Stellardrive | zh

Stellardrive is a French quintet from Besançon (eastern France represent!) who are enamored with rockets, space, and cinematic photogaphs of the sky. You think I jest, but this is all true. Normally this puts them in a large pool of bands, but there aren't many other French instrumental acts that just want to rock the fuck out and sound epic like a good old US of A band. In some sense, this is rather exciting, and seeing how the band wears a Lost Children label, we know that also means quality. ERS-2 is the band's second release, a follow-up to the similarly named ERS-1, which was also handled by Lost Children.
　　Three tracks fill a nineteen minute void in space, and just for shits and giggles we'll pretend that's how long it takes an astronaut to stellardrive into space, thus making the perfect soundtrack for rocking out on your way to an inevitable death at the hands of a psychopathic A.I. We appropriately begin our journey with "Departure," which starts us off with a countdown, "30...25...15...12, 11, 10, 9, ignition sequence starts, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0." A reserved piano joins the mix, hardly the roaring explosions which we expected. The joke's on us, apparently, as Stellardrive slowly drifts up into the sky through gently woven guitar lines, rather than by a propulsion of brute force. Once the track exits the troposphere, the secondary boosters have ignited and the band is in full throttle mode. Gravity unleashes its grip and the vessel soars into the horizon.
　　For the most part, the rest of the EP follows with little turbulence, despite the third track claiming otherwise. "Sagittarius A" follows a similiar route as the first track, starting with crisp guitar melodies and building towards a rough wall of noise. "Turbulences (A Nice Day to See All the Damage Done)" breaks out of the quiet/loud post-rock formula and instead sees the band rocking it with a progressive flair. As the space shuttle begins to cruise on autopilot, Stellardrive witnesses the beautiful sights of the universe we live in, and force is no longer needed to extract our deepest emotions. Driving, groovy rhythms can now be found as far as the eye can see, and slowly we fade into oblivion.
　　When all is said and done, we approve Stellardrive for future flights. ERS-2 is highlighted by a strong cohesion in the band's ranks, and their willingness to adopt new styles into a largely post-rock/space-rock format will prove vital to their development. Over the course a full length I can definitely see this act branching out and incorporating a wide range of influences into their conquest of the universe. .