sexy Space House Jazz
Star recorded his instrumental album in a style he calls “sexy space house jazz”, best sampled on the bizarre, other worldly “Oblivion”. While more of a concept album than a disc riddled with singles, stand out tracks include “Vallis Run”, an energetic slice of electronica and “Pipe Dream” a liquid buzz with a thick bass that faintly sounds like a vocal. “Radiance” breaks free from the formula to introduce synths that seem to pour down like rain with hints of a flute blowing in the background.
Star planed this album as a down tempo soundscape, and for the most part it’s a fluid album that coasts along with little interference. The problem with Blue Lights to Saturn, as is the case with many chillout and lounge albums, is that the songs generally go nowhere.
Each song starts big, adds new elements or flavors in the introduction then tapers off in the middle only to return to the same beat as the opening. While each of the songs are examples of finely crafted music, and taken as individual slices they are interesting and savory, as an album, the tracks blend into each other with little or no variance and fade into musical wallpaper.
Blue Lights in the Cocktail Lounge
Sitting somewhere between lounge and electronic jazz, Blue Lights to Saturn, makes for a great album to play during summer pool parties or while lounging through cocktail hour. Though light on variation, Star shows great potential for subsequent albums.
With a little outside influence on production, and a wider range of styles and moods, Blue Lights to Saturn could have orbited from a good album to a great album.
Blue Lights to Saturn is now available on iTunes. To listen to some tracks from the album, log on to Simon Star’s official website.
James W. Coates - A nomad at heart, James W. Coates has been combining his passion for music, writing and traveling ever since his father packed the family ...
