Though it is technically a solo guitar record, the sheer amount of outboard processing utilised by Sarah Lipstate on ‘Fantastic Planet’ means that for long stretches, the sound’s origins in wood and strings remains largely unguessable, as gentle electronic tone clouds rise and fall much in the manner of an Eno ambient record, or of feel-good drone practitioners like Growing or Windy & Carl.

Nonetheless though, the primary use of electric guitar is what gives the sound its guts, with the inherent aggression buried in the instrument always managing to awaken us from sky-gazing reverie, as reverberating low end twangs, echoed pick scrapes and sinister bursts of crystalline fuzz can’t help but break through the flashing LEDs now and then, shaking speaker cones, keeping us grounded where we belong.

Spaghetti Western-esque fuzztone menace cracks like thunder across the tranquil surface of ‘Into The Dunes’, and, from the bead curtain-swishing fragments of light twinkling through ‘No Unholy Mountain’ to the alien mothership roar of ‘Rubicon’ and the eagle-cam desert sky guitar heroics and Tangerine Dream synth shuffle of ‘Sisters’… well, you get the idea, I’m sure. Each cut here presents its own engrossing miniature universe - proper psychedelia, aiming at the micro-cosmic detail of the most unlikely hippie DMT boasts.

Though it veers dangerously close to po-faced post-rock tendencies for a moment or two here and there, ‘Fantastic Planet’ for the most part is an incredible achievement - a collection of brief, carefully wrought vignettes rich in both conventional melody and the kind of strange, beautiful, intricate detail that rewards full headphone immersion - like a movie close-up such as the one depicted on the album’s cover that just keeps getting closer and closer, clearer and clearer until a whole new abstract realm is revealed.

A precise and assured recording that throws off ideas and possibilities in all directions whilst remaining as comfortable and ingratiating as music can be, Lipstate’s work serves as proof positive that feeding your plank through several thousand dollars worth of electronic boxes doesn’t necessarily have to result in self-indulgence and sonic mud.

'Fantastic Planet’ can be investigated on Bandcamp here, and is available in the UK from Fire Records.

Labels: best of 2015, Noveller