Entry 008 - t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 - 現実を超えて (Beyond Reality)

 

 

Oh boy here we go! Many people that know me know of my tenuous relationship with this artists output. For years now I have tried to get into their music with limited success - only one or two albums have really clicked with me.

I've had friends link me "masterpieces" from this artist and I've tried dozens of times to listen to them and just cannot find the appeal. It just doesn't click. That is until I found this album.

Most of the albums I enjoy from telepath are their early works, where there was minimal slushwave influence. On this album however the slush is in full force, so much so that this could be pointed to as a defining album for the genre.

Slushwave is a microgenre that lives up to its name. The songs are excruciatingly slow, drawn out, and almost lethargic. Most of the genre is based on samples, however many artists have more recently started using original sound design. So why is all this important?

Slushwave sounds a LOT like classic vaporwave, a genre that I just cannot get into - I have tried with many of the genre classics over and over again and it just is not for me. What is surprising to me with this release is how similar it sounds to classic vapor (albeit slowed down even further than that genre is), yet I still truly enjoy the music that here.

I'm not sure if its the way that the songs are structured, or the sense of mystery that permeates every second of the album. Maybe its the fact that each song has its own identity rather than all sounding like the same song slowed down over and over? Maybe its the fact that I can't place any of the samples (if they are actually samples) used in the songs? Maybe this album just has the 'it' factor that I was missing in so many other of telepath's releases?

Whatever the reason is I've honestly given up on trying to figure out why THIS is the album I ended up really enjoying and just sitting back and enjoying it. There is something to be said for when an album/artist/genre finally clicks, and I am very happy that it finally happened with telepath. Finally.