Halfway through the album, I get a little bored. Maybe I'm falling asleep without knowing it. That might be a good thing. Reading the album description, the artist is spinning a narrative of us being at a dreamlab, so we are supposed to fall asleep and dream. Goal achieved. The music is very pleasant, very stable, not much is happening, nothing unexpected. One could even say that this is part of this particular ambient subgenre. Also, me getting bored is a recurring theme with music in general. The only unexpected thing happens at the end of many tracks; long silences for some reason. Time to reset? Wakes me up, though. So, I drift off, nice and relaxing. Then, silence. I wake up. What now? Oh. Back to sleep. Silence again. Damn it. That's what I get for wishing for more variation… The first track, on the other hand, quits abruptly. At first, I think it's too abruptly. Then, I'm thinking it's good that the tracks might just go on continuously. Then, the silences start. Why? If we're supposed to relax anyway (and even fall asleep and dream), why not go all in and make the whole album one continuous track (or at least no fading between tracks). In the end, goal not achieved. "Internet music at its finest"? Only partly. Locally, it works. Globally, not so much. What started as me getting bored turns into me also getting impatient. I switch between the two, which is worse than just being bored. Bored is useful. Impatient is just impatient.
The artist is signed on a label called Vapor Scape Records (specializing in internet music), so someone obviously disagrees with me. I akktjoli like individual tracks, though. There is an overall nostalgic, slightly sentimental, dreamy vibe. It's just that the full experience is not as elevated as it could have been. I can see some dreamlab DJ picking this up and mixing it all together into one continuous stream of unconsciousness.
★★★
Footnotes:
- Whenever I feel impatient, it might just mean that I'm physically uncomfortable for other reasons, in which case I'd better lie down on my sofa with headphones, relax and close my eyes, maybe under a blanket if cold.
- Dreams can go pretty deep.
- Where's the explicit content, though? Where is it‽ That sticker lied to me. It lied to all of us.
- Old notes? What old notes? I don't have any old notes.
