Single Review: The Daylight

Hotel Death Star are a relatively new duo, finding life in 2020 when singer-songwriter Phil Stoodley collaborated with composer-producer Andreas Arianto to craft their interpretation of melodic deep-house blended with more traditional songwriting elements. Fans of electronic genres will find plenty to like here, but crossover appeal might be limited.

Only their third single, The Daylight is a minimalist groove with fragile vocals, a lilting guitar refrain, finger-click snare, and pulsating bass. Guest vocalist Asteriska soothes alongside Stoodley’s gravelly croons, alternating between sparse lyrics and soulful vocalizing. The instrumental elements gather in intensity then drop out at a couple of points, but it mostly cruises along on the same dream-like vibe, and the lack of compositional progression is noticeable in a 5 minute tune – I found myself wanting a new element past the 3-minute mark.

The release is accompanied by an appropriately hypnotic video, with cloud, smoke, oil and water particles floating across the musician’s faces, reinforcing the ethereal quality of the music. While it’s a little stuck between a guitar/drum-based 3-minute folk song and a meditative dancefloor shoe-gazer, there’s enough skill on show to suggest that these ideas explored across a whole album (or live show) would be engrossing.

The Daylight releases September 10th on all major streaming services.