The most impressive and disturbing thing about this music is the way that it shuts down your mental functioning, burying cohesive thought under a thick blanket of psychological snow. This might sound like an unusual element for music that is unashamedly trying to be ambient, but in the case of The Blithe Sons, it turns out to be rather an achievement.

"Arm of the Starfish" is the follow-up to "We Walk The Young Earth", an interesting album that established the band as people who were totally uninterested in attractive mainstream success, preferring to chase their own visions. This release, being distributed by Family Vineyard, finds the band continuing their sonic explorations, crafting gentle ambient music from a variety of mundane sounds and tones. The tracks here aren't "songs" in any conventional way, being better described as soundscapes or pieces.

The first piece, Sparkling Diatoms, is built around a slowly revolving feedback loop and whine, with various hums and drones sitting unobtrusively in the background. The curiously titled Sun Anenome introduces a banjo to the mix, along with some unintelligible vocals, and a bucketload of warm tape hiss.

Subsequent tracks continue the trend of making empty, formless music. Animals of the Seashore and Foam are both unremarkable, but continue the mood that the opening two pieces create. Sea-Glass recreates the ethereal ambience of the opening track, with most of the music consisting of nothing but randomly rising and falling drones.

Whether you like "Arm of the Starfish" really depends on your level of patience. The music here is drawn out, lengthy, and unwilling to let go of its secrets easily. If you're expecting this music to overwhelm you in the space of a couple of minutes, you'd best look elsewhere. Similarly, people who have problems with extreme repetition would be best advised to steer away from this record, the basic concept of the record involves repeating very similar themes over and over to create a mellow, relaxed mood.

"Arm of the Starfish", despite it's somewhat narrow appeal, is still a fine record within its subgenre. It manages to be satisfyingly folky, achingly pretty, and artistically compelling all at the same time. If you're just looking for something to play in your bedroom as you drift off to sleep, this might just be what you're after.