Artist Review: Parov Stelar

I am now back in a location where I can reliably write for this again, and I also have time to spare! As such, I'm going to start writing a new bit for the blog, which should be up every Tuesday (assuming I keep to schedule) - artist reviews!

For my very first review, I'm going to talk about Parov Stelar, why he's awesome, and why you may like or dislike him.

(I'm a moderate to extreme hipster when it comes to talking about music. I like plenty of things everyone has heard about, but here I'm probably only going to talk about things that are at least somewhat obscure. Anyways.)

Parov Stelar was one of the pioneers of a genre called electroswing. Essentially, electroswing takes tracks from old jazz and big band music and layers them on top of techno beats. It sounds awesome, and is a relatively new genre, with Parov Stelar being the first artist solely within the genre itself.

Parov Stelar released his first album in 2005, and the genre became properly defined over the next four or so years. There are other bands that exist within the genre now, the most well known probably being Caravan Palace. They are also awesome.

Coco, released in 2009, is, IMO, Parov Stelar's greatest album. Highlights include songs like Catgroove, Mojo Radio Gang, and Libella Swing. All of these have minimal talking, great jazz, and techno mostly in the background.

So, yeah, if you like jazz and you like techno, you will probably enjoy Parov Stelar. Even if you only like one or the other, I think the chances are pretty high. In fact, I've only met a handful of people who haven't enjoyed songs like Catgroove. I have even heard it described as 'old-people rave music,' and I know plenty of older folks who really enjoy his music, as well.

And now, as a bonus, a few videos of an awesome dancer dancing to awesome Parov Stelar music. (My overuse of the word awesome is now also awesome, as well!)

Links: Catgroove and Your Man.

In relate news, that guy can dance.

Hope you guys enjoyed the read, and the music. I'll be back on my regular schedule tomorrow, and I'm thinking carbonara will the be the recipe for tomorrow. We'll have to see, though.