Vega

Album Review

Not quite shoegazer-style dream pop, but not quite pure ambient, either, the debut album by Starline Theorie suffers greatly from its inconclusiveness and lack of focus. A largely instrumental four-piece band with prominent guest contributors, including singer Jane Lui and multi-instrumentalist Brian Dyson, Starline Theorie at its best strongly recalls the pioneering '70s ethno-jazz-ambient work of Jon Hassell and Harold Budd, crossed with the hazy Eno-influenced atmospherics of Daniel Lanois and Michael Brook. The slow-cresting tension and release of the extended tracks "Copenhagen," "Murmur," and "Twilight" are the best examples, although the less enervated, jazzy "Urban Lush" and "Tic Toc" have their appeal, as well. The album bogs down in the middle, though, with a seemingly endless set of aimless rock-oriented vamps all decorated by Lui's mannered, Björk-like line in wordless ululations. Edited down from its current 72-minute length to excise about 22 minutes' worth of these failed experiments, Vega would be a strong, often exciting debut. As it stands, it's more of a promising but flawed beginning.