Into the Oud
Astrophil & Stella (2020)

Into the Oud gives an initial impression of a dark and walloping gourmand, suitable for latter-day flower children with a penchant for dimly-lit salons and purple velvet headgear. Following in the wake of ‘more is more’ creations like Oud Satin Mood, Astrophil & Stella’s offering cleverly assays some boozy world-weariness to mellow its central wall-of-toffee accord. The creeping damp of oudy aromachemicals bring up the rear. These last are only partly successful in conveying the ‘precious woods’ message, seeing as they come with a nebula of varnish fumes. One sees the potential of what could have been, however this is almost-but-not-quite stuff. In the drydown it turns into a smoky-sweet nothing, an odour without any discernible compositional intent.