Microbunny - Dead Stars - 2004

Al Okada used to give new meaning to the term “one-man band.” The multi-instrumentalist (formerly of Guelph groove merchants King Cobb Steelie) created the ambient sounds of Microbunny’s 2002 debut himself through sampling and looping, bringing in Tamara Williamson to lend her haunting vocals to the proceedings. With their new Dead Stars disc, Microbunny is now more of a full-band effort — Williamson wrote her own lyrics and melodies and madcap drummer Sam Cino and bassist Mitch Girio were an integral part of the proceedings. And it shows — Dead Stars builds on the first album’s sonic palette, moving beyond mere studio trickery to flesh out some of Okada’s earlier material into a warm swirl of sound. While close kin Cinematic Orchestra and Portishead share a similar languid downbeat aesthetic, Microbunny steers clear of the earthy and heads straight for outer space. With a song named after a Star Trek planet (“Gamma Hydra IV”) and the epic build-up of the 23-minute title-track, Dead Stars is nothing short of… interstellar.