Summer Platters
Sleep Good
Dream Dealer (Blackland Hall)
Reviewed by Neph Basedow, Fri., June 19, 2015
The grammatical faux pas in Will Patterson's recording moniker marks the extent of his creative blunder. After scoring a pair of soundtracks for famed film director Terrence Malick, the former Sound Team member channeled that experience into his sophomore LP, piecing its 11 tracks together to resemble a movie score. Ten cut instrumental, so Dream Dealer engages effortlessly. Opener "X" commences delicate and ambient, glockenspiel and slow soaring spacial guitar quickly setting the scene. Too bad the now-Blackland Hall studio owner was only a third-grader when Vanilla Sky and American Beauty dropped. Highlight "Om the Dome" revs momentum, adding piano and a slicing pedal effect, but as pretty as it and its fellow tracks unspool, they contain a subtle ominous or melancholy undertone. Closer "Onism" marks the album's sole vocal recording, its bookend note of electronica evoking the heightened pop spin of Sleep Good's 2010 full-band output Skyclimber. That accessibility, paired with Patterson's idiosyncratic lo-fi, kindles a fiercely unique result.
