Thankfully, San Franciscan ambient musician Wes Willenbring doesn’t produce the kind of limply ethereal sounds you once meditated to that time you were trying to be more spiritual. On this, his third release, Willenbring wrests his raw guitar work together with distorting effects and chilling piano to create a record that’s more ‘layered aural dreamscape’ than ‘soundtrack to Ikea catalogue’. Tracks like 'People Disappear Everyday' wax and wane, with deeply immersive silences and striking instrumental work that jolts you back to consciousness. Short, achingly melancholic numbers pepper the highlight tracks. Most are just long enough to lose yourself in, although Quaaludes presents 15 minutes of humming guitar, melting uneasily into a hypnotic composition of warped effects. These soundscapes are tightly constructed yet fluid enough that Weapons Resource Manual feels like a choose-your-own-adventure record; there’s undeniable emotion behind the dramatic scores and haunting static interludes, but what it evokes is up to you.

<a href="http://www.ravemagazine.com.au/content/view/32493/181/" target="_blank">Rave magazine </a>