Stella Luna - Stargazer [EP]

Artist: Stella Lune
Album: Stargazer
Year: 2002
Genre: Shoegaze, Space Rock, Post-Rock?
Country: U.S. (Florida)

Stella Luna are signed to Claire records. No one has probably heard of Claire records, but then again, hardly anyone has heard of Stella Luna either. Like many Shoegaze bands from the early 2000's, they didn't have many releases. In fact the only known releases are Stargazer. There are probably some demos or some 7" splits, but no one seems to care enough to find them or share them. Yeah, this band is pretty fucking underground.
First off, as previously mentioned, Shoegaze was pretty much dead in 2002. Secondly, this band is from Florida, not New York. And finally, this album is so ridiculously hard to find that people don't even bother. 4 songs from a random band? Who cares? Well if you don't really care too much, but still kind of want to hear it, thankfully it's been uploaded to mediafire by someone. To be honest, this album deserves some recognition, and deserves to be shared.
There is one problem people find with Shoegaze; it all sounds so similar. It's really hard to deny that, even Shoegaze fans might say. Sure, you could identify Lush from My Bloody Valentine and LSD and the Search for God pretty easily, but really the genre has the same typical, melancholic, personality free sound.
Really if you're looking for something completely different in the Shoegaze world, you're looking at the wrong album. The album is called Stargazer, which is about as close to the definitive Shoegaze album title as you can get. However, some of you may notice I also put Post-rock with a question mark as a genre. That was done for a reason. First of all, this EP is structured a lot like a post-rock album. All of the songs flow into each other, each textured by different sound ideas. And most of all, the vocals act as an instrument, rather than lyrical purpose. It's exceptionally hard to decipher what the vocalist is saying, if anything. And if you really want to know, good luck to you finding any lyrics.
But back to the sound. Despite the Post-rock opinion above, this sounds just like a Shoegaze album. Lots of Fuzz, Delay, Reverberation, etc. The vocals are very droning. The tracks run a little long, about an average of 6 minutes or so. The album starts off with 'Change', a track which has the underlying fuzz tones of Shoegaze a la LSD and the Search for God. This track sounds like it has probably 5 or 6 guitar tracks, all intertwining with each other. The droning male vocals, and female vocals harmonize with each other in what appears to be verse/chorus, but you can't really be too sure. The track unexpectedly fades into the title track, which happens to also be the shortest on the album, clocking in at 5 minutes exactly. A very drum heavy track that has a less harsh, yet still very fuzzy guitar tone.
The rest of the album all flows with each other in such a matter as the first two tracks. While a somewhat short album as far as numbers of tracks go, it leaves quite an impression. I've heard of people finding it a masterpiece, others a boring piece of garbage. See for yourself what you think.
Rating: B+

Tracklist:
1. Change
2. Stargazer
3. Antares
4. A Bridge to Nowhere

Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?ouz2nn0jxri