2008, Anticon

At War With Walls and Mazes is a stunning debut wrung from classical precision and good old human gut-wrench. Son Lux's first is a heady collection of songs breathing the same air and sharing the same space; painted from the same palette but set apart still -each is a distinct region of one broad, heaving sonic landscape. From afar, it's an environment characterized by would-be contradictions: the austere grandness of chamber music undercut by undulating electronica; the intricately orchestral assembled via hip-hop collage; a day-plain pop ease silhouetted by deep soul. Up close, it's clear that these contradictions are what hold the entire work together.