"Their sonic aesthetic revolved around groove-based, densely layered
psychedelic jams, which featured slightly ethereal vocals, acid house-influenced bleeps, shuffling danceable beats, deep
basslines, and rhythmic funk guitar."
The band name is a play on words, you can read it as either 'interstellar' or 'into Stella', after lead Stella Grundy. The original line-up consisted of Grundy, Martin Mittler, Ian Bendelow, Martin Wright and Spencer Birtwistle, plus dancer Anthony Green. Sadly, Bendelow, Wright and Green have all passed in the last few years. Spencer Birtwistle joined the ranks of The Fall (twice) in the Noughties, whilst I could find little trace of Martin Mittler's musical exploits, post-Intastella.
Stella Grundy began to release solo music in the early 21st century, subsequently forming a new incarnation of Intastella and - in a nice link with yesterday's post - recording with Jah Wobble. You can find all this plus some Intastella rarities on Bandcamp.
Today's selection dips into the three albums Intastella released between 1991 and 1997. As ever, not a 'best of', but a fairly random selection of singles and album tracks. I've left the closing track of third album Nuphonia more or less as is. On the CD version, the cover version of Gregory Isaacs' Mr. Cop was an untitled hidden track, appended after a minute or so's silence to the end of I Love The Smell Of New Grass. For this selection, I've segued the two for your instant gratification.
1) Century (12" Version) (1991)
2) Skyscraper (7" Mix) (1997)
3) Drifter (Album Version) (1995)
4) People (Album Version) (1991)
5) Nuphonia (1997)
6) Mr. Everything (1991)
7) Soon We'll Fly (12" Remix) (1997)
8) I Love The Smell Of New Grass (Album Version) (1997)
9) Mr. Cop (Cover of Gregory Isaacs) (1997)
1991: Century (12"): 1
1991: Intastella And The Family Of People: 4, 6
1995: What You Gonna Do: 3
1997: Nuphonia: 5, 8, 9
1997: Skyscraper (CD single): 2
1997: Soon We'll Fly (CD single): 7
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