Over the last few years, The Stargazer Lilies have been crafting some of the most beautiful music in recent times. Their swooning debut, ‘We Are The Dreamers’, saw the former members of Soundpool reach dizzying new heights, which meant they had an unenviable task following it up. Rather than just tread the same path again, they have delivered the lush ‘Door To The Sun’, which is even more mesmerising than its predecessor.
Though ‘Door To The Sun’ is not a head-nodding pop record, it isn’t so “out there” that it becomes inaccessible. They may use off-kilter time signatures and have a penchant for dissonance and effects pedals, The Stargazer Lilies make incredibly inviting music. It is rich and textured, with glorious passages that break up the more bizarre moments of the record.
The glassy-eyed haze of Kim Fields hypnotic vocal draws you into tracks ‘Golden Key and ‘Summers Gone’, as the swirling reverb and feedback wraps itself around you until the final notes of ‘A Beautiful Space’. Each composition blends a heavy influence of the more riff driven moments from 90’s shoegaze, somewhere between Catherine Wheel and My Bloody Valentine, while adding the lucid aura of 60’s psychedelic pop.
With Fields treacle-thick bass tone providing much of the rhythmic backbone, John Cep’s guitar works twists and turns between mind-bending freak-outs on ‘When With You’, to bright, tremolo picked lead lines on ‘Heaven and Hell’. Much of the credit has to go to Tammy Hirata’s simple yet effective drum work. It has a very live feel, probably utilised by numerous room mics, and once coupled with a cavernous echo it is both delicate and thunderous in equal measure.
At only 8-tracks deep, ‘Door To The Sun’ doesn’t outstay its welcome. This gives the album breathing space and avoids become stale; a problem that often occurs with albums of this nature. The Stargazer Lilies don’t have to worry about such issues here as ‘Door To The Sun’ is a fully immersive album that’s very easy lose yourself in.
GLEN BUSHELL