Released 20/09/10

Zirkulo Records




Jesus Christ, it seems like this album has been a long time coming.  Finding their way in East London from the Basque of their birth, they’ve been lurking around on Kitsune compilations for a while now, gigging intensively and generally making a bit of a name for themselves.

It was ‘In The Summer’ that really grabbed the attention of this reviewer though, and induced us to make that most toe-curling of statements: ‘Song Of The Summer.’  Disregarding the fact that that is one of the most embarrassing things you can possibly say in something that will exist in the public eye, ‘In The Summer’ is a banging tune and, as it plays now, endures as one of the most memorable songs of the last six months.

Thus it was with some excitement that Star of Love found its way onto the stereo.  Unfortunately ‘In The Summer’, tellingly placed in the exact middle of the album, is probably the best song on here.  This is not to say that Star Of Love isn’t good, it is. It's just not that good.

Opener ‘Solar System’ is a blast of Europop; the type that blights the stereos of Faliraki bars in the day time. In advance of this, though, it kicks off with a banjo-like instrument that definitely isn’t a banjo, before exploding with aforementioned boomfy beats. It’s a nice microcosm of the band as whole- old and new, folk and dance, cheesy sentimental ‘I went to England and found my soul’ refrain’; it’s not unappealing.

Their use of traditional Basque folk instruments like the wooden txalapartas, tabor drums and txistu flutes are what really set them apart, and on a filthy electro number like ‘I Do This Everyday’ it is the use of these drums that separates it from one of a million similar tunes desperately scrabbling for air at the moment.

It doesn’t always work, and there are moments when you can’t help but think they have missed the boat a bit; ‘I Love London’ is full of  the kind of clipped statements that CSS had us all bored of back in 2008 (though, to be fair to Crystal Fighters, ‘I Love London’ originally came out a while ago).  Then again the song that follows it, ‘Swallow’, with its deep, shuddering dubstep style beats, couldn’t be more now if it got an undercut, a bad t-shirt and moved to New Cross.  It’ll be interesting to see how approach their next album, and whether they focus their sound.  On a personal level, though not everything works here it’ll be disappointing to see them streamline things too much.  Seeing as this is a band named after an unfinished opera written by lead singer Laure’s grandfather as he fell into insanity, one suspects that won’t be the case.





6/10
 

Posted In Album Reviews, Sep 20 2010. Words - David