Star Dancer

Whether by coincidence or intent, Welcome To My World feels like an homage to suspected inspirations to its creator. It offers a bundle of songs and flavours which seem like friends before they even finish making their first persuasion with originality not as ripe as the craft bringing them to life. The result though is a fun time which it is hard not to like and enjoy, and increasingly so with every listen.

The album is the debut from Star Dancer, a band created by Detroit hailing vocalist Robert Star and Sponge members Vinnie Dombroski and Tim Patalan who produced it. Welcome To My World is as much a jukebox of recognisable “snapshots” of assumedly the music lighting the artist’s life and passions as it is of “both the world surrounding Robert and a troubled modern day America” explored “through Robert’s unique lens.”

Highly enjoyable is what it predominantly is and straight away as Welcome To My World opens with its title track, a feisty slice of hard rock with classic rock inflamed grooves wrapped in rousing backing vocals provided by Tosha Owens and Rachel Williams. As well as kicking the album off in potent style, the song gets the appetite and spirit going too and ready to embrace the more restrained but openly magnetic Earth Mother Dancer. Flirting with a Billy Idol meets Johnny Wore Black swing to its rock ‘n’ roll; the song is as instinctively simple and catchy as it is sonically colourful with the leading lures of David Black’s guitar pure captivation alongside the more punk ‘n’ roll riffs of Wally Filipiak.

Great Sexpectations (Turn Off the Lights) provides an eighties hue to its hard rock revelry next, an easy to bite on hook framed and speared by the punchy beats of Jerome Day. Guitars create a splattering of that nostalgic enticing throughout the song whilst bassist Jason Lollio prowls it all with a great throaty and contagious tempting. From one easy pleasure to another as She’s In Love With Joan Jett takes over; a song echoing the focus of its title whilst also sharing an Elvis Costello meets The Cars like air to its boisterous stroll.

Star Dancer Artwork_RingMasterReviewDiversity continues to enrich album and ears as the sultry smoulder of The Weed Don’t Lie radiates warm melodic and harmonic persuasion across an exotically textured landscape whilst hugging the increasingly impressing voice and presence of Star before High & The Mighty brings its own individual tempting to bear on the imagination. A web of varied rock flavours from electro to heavy, the song entices like an unexpected mix of Ministry before they went metal, Heaven 17, and Spineshank. The track is another of the peaks of the album matched quickly by the melodic shuffle and seducing of Annie and an excellent spin on EMF’s classic, Unbelievable.

In the first of the two there is a whiff of Bowie which is even bolder in the following IntraVenus FlyTrap, though at times it becomes Bolan-esque as the track grips ears with its steely rock ‘n’ roll built on snarly riffs and electronic imagination. The vocal union again, as across the album, simply whets the appetite as hooks and grooves work freely on the imagination before the punk ‘n’ roll of Before I Die brings the album to spirit rousing close. From a lo-fi strum, the song erupts; leaping and bouncing as southern and punk rock flavouring infests its anthemic vivacity.

The final song epitomises the album; many flavours combining in many ways for something very familiar and so easy to get fully and eagerly involved in. If you are looking for a good time and something to feel good from, then Welcome To My World just might fit the bill.

Welcome To My World is released April 20th on iTunes and other stores. - Ringmaster Reviews, Pete Ring

RÉVÉLATION HIGH HOPES RADIO METAL ET METALORGIE PRÉSENTENT STAR DANCER : RÉVÉLATION HIGH HOPES (AVRIL 2016) mardi, 5 avril 2016 à 10:22 par Amaury Blanc
Présenter Star Dancer, c’est parler de variété. Originaire de Détroit aux Etats-Unis, le combo propose une musique hybride dont l’épicentre est la mélodie. Lorsque l’on écoute Welcome To My World, son premier album, on tape du pied sur ce rock alternatif entraînant qu’il qualifie lui-même de rock’n’roll alternatif. Combinant esprit rock’n’roll (paroles fun sur les filles, le sexe etc.), son parfois 70’s, ballades et même musique pop/punk : les compos diversifiées de Star Dancer marquent les esprits par leur efficacité même si la moitié des titres proposés sur son disque sont calmes, ce qui est sans doute trop car le groupe est nettement plus efficace dès que le rythme accélère. Il est donc un peu dommage de le voir partager trop souvent des ballades d’autant plus que certaines sont malgré tout assez mièvres.

A l’heure où les artistes ont pleinement conscience des habitudes de « consommation » de la musique par les fans et adaptent en conséquence le propos, Star Dancer a justement fait le choix d’un album court (seulement trente-deux minutes) mais riche de dix titres. Un parti pris qui souligne qu’au-delà de sa musique qui mélange les genres, le groupe est en phase avec la réalité de son temps. Même s’il est composé de sept musiciens, il est par ailleurs à signaler que Star Dancer est le nom de scène de son chanteur.

« Welcome To My World », l’excellent titre qui donne son nom à l’album, se découvre ci-dessous via un clip vidéo :


Rappel : comme vous le savez sans doute, Radio Metal soutient les artistes qui démarrent et/ou sont méconnus avec l’émission High Hopes présente depuis nos débuts sur la grille des programmes. Grâce à High Hopes, à l’antenne tous les vendredis dès 20H, nous diffusons les artistes en devenir gratuitement tout en effectuant parfois des interviews. Mais l’équipe de Radio Metal a décidé d’aller encore plus loin en valorisant dans ses colonnes notre artiste coup de cœur High Hopes qui, généralement chaque mois, reçoit comme Star Dancer pour le mois d’Avril 2016 le titre honorifique de « Révélation High Hopes ». - Radio Metal

Star Dancer is a project begun by frontman Robert Dancer along with a couple of members of the band Sponge (Vinnie Dombroski and Tim Patalan who produced rather than feature on the album). Recorded in 2015, the album saw the light of day in April this year and it’s a cracking slice of good old fashioned hard rock, grabbing its influences from various classics of the genre.

The album kicks off to a great start from the opening chords of “Welcome to My World” which you can listen to below. It’s got the initial charge and simple riffs of AC/DC and the attitude of classic Guns n’ Roses. An absolute foot-stomper – surely the rest of the album can’t keep up?

Actually, yes it can. Dancer uses every trick in the “how to write quality rock tracks” manual to ensure that there’s a hook or seventeen in each song, without sacrificing originality. The beauty of Welcome to My World is that it at once feels incredibly familiar, yet each track is new. Almost every songs reminds you of the style of another artist (or three) without sounding like one of their songs.

“Earth Mother Dancer” brings Alice Cooper to mind. Backed by Angus Young, mind. “Great Sexpectations” is Faster Pussycat in all but Taime Downe’s vocal style. “She’s In Love With Joan Jett” could have been written by Blink-182 with that edge of pop/punk.

The net result is an album that’s totally accessible to anyone who likes “rock”. I love that I can listen to it, be reminded of a band or album I’ve not listened to in ages and then “squirrel” off to dig it out later. Listening to Welcome To My World has made me rediscover music I’ve not listened to in ages!

There simply isn’t a bad track on it. There are some songs that are better than others, but nothing that could be classed as weak.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to wallow in it again. - Moshville Times