Stef Animal – Top Gear (CD Album – Fishrider Records / Occultation)

Genre/Influences: Experimental, cinematographic, dream-pop.

Background/Info: The name Stef Animal doesn’t maybe say something. She’s a member of The Golden Awesome (which I honestly never heard of before) and now released her debut solo-work as a conceptual album dedicated to vintage electronic gear.

Content: The album rapidly makes me think to a kind of demo where each song have been composed with legendary keyboards and computers such as Casio CA-100, Casio Casiotone MT-800, Roland U-220, Yamaha VS-200, Commodore Amiga 500, Roland MT-32, Atari 2600, Roland U-110 ao.

Most of the songs sound like snippets to illustrate the sound and/or abilities of the used instrument. Most of the cuts remain instrumentals although I noticed a few passages with vocals.

+ + + : The concept is interesting and quite original. It sometimes creates a cool cinematographic effect while I especially like the ethereal-pop sounding “In The Pines” for the addition of dreamy (female) vocals. The songs were written and recorded in one sitting, which is another appreciable aspect of this work.

– – – : As I already mentioned it all sound pure demo-like. Some tracks are like snippets of a few seconds so the concept remains great, but the way it has been worked out rather insufficient. I think it would have been more interesting to get real elaborated songs instead of short tracks/snippets.

Conclusion: I once again have to repeat I like the concept of this record, but I can’t be enthusiast when it comes to the tracks. I’m not sure many music lovers gone buy this record, but I hope for Stef Animal to be wrong.

Best songs: “In The Pines”, “Owl”.

Rate: (4).

Artist: www.facebook.com/Stef–Animal-633226776700327

Labels: www.fishriderrecords.com / www.facebook.com/fishriderrecords / www.occultation.co.uk / www.facebook.com/OccultationRecordings

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