Intastella

Intastella, featuring three former members of indie-funk group Laugh and fronted by vocalist Stella Grundy, had a blissful retro-futurist electronic and pop sound close to Saint Etienne, Andrew Weatherall and One Dove. Their sonic aesthetic revolved around groove-based, densely layered psychedelic jams, which featured slightly ethereal vocals from Miss Grundy, acid house-influenced bleeps, shuffling danceable beats, deep basslines, and rhythmic funk guitar. The style of the music is partly sunshiny 1967 UK psychedelic rock (The Beatles), airy 1970s soul-funk, and late-1980s acid house and electronic club music with its Ecstasy-dueled drug euphoria. The name of the group is a clever combination of "interstellar" and "into Stella", and the group was active under this name from 1990 to 1997. In 1990, months after forming, they toured as the support act with World Of Twist, followed soon thereafter by a tour opening for Charlatans. The first Intastella song, "Fresh", was co-written by World Of Twist's Tony Ogden, but was never released. Intastella saw themselves as "post-baggy" in that their music and style was an intentionally colorful and vibrantly positive reaction to the creeping dour stodginess of the slowly fading "baggy" scene. The group's debut single, "Dream Some Paradise", released in May 1991, was intended to "get people dancing with a bit of style" (said Spencer Birtwistle) and, in the words of Stella Grundy: "We want to bring a bit of dancing back. I know people say you can dance to anything, but you can't really do any of the cool moves to acid". Like the Happy Mondays, Intastella had a member ("Little Anthony") whose responsibilities were solely dancing onstage. Members: Stella Grundy (vocals), Martin Wright (guitar, keyboards), Martin Mittler (bass, guitar, keyboards), Spencer Birtwistle (drums, keyboards), Lil' Anthony aka Anthony Green (dancing), Ian Bendelow aka Bendy (guitar, bass)