11 IS ONE LOUDER: Colchester's musical conjurers Telepathy choose their Top 5 instrumental albums

 

Today's guests released one of the albums of the year in 2014 with the brilliant “12 Areas”, indeed Colchester-based instrumental sludge/post-metal band Telepathy are one of the underground's best kept secrets.  They play unique and ambitious music, not so much songs, rather complex compositions, music to get lost in, the perfect juxtaposition of beautifully mellow and hideously brutal passages which they execute with remarkable intelligence. Telepathy are musical conjurors, employing masterful tricks within the construct of their music, which they deploy in unpredictable ways throughout their art and that is indeed what they create, art in the truest sense, you never know what’s coming around the corner but you can’t wait to find out.

With each release their raw, voracious and vicious sound has gained more and more clarity, their ideas more expansive and forward thinking. Now, with Jaime Gomez Arellano at the helm, their new album “Tempest” is a different beast entirely. The producer, who can boast Ghost, Opeth and Paradise Lost as notches on his bedpost, is exactly what the band needed at this point in time, and it will surely propel them to greater, more luxurious stratospheres.  Subscribing to their own rules, the band are in a unique position of being embraced by fans of post-metal, hardcore, sludge and progressive music alike, which is testament to the bands imaginative, off-kilter and ambitious musical expressionism

“Tempest”,their second full length for all intents and purposes, is better experienced than anything. Be that in the flesh or sat in the dark with their immersive compositions blaring through your headphones, painting vibrant images in your imagination as they do, amonsoon of riffs, from slow, knuckle-dragging doom moments to the calculated chaos of Mastodon, spinning on a huge axis with their long, winding loops, this album hits you like a drug, freewheeling into your body.

Safe to say then, that THE SLUDGELORD are massive fans and ardent followers of their instrumental musical expressionism, so today it gives us great pleasure to have invited Telepathy to talk us through their top 5 instrumental albums, as we take our weekly trip into the extreme and turn the volume all the way up to 11.  Why do we go to 11,  because its one louder.   

Earth – “Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull” (By: Teddy James Driscoll)

This album is like a wander through the Palm Desert on peyote. The instrumentation and minimalist approach is both sonically rich and wonderfully bleak at the same time and you can almost feel the dry air dancing past your cracked lips as you journey through the barren landscape. All in all, it is just fucking great album!

Vangelis – “Blade Runner OST” (By: Piotr Turek)

First of all, I must say that I love synths. This soundtrack is both complex and spacious. I love the fact that although it is very ambient, there is enough depth to the music to allow a variety of instrumentation and sound. At the same time there are moments, like in the track "Rachel's Song", where a melody is sung without words, adding a human element whilst retaining its instrumental core. It's the whole climax up until the final moments, and my love of 80's electronic music, that makes it my favourite album to listen to. It contains all the best things from its period.

Bohren & Der Club of Gore– “Sunset Mission” (By: Richard Powley)

This was my first introduction to the band, and is still one of my favourite instrumental records to this day. Sometimes referred to as doom or noir jazz, Bohren & Der Club of Gore trade in an incredibly slow and ambient take on jazz soundtrack work. “Sunset Mission” perfectly encapsulates their smoky, dystopian brand of after-hours city jazz and never once lets you break from its grimy charms. Despite it's slow pace, the album is incredibly gripping and every shift, every change in each track is perfectly timed to make the greatest impact. Minimal, atmospheric and incredibly well played; “Sunset Mission” is an escapist soundtrack to the detective story that lives in your head.

Hans Zimmer – “King Arthur OST” (By: Albert Turek)

I think the layering/production/composition is one of the standout points for this Hans Zimmer score. It sounds like he used mostly orchestral musicians for this score, unlike some newer ones, which use electronic libraries of orchestral samples he’s collected over the years. I feel like this is fairly close to the type of music we write and it truly tells a story and fits the film beautifully - in fact I can't imagine the film without it - 50% of the film is that score for me. It says just as much as the picture does. The drums sound amazing and it's the kind of drum sound and playing I am leaning towards in the next Telepathyalbum, a big orchestral sound - epic and powerful. It's inspired me a lot. Compositions are super intricate and beautiful. Some of the harsh and heavy sections on drums, brass and other rhythmic ensembles are brutal and hit harder than a lot of metal records I've listened to recently.

Miles Davis – “Bitches Brew” (By: Piotr Turek)

The instrumental album that has had the most impact on myself would be “Bitches Brew” by Miles Davis. Its was the first time I heard someone using a guitar so well in jazz music, and the experimental nature of this Miles Davis period made it easy to fall in love with.

Honourable mentions:

Bongripper – “Miserable”

Mogwai – “Happy Songs for Happy People”

Burial – “Street Dealer”

Lustmord – “Purifying Fire”

Don Cabellero– “American Don”

Telepathy’s latest album “Tempest” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook