The Marathon Petroleum refinery looms over the Boynton neighborhood of Detroit, MI like massive drill bits that cored through the center of the Earth. At night, when the lights on its dozens of towers light up, it resembles an alien electric grid, its red, blue, and white bulbs imprisoned like trapped Tinkerbells within steel beams. A few years ago, the plant was forced to pay an $80,000 fine, plus almost $300,000 in “community investments,” after a broken pipe leaked toxic gas into the lungs and waterways of local residents.

Detroit’s Clinic Stars don’t seem to have anything to do with the band Clinic or the band Stars. Instead, the duo of Giovanna Lenski and Christian Molik make gauzy, rapturous quiet-thrum slowcore in their home studio. They’ve already released two EPs, 2021’s 10,000 Dreams and 2022’s April’s Past, and now they’re getting ready to release their full-length debut Only Hinting.