Stars of the Lid — The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid

Oh, what do we have here? Hmm, this is definitely not for fans of the more "traditionally" structured & played music and here's the problem I have with this review: the people who will like this probably know the genre much better than I so they will find my review inadequate and the people who won't like this, well, they won't like it anyway.

So this review is addressed to those middle of the road people, those music-fans who have (nearly) never listened to that kind of music and feel like trying something new in case it pushes their buttons.

Ambient music! Soundscapes, vivid picturesque compositions, various scenes being played on your brain's cinema screen, moods transmitted by sound waves... The sound of this band is described, by Kranky, as "Neo-Psychedelia, contemporary classical, ambient, minimalist, maximalist, drug enhancer, drug substitute". What can I add to that?

Is it good? Yes it's good. "It works" is what I should say. In retrospective I can say that this triple-album (2 CDs, 3 LPs) was my favourite thing to play last summer (I've had it for a while) before going to bed; and the surprising thing is that I didn't put it on to quickly fall asleep - I actually stayed awake for the full thing (most of the times anyway) while letting my mind wander. I'm not saying this is not a *very* relaxing album, but in addition to that it is a listenable album. Something very discreet yet mood altering and textured enough that it is worth having if only for those introspective moments for which a soundtrack is needed. It is also an excellent album to play when reading; it's all instrumental (except some field recordings but they are very non-obtrusive) so it doesn't distract from the book - this album was the soundtrack to many Isaac Asimov books that I've read and from now on, I always think of outer-space when I hear the composition "Austin Texas Mental Hospital".

To achieve this result, the band (composed of Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride) used all kind of instruments and techniques, from strings (processed or not) to organ, backward samples, piano, drones of all kinds, guitars, field recordings and sounds from everyday life... All that passed through a 'Stars of the Lid-zer' filter to make it coherent and recognizable as the band's work. If you're thinking about getting this album (which I recommend to the people who are intrigued by this review), I must warn you first: don't expect very defined melodies or song structures (no verse-chorus-verse here), don't expect a steady drum beat that keeps it all together, don't expect something that 'rocks'... Just expect something beautiful and ambient.

This is not the kind of music where a lot of things happen in a very short period of time, but if you consider the album as a whole, it is a very organic mass composed of the ever-morphing molten pieces of some abstract puzzle - I don't think it has a clear meaning, but I'm pretty sure that it makes sense, in a different way, to everybody who take the time to incorporate it into their lives.

For those interested, here's an interview with Stars of the Lid (1998)

And I don't want to see anyone complaining that those compositions are too long and that not much happens in them; it's ambient music dammit! That's the point! You're not supposed to listen to this like you listen to Led Zeppelin and what it has to offer is very different too... Sorry, I had to let it out!