As a music reviewer, you never really know what sort of music is going to fall under the pen from one hour to the next. Occasionally you are faced with something that you might happily pay good money for, something that you immediately transfer from the work pile to the personal selection. More often than not it is another piece of pop pap or over-aggrandising rapper looking to find someone who wants someone to say nice things about their music before they start their shift flipping burgers or begin their college homework. And then there are times when you are faced with something that truly reminds you why you spend all this time turning over musical stones looking for pieces of sonic treasure, rising open oysters in search of creative pearls.
The Decline of the West is one of those times. A slow-burning, dark and delicious instrumental piece, it rises out of delicate cascades of notes, more beguiling than beautiful, but that is always more interesting anyway, ethereal voices-as-instrument sweep by and the whole thing wraps itself in shaded tones and exotic textures as it takes flight towards distant crescendoes and not altogether logic conclusions.
About as hauntingly heart-aching as music can get. It is safe to say that this has really made my day.
