Stella Polaris Project - Hello Anonymous

Hear The Track Here

Regular readers may have noticed that this month, for the first time in a long while, I have managed to snag some tracks from MP3 Unsigned. Digital Juggernaut was the first of these, Stellar Polaris the second. Stellar Polaris are an electronica due featuring Ricky Mancini (which should be a familiar name to long term readers) and Melinda Mohn. Not sure who does what but I guess it doesn't matter eh? Hello Anonymous is billed as Trip Hop Jazz and IDM which should give you a fair idea of what to expect. I had to go back into my past reviews to remember why Ricky and I couldn't see eye to eye with what he was doing, and that's OK; I said what I had to say, he said what he had to say and we left it that. Which is the way it should be, opinions are just opinions after all. What should it matter what I think? What should matter is what listeners and fans should think and on that score Ricky certainly has nothing to worry about.

S'probably a preference thing anyway.

I'm going to take a massively improbably stab in the dark and presume that Ricky is responsible for the music and production because Melinda is so obviously the vocalist, however she may well also contribute musically too. Ricky Mancini (aka MD1 Project) has established quite a following on MP3 Unsigned, and has always specialised in a fairly edgy electronic sound, overlaid by various noises - not yer usual bleeps and buzzes. Hello Anonymous is a very dense track in many ways, arrangement and mix in particular. Given that denseness, the main piano lines and the vocals sit on top so lightly, and are so well structured it'll give you massive goosebumps. It took me a while to acclimatise to the track, a lot of plays before I realised that I actually came out solidly in it's favour.

A lot of the kudos has to go to Melinda Mohn vocal sound and performance., although I'd have to say the whole piano piece comes a very, very close second. A year or so ago, I was remixing a lot of Acidplanet tracks, especially the vocal tracks and I would have wet myself had I come across a voice like Melinda's. It's dusky, warm tone helps alleviate some of the pressure the edginess/glitchiness the track underlying it carries, and she is one of those vocalists that really s-t-r-e-t-c-h the note. Take a listen, I guarantee that you'll be just as taken. Ricky has always kicked off on the wilder side of music, Melinda's vocals and that quite lovely piano are the perfect foils. This must have taken forever to make and perfect and it's startlingly original and fresh, although you may have to work a bit to really get into it. Still, wha'evah...wadda we think??

MUST HAVE.