When any band drops an album with so much outgoing ingenuity and class that DJ Shadow labels it "as close to perfection as I've heard in a long time" and begins listing them as his favourite band, the whole world should sit up and take note.

Stateless are the band that have done just that.

The bold, ambient five-piece from Leeds in the UK have released a debut album with a truly original blend of smooth, melodic rock and moody electronica, which has caught the attention of critics, artists and music fans worldwide.

The Stateless self-titled LP can best be described as a genuinely unique sound. Produced by Jim Abiss, producer for the Arctic Monkeys and co-mixer for bands like Massive Attack, the album supplies a refreshing, mellow mash of genres and instrumentation.

Drawing from broad influences like Portishead, Coldplay and Radiohead through to Faithless and the trip-hop turntablist sounds of Shadow, Stateless offer so much more to create an album that transcends categorization and leaves expectations for dead.

Lead man Chris James provides sublime vocals, haunting each track with a Thom Yorke-like emotionality, and maintaining a falsetto sound that has been compared to Jeff Buckley. The other instruments compliment the sound throughout. The piano work is somewhat mesmerizing in tracks like the first single ‘Prism #1’ and the powerfully moving ‘Bloodstream.’ The ominous violin riff in ‘This Language’ sends a shiver down the spine.

The album is not all leisurely, care free Café Del Mar fodder though. Tracks like ‘Radiokiller,’ ‘Running Out,’ and particularly ‘Bluetrace’ bring the tempo up, allowing for some exceptional drum lines, and delivering a distinctive intensity and powerful semi-electronic character that give the album its truly groundbreaking quality.

This album is brilliant throughout. It is not only a poignant, inspirational work; in this day and age, it is an eye-opening reminder of how creative yet widely accessible the non-genre specific artist can be, and how electronic acoustic ambiguity can still be a beautiful thing.

A highly recommended listen.

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http://www.teknoscape.com.au/forums/showthread.php?p=1505402

Tracklist:
1. Prism #1
2. Exit
3. Bloodstream
4. This Language
5. Down Here
6. Radiokiller
7. Running Out
8. Crash
9. Bluetrace
10. Inscape