Occasionally ambient, sometimes heavy, usually melodic, and always interesting, Aussie quintet DEAD LETTER CIRCUS's new release, "Aesthesis" is an atmospheric album which washes over the listener and can be allowed to drift into the background of the consciousness.

Slow build ups, and effect-drenched layering of sounds before becoming fully created songs, these guys are very into doing their best to break out of any of the standard structures and songs. However the tracks always feel like they fall short of where they are aiming- the build ups never quite reach their potential peak, and the quieter patches all feel exactly the same. There are some nice experiments with layering vocals over the ambient sections, however these fail to really capture the imagination, and each track begins to sound repetitive. The group's sound, while tight and polished, seems to lack energy and feels lacklustre; as if this album is made out of obligation rather than passion for their art. "Born (Part 2)" sounds like a rehash of older songs that didn't make the cut.

The album begins with a lot of promise the acoustic strummed pattern of the opening number, "In Plain Sight" is cool and has a nice galloping feel which is then taken over by a louder electric section. However once these ups and downs, and the use of large, complex drum patterns under clean guitar melody lines and clean vocals have been used more than a few times, the pattern quickly becomes stale.

While "Aesthesis" is a reasonably interesting album, with a lot of melody to it, even a passing listen shows that it could have been so much more. All of the tropes of ambient progressive rock are here in spades, and seem somewhat overused at the expense of creativity. DEAD LETTER CIRCUS sound like they have dropped the ball and let themselves slip on this one. This isn't necessarily a bad album, it's just not as good as it should be.