Parov Stelar - Artifact (Etage Noir Recordings) 
Release Date: Out Now
The very best thing about writing this blog is discovering new artists that I then go on to love and claim as my own. Austrian sound wizard Parov Stelar is one of those artists who I discovered lurking in my inbox and have now adored for many years, so it was a delight to see his new album drop into my emails. 'Artifact' opens with the title track and the blend of a uplifting House beat, soulful vocals and dynamic strings that will appeal to fans of the Heritage Orchestra or Florence + the Machine. Recent single 'Shiver' goes all Moby on our asses with a steady piano plod and reclaimed Blues vocals dusted off for a fresh audience while 'Six Feet Underground' is an initially haunting piece that swells with cinematic grandiosity into something truly stirring.
You'll get used to Stelar's ability to jump around, stylistically, but it behoves you to try to keep up as songs like 'Rebel Love' blend drum'n'bass beats with the kind of vocal performance that is utterly timeless and the effect if sublime. 'Hyper Body' floats and bobs in a trance space with a hint of Muse's pomposity before we are served up the joyously calm clarinet meander of 'Interlude One'. The second phase of the album starts with 'Falling Into Time', a delicate flower that blossoms into a technicolour disco romp which Sophie Ellis-Bextor would love to get her hands on before 'Art Deco' brings Lana Del Rey on stage to add her unique vocal duties to a song that demands twirling and dancing in the most elegant way possible.
The piano ripple of 'In Between' is matched by the soft vocals of Karafizi to create a snowy, delicate soundscape that is blasted away by an uplifting, pumping dance track that would inspire even the most broken hearted to fall in love again. 'Absentis Mater' owes a little something to the Pet Shop Boys and Ludovico Einaudi in its 80s synth beauty and piano ripples but 'Maybe Tomorrow' has a more impish charm in among the sweeping strings and subdued beat. Once again, Stelar pivots on 'Walking On Clouds' which has a somewhat monastic feel before the dance tendencies win out with a pulsating beat kicking in to elevate the sombre chords.
On 'The Fortune Teller' we are given a brief interlude of beautiful atmospheric sounds before penultimate track 'The Forest' sits down at the piano to create a Jean-Michel Jarre inspired melody that sounds as organic as it does electronic. Somewhat disconcertingly, we finish with 'Dystopia', a song that emerges from the nuclear fog to seek out a future in between the binary code, desolate landscapes and Twinkies - it's also quite the bop once it gets going. It's another triumph for creativity, soundscapes and eclecticism from Parov Stelar but one which presents the questions yet again; why isn't this guy a household name yet?
More information: https://www.facebook.com/parovstelar