The Last Starfighter

November 14, 2013 3:26 PM

A year ago a mysterious young man going by the name of Starcadian posted a surprisingly masterfully composed music video shot for $200 with half of a discarded movie prop cockpit. Other than a few songs on soundcloud, notably Girls Of Midnight which got some moderate blog attention a couple years ago, he hadn't really been on anyone's radar...

A month ago, he broke what had been close to radio silence and posted a trailer for an upcoming release. It's fairly mysterious, and makes it a bit ambiguous what exactly is coming. Short film? Long music video in this vein? Album?

On October 31st he updated his bandcamp revealing what he had been working on, The full length "Soundtrack" Sunset blood. It's a fairly expansive album covering a wide range of styles from laid back modern electro pop, to mingling with stuff more like Air, to chromeo-like 80s inspired pop and beyond. Lush synthesizers abound, and lots of vocoding and talkboxing.

There's also a recent Interview, and a Reddit thread in which he answers quite a few questions about the video and his music in general.

posted by emptythought (16 comments total)

and sorry if this sucks, this is my first fpp! i feel like i'm speaking in front of a whole lecture hall of people for the first time or something.
posted by emptythought at 3:27 PM on November 14, 2013 [2 favorites]

emptythought: "and sorry if this sucks, this is my first fpp! i feel like i'm speaking in front of a whole lecture hall of people for the first time or something."

No worries. We're all in our underwear.
posted by Samizdata at 3:29 PM on November 14, 2013 [16 favorites]

sorry if this sucks

It's fine. You are fine.

posted by jessamyn at 3:41 PM on November 14, 2013 [10 favorites]

I'm naked and this is good.
posted by dazed_one at 3:41 PM on November 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I dig the song and video.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:43 PM on November 14, 2013

Produced in part by Paris Smaragdis? If it's the same guy, seems unusual.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:44 PM on November 14, 2013

Is this algorithmically composed in part?
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:48 PM on November 14, 2013

Metafilter: No worries. We're all in our underwear.
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:52 PM on November 14, 2013

That was beautiful. It reminded me of Monarchy's video for The Phoenix Alive.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 4:18 PM on November 14, 2013

i'm listening to the soundcloud page - thanks empty this is good
posted by compound eye at 4:38 PM on November 14, 2013

This? This is good.
posted by snwod at 5:01 PM on November 14, 2013

Sunset Blood is on Spotify. Can't wait to listen, this stuff hits me right in the sweet spot.
posted by schoolgirl report at 6:02 PM on November 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

I liked the song. However, he should look out for all those blobs of white paint.
posted by TDavis at 10:19 PM on November 14, 2013

The video is great. The music reminds me of Daft Punk in the same way that Owl City reminded me of the Postal Service.
posted by grumpybear69 at 5:20 AM on November 15, 2013

Good post! I like the music & video a lot -- it sounds inspired by the likes of Daft Punk and Kavinsky (well, with the obvious 80s influence), but in a good way.
posted by spiderskull at 10:24 AM on November 15, 2013

Sure there is a Daft Punk and Kavinsky feel to it. But I'm getting a greater vibe of Alan Parson Project. Expecially in "HE^RT".
posted by GreatValhalla at 10:43 AM on November 15, 2013