Sunday, May 17, 2009

Yello - stella (1985)



Yello maintained their place amidst the most creative bands of the 80's with Stella. "Desire" was one of their fluid, atmospheric, soundtrack-based, exotic tinged, electronic doom jazz themes. "Vicious Games" occupied the same territory, as if a haunted disco theme for a surreal soap-opera. In "Oh Yeah", the ever present deformed disco-theme was vivisected with an abundance of distorted vocal effects.

The epitome of elegance, "Desert Inn" was a mixture of ethnic ritual chanting, disco beats, jam-rock flourishes, and an epic ambient electronica awe. "Stalakdrama" was a symphonic experiment in tension, it's Wagnerian overture magnified to a point of feverish splendour. In "Koladi-ola", another ingenious piece of electro-pop, prevailed a digital funk-rock whose elements came from all sorts of disparate sources.

This wild eclecticism continued in "Domingo", a mix of heavy-metal, soundtrack themes, chanting, classical, banging beats etc. "Sometimes" returned to their elegant and gentle side, yet still managed to sound like a rolle-roaster ride. Similarly the desolate but grand synthscape of "Ciel Ouvert" evoked images of spiritual delirium. The amazing creativity encapsulated in these synth-rock tracks would make indie favourites like New Order or Depeche Mode blush at their own mediocrity. Get it here.

6 comments:

Capa Nostra said...

Never heard this band. Thank you!

iheartnoise said...

Hey - cool blog!

Would you like to exchange link with mine (http://beautifulnoise.wordpress.com/), since we're writing about similar things.

Let me know.

Thank you!

Ilya (owner of Beautiful Noise / I Heart Noise Blog)

Jim Slip said...

Thanks CN. I was just listening to Theatre of Sheep from your blog. Great EP.

Jim Slip said...

Ilya, I added your blog to the links.

iheartnoise said...

Thank you so much, Jim.

I also added your blog to my bloroll.

:-)

Anonymous said...

I just love them - I danced it til fade in the 80s and now I'll play it for the new generation to dance - thanx