and Their Refinement of the Decline

We Say...

Review by Robert Phoenix

Unfairly lumped into the post-rock camp, Stars of the Lid have made a career out of assembling bits of sound and stitching them together to make sonorous and deeply resonant music.

The duo of Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride met in Austin where they decided to slow things down amidst of the roar Austin’s cacophonous music scene. On …and Their Refinement of the Decline, their latest chapter in the quest for somnambulant immortality, they’ve hatched eighteen tracks that range from eerie and disembodied to flat-out gorgeous. While the music sounds simple, it’s not — the amount of overdubbing in the micro-world of SOTL is truly impressive. Rich washes of deep electronics are comprised of layer upon layer of aural acrylic, contoured by the occasional vocal sample that reminds the listener there’s a human element at work; those vocals add a ghostly element as well, like the last voices heard before taking the Ultimate Journey.

No ambitious work would be complete without an epic reach and for SOTL it’s “December Hunting for Vegetarian Fuckface.” While the title may evoke images of avant-art pranksters the Residents, the sound is redolent, seeking synesthasia in an almost physical alchemy, deeply felt and performed by Witlzie and McBride who take their time to build the track towards its reverent crescendo.

While it’s easy to get a laugh from the queer irony of the song titles SOTL hang on their pieces (“That Finger on Your Temple is the Barrel of My Raygun”?) they’re only a ruse — a quick, sleight-of-hand attempt to direct attention away from the emotion and depth they conjure.

Indulge them, have a chuckle and then let it all go.