Artist: Shapes Stars Make
Album: These Mountains are Safe
Genre: Indie/Experimental
Label: Facedown Records/Dreamt Music

There’s a fine line in my book between artistic music and simply boring. On These Mountains are Safe, Shapes Stars Make, the latest product of Dreamt Music, wonder this line with a veteran tightrope walker’s nerves. Never afraid to take risks and let sound build rather than throw it in your face, these young artistic minds may just be the indie songbirds Christian music has been needing.

In an attempt to welcome you to the album rather than grab your attention, “Giant Bird” builds with the slow, eerie feel of any great Explosions in the Sky track. In fact, much of These Mountains are Safe at least begins in this way. The group, made up of three rising virtuosos, take their sweet time on tracks like “Be Gentle, Young One” and “And The Sky Opened” to create dense atmospheric sounds before launching into the actual song itself. While this approach may seem a bit boring to some, those who truly crave art in this age of “hit big, sell big, burn out” are sure to be lured in to these vast sonic landscapes.

I think what really let me know Shapes Stars Make had more to offer than time consuming epic pieces of post rock with indie lace was “Sunrise.” Yes, one song out of the eight on the album really gave me something to take away. However, by the time you’ve recovered from what is quite an abrasive intro, you’ll be sure to agree with me. The tracks builds and dies like the best motion pictures. It captivates you and pulls you in without giving too much away up front or letting you down in the end. If only the whole album could strike the chord this one track does, we could be talking legends in their prime.

While Shapes Stars Make seem to have all the pieces to make the next big thing in indie/post-rock, they choose to play it, well, safe with their Dreamt Music debut. These Mountains are Safe will appease your appetite for expansive indie rock, but there’s not much here that we haven’t heard a dozen times in the past. Given another year on the road and some solid work on either condensing their sound or becoming more creative on the instrumentation end and this band could be huge. However, for now, I think I’ll have to pass.

Score: 5/10

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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