Sleep Clinic - Dream Programs

In the world of electronics and ambient sounds frolics Sleep Clinic, the solo project behind that of producer and visual artist Jeff Swearengin based in Los Angeles. And, without explaining and going through the project's history that you can find through a quick search on the vast internet, let me begin by talking about the music.

I can honestly say that the first track, Dreamscape on this four piece release was absolutely terrible. It's a simple drone track that pretty much gets louder and louder in your ear drums in a two minute period. There's a pitch shift towards the end of the track where it sounds like a UFO is taking off in the distance, but the song was really a waste of time.

The second track, Artificial and Frozen, brought my hopes back up, with some electronic work and echoing sounds. The song builds up, though, pertaining to minimal electronic use followed through with still echoing notes, ambient space like sounds, and noise to boot. It was a fair song and was nice listening to.

Ladder of Night was the third song on the album, and was also a nuisance in a sense. It was another drone like song, but, it wasn't all too good, either. It had a creepy atmosphere, but otherwise didn't do much except provide loud to soft noise in your ear.

I find it a bit hard to judge the final track, Click and Shudder, as I enjoyed certain bits of the song, such as where the bass takes a more prominent standing, but other bits on it were annoying, such as the static-like noise, buzzing almost throughout the whole song.

So, while not all of this release was enjoyable, I still have to say that Artificial and Frozen was able to hold the album quite well together. I say this because it stands out at seven minutes and twenty two seconds. That's nearly half the album in one song. While two of the other songs weren't great at all, I at least half enjoyed Click and Shudder. Nonetheless, I can still walk away from this album saying that I can return to at least two songs rather than none. And that counts as something in my books. Oct 30 2013