Decoder Ring - They Blind the Stars, And The Wild Team (2009)
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Decoder Ring
They Blind the Stars, And The Wild Team
Tracks
Disc 1
1. Beat The Twilight
2. The Blind The Stars And The Wild Team
3. Charlotte Rampling
4. And The Grass Will Grow Over Your Cities
5. Happy Place
6. 100 Suns
7. Point No Point
8. Let A Thousand
9. Flowers Bloom
10. Astronaut Farewell Blues
Disc 2
1. Same Old Paradise
2. The Horse And The Hand Grenade
3. All The Streams Have Little Glitches In Them
4. The Inland Sea
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Occasionally a
record comes along so well conceived and executed that it renders all
around it dull and ambitionless by comparison.
"They Blind The Stars, and The Wild Team", the latest offering from Sydney’s Decoder Ring, is such a record...
More
than two years in the making, the 2 Disc album (comprised of the
distinctive, yet inextricable Part I and Part II) suggests that the
wait has been repaid, and with plenty of interest.
The crescendo
that opens Part I steadily and irresistibly draws you in, as though
your imagination were fixed to the end of a rope. The thin pulse of the
beat transfixes your attention, as the first of innumerable shimmering
soundscapes takes shape around it.
From the moment the first chord is struck in anger just before the minute mark of album opener Beat the Twilight, you notice that you are strapped into this rollercoaster until it comes to a halt.
What
ensues is an incredible journey, made up of nine epic pieces that are
easiest to appreciate in the context of the passages which precede and
follow them.
Replete with breathless highs and shattering
lows, moments of abandon and moments of utter self-awareness, and
realised with dazzling colours and almost touchable textures, Part I is
a momentous achievement.
That is not the end of it though, as
all that makes Part I resplendent returns on Part II, though this time
the listener is treated to four extended, beatless ambient expeditions,
each tracked in one take.
It simply does not get more organic than single take recordings.
Part II is, simply and undeniably, the product of five artists communicating with stunning comprehension of one another.
The
soundscapes that result are boundless in scale, while the movement of
each passage is as effortless as a yacht in a gentle sea breeze.
Even
the least perceptive listeners will notice a striking lack of hooks,
choruses, verses and bridges present on this double album, as well as a
stark lack of words.
By removing these pervasive conventions
of contemporary western music, Decoder Ring have created a work of art
free from prescriptions of meaning and interpretation. "They Blind The
Stars, and The Wild Team" represents whatever the listener wants.
A
tiny moment in one's life perhaps? A reflection on the totality of
one's existence? One's vision for the future? Anything. The aim of the
record it seems is to evoke emotional reactions; which emotions, when
and how heavy, are up to the listener. Few records give the listener
this kind of scope and freedom. It's liberating, quite frankly.
Working
closely with American producer Scott Colburn (Animal Collective, Arcade
Fire) seems an inspired choice, as the immersive depth of sound he is
renowned for offers the album a vivid sense of ebb and flow.
A
highly accomplished producer is no less than what the band needed
though, in order to wield an endless array of sounds the band
discovered and honed in the two years since their cessation of live
shows. The record, to be sure, is an aural feast.
Adding the
brilliant "They Blind The Stars, and The Wild Team" to a catalogue
which also includes 2004’s "Somersault" and 2005’s "Fractions", Decoder
Ring are fast establishing themselves as one of the most significant
acts that this country has produced, period.
RATING: 5 out of 5
Brought To You By The Dwarf
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