Christoph Mark was in Ampersand, a band that was on Fantastic Records, but now he's in Stars on Fire. It's a one-man project originating from Mark's current home in Seoul, Korea, though Christoph is from California originally. The tunes on the band's newest release, Blue Skies Above, are elegant and concise bits of shoegaze. And each number here is the sort of thing that should appeal to fans of the genre very much.
"Stuck Somewhere" is faintly reminiscent of mid-period Ride numbers in terms of structure, while "Model" is even better. On this one, Christoph Mark's baritone blends nicely with the sort of chamber pop that a band like The Ocean Blue once attempted, along with flashes of indie-rock rhythms that wouldn't have sounded out of place on a record from Unrest. Elsewhere, "Blue Skies", the sorta title cut, is fairly well-realized, a nice, not-overpowering bit of shoegaze that also has a trace of The Wild Swans about it, while "Snowblind" offers up slashing guitars atop a hook that's fairly redolent of C86 stuff. Mark is making a modest, yet much appreciated, contribution to the form here, with lots of the Blue Skies Above EP serving up the sort of tunes that should appeal to those of us who have followed the genre for the last few decades.
Blue Skies Above is out now via Jigsaw Records. More details via the official Facebook page for Jigsaw Records.
More details on Stars on Fire via the official Facebook page.