Website: High Blue Star
The Inside Pulse:
Minneapolis’ High Blue Star isn’t a project for everyone; electronic-based yet hauntingly pretty, it’s certainly more art than music. Seeing them live, this is readily apparent as they create a visual spectacle alongside the music itself. Their eponymous debut effort does its best to recreate the atmosphere of their live shows with only your ears to guide you. What remains is an almost too-soothing aural stream. Vocalist Laurie Reade’s exquisite operatic-styled vocals, reverbed from here to next week, compliments the unconventional samples and minimialist beats.
Positives: If there was ever a mood to be created, High Blue Star has perfected the “sexy spooky.” Although primarily chaotic, “Wormhole” and “La Baila Demonica” stand out as the singularly catchy moments on the album. “Salvator” is a mass of chaos, but incredibly fascinating at that.
Negatives: These aren’t songs; this is a curtain of sound. As an album in its niche, it works well, although repetitive in its lack of variety of sounds. But as singles, as pop, as anything other than its entirety and crying out to a particular crowd at that, there’s just no place for it.
Cross-breed: Bjork’s weirder moments sung by Tarja Turunen and backed by Aphex Twin.
Reason To Buy: If you’re looking for abstract art as music, High Blue Star excels in this area. On that alone, it’s worth a 7/10. If you’re looking for anything else, you’ll be bored to sleep from the monotony and lack of any sort of structure.
