Quasi Stella - Quasi Stella [Umland Records 032]

Okay. ChameleonPop. What the actual heck is Chameleon Pop, the style mentioned in the accompanying brief press release which describes the music produced and written by the multinational quartet named Quasi Stella as exactly this? And is even more specific as things are boiled down to a definition of multi-lingual Chameleon Pop? Whatever, the sound created by Martin Lau, Thiebault Imm, Antti Virtaranta and Rieko Okuda on their self-titled album released via Umland Records on May 18th, 2k20 draws influences and characteristics from many a style - in a creative way and manner that one could easily and hypothetically imagine to find in the catalogues of labels as different as Plattenmeister, Exile On Mainstream or Major Label. With the intense, alarming opening tune "Immaculate Immasculine" evoking memories of bands like Dyse, plus Spoken Word staccato though, fusing shuffling Punk aesthetics with Alternative and MathRock in "Road Of Excess", always bringing on a specific funkiness and a state of total alertness, causing brains to overload quickly with a barrage fire of rhythmic vocal performance built on a foundation of accompanying, complex instrumental signatures unleashing mad raw power and a cascading stream of vocal information smashed into pieces, a rapid fire of words and frazzles, incoherent chains of associations, trains of thoughts in smithereens, a jigsaw puzzle of madness, switching back and forth between languages within songs, lines even... and a well overwhelming listening experience that makes us believe that a live performance of Quasi Stella is a well frantic, even more intense thing to witness than their album alone. Killer. Get. Not only for the tender, brooding emotional darkness of "Usually You Julie" which is a trip in its own right.

Album artwork on Instagram!