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Live Review: STARA's 'Simulacra' EP is the most unique thing you'll hear this week

21 March 2018 | 9:52 am | Jackson Langford

There aren't too many projects from up-and-coming artists that are as ambitious and as complex as simulacra, but STARA makes it look all too easy.

It's not often that an artist comes along and completely leaves you stunned and speechless. Not because their music is exceptionally good or disastrously bad, but because it's so different and so fresh that it would feel like a disservice not to give it the attention it deserves. Enter Sydney artist STARA and her stunningly refreshing simulacra EP. From start to finish, it's a listen that opens your eyes & ears, before grabbing a hold of you and not letting go until those final seconds.

Opening with the haunting prelude 'Mirrors & Masks', we're jarred with the ominous whisper of "Mirrors and masks move / round and round / the illusion we can't stop chasing." As we dive into 'Overtake', we're confronted with a dark and moody beat polished with an ethereal vocal deliver. In direct contrast, 'The Real' is overflowing with energy and funk is peppered throughout every layer. Halfway through the EP, STARA is making her immaculate ability to take songs on paper appear worlds apart and bind them together seamlessly.

As we enter the stalking, bass-filled 'In Your Mind's', STARA's natural versatility becomes painfully clear. While the entire project is packed with crunchy electronic melodies and an attention-grabbing vocal performance, the differences from song to song are evident but STARA is perfectly at home on all of them. Finishing with the hyper-climactic 'Matrix of Fantasy', we're taken full circle as she completes simulacra with an amalgamation of everything we've just heard  - dark and brooding melodies, heavy hitting percussion, chillingly beautiful vocal delivery and an infusion of sounds of her Indian heritage that tie it all together.

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There aren't too many projects from up-and-coming artists that are as ambitious and as complex as simulacra, but STARA makes it look all too easy. With a powerful, overarching concept that's infused with electronic melodies that both delight and terrify, you'll realise that STARA has a firm grasp over your undivided attention and you're not about to let it go.

Image via prettybroad

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