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ENGL 202 Paper Culprate - Deliverance Album Review

This was a paper I had written for my final assignment of my ENGL 202 class. It was due on December 15th by 11:59PM AKST. 4-5 pages. I’d already written three pages two weekends before and planned on sprucing up what I had and slapping on the second half on a later date. That was the plan, until the day before it was due. I was on my way to a 7AM Psychology final, listening to “In The End” by Culprate from the album “Deliverance”, and I was thinking about the assignment, about how to write something that was more subversive than what I already had and how to produce a “stream of consciousness” piece, as I had chosen to do. This, mixed with the thoughts of the music playing, led me to my revelation. I should write a piece that looks like an album review, but is actually a multi-layered narrative that recounts important memories. I outlined, and it all fit. The album had eleven tracks and my time overseas was five years. I could match two tracks to each year overseas, corresponding to each year of highschool, as well as the year after. The remaining track at the end didn’t really fit with the rest of the album, so I decided that I would use it to write about an event that happened in my year here in Anchorage.I didn’t start writing it until the day it was due, and it ended up being fourteen pages long. I submitted it at 11:58PM. I have never felt better.

ARTIST: Culprate

ALBUM: Deliverance

AUTHOR: Constantine Alexander Tsimpinos

This one’s been a long time coming, folks. Deliverance, John Hislop’s third album as “Culprate”, was crowdfunded on April 1st, 2014 and released on December 8th of the same year. Produced by John Hislop himself, the album utilizes a range of live instruments, as well as the more familiar electronic sounds we know Culprate for. Where the album really shines, however, is in the composition and effects utilized. Each track takes you on a wild ride through painted soundscapes, the likes of which you’ve never heard before. With all of that said, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of each track.

WHISPERS (Pt. I)

The album begins and you’re immediately lured away by the siren’s call of ethereal vocals. As they pull you further and further, the most refreshing, concise guitar comes in, widening the soundscape’s horizon like a broad brush on canvas. Drums accompany the guitar, with just the right amount of complexity, as does a bass guitar. The vocals become distant, but they surround you with their airy, distorted timbre. This continues until the vocals come back (this time with words). The lyrics themselves are haunting, “Speak without sound, and dream in hushed whispers”. As they end, everything but the xylophone fades as it plays this dreamy, eerie melody and begins layering on top of itself. A saxophone begins to play, and you realize that this is just the embarking of the journey. An embarking so detailed that it itself is a trial. “I got the job.” “Yeah?” My mom had just come home from work, I had only been home for a few minutes before her arrival. “So, Germany. When do we leave?” “Two weeks.” I’m startled. “That soon?” “Yeah.” Two weeks didn’t seem like very long, but my life had been fairly hectic lately. My parents divorced a couple years prior, and my mother and I had moved closer to my school. A couple years prior to their divorce, my father’s younger brother had committed suicide. Yeah, hectic. “Pack up a suitcase with clothes and a carry-on with whatever electronics you’re bringing. The movers will get the rest.” “Alright.” I rushed upstairs and went to work. “Hey, sorry I’m late. I was in the registrar’s office.” I handed the overweight, bald gym teacher a slip with a signature. “No problem. What’s your name?” “Kosta, short for Constantine.” “Kosta? Like Costa Rica?” Oh boy. “Uh, yeah.” “Alright! Costa Rica! I’m Art Cataldo. Why don’t you sit over there, I’m sure you’ll fit right in.” I sat at a table with three other guys, Shane, Alex, and Henry. They all wore glasses. They all played video games. Nice.

FLORN

The second track opens with a marimba and what sounds like a music box winding. It’s a lazy sort of melody that quickly picks up with the introduction of percussion and what sounds like a smaller guitar. A ukulele perhaps. It’s clean, whatever it is. An upright bass begins to play and everything comes together with a happy, skipping sort of pace. Spontaneous effects and sounds almost disrupt this flow, but end up complimenting it. Everything but the Rhodes fades out as it plays the same melody from the start. A heavy kick appears and a sparkly atmospheric sound pans back and forth. Electronic sounds appear as it launches into a bit that sounds like it’s running through a dense jungle during the night. The bass rumbles low and strong as various synths and percussives come and go like a timelapse of the busiest week of your life. It’s still happy, though. It almost feels like you’ve met your first big crush, and time just bends around the event like a VHS on fast-forward. The melody comes back later and a flute or flute-like instrument plays distantly. The beginning seems to play again, though this time with more effects thrown on top, so as to not forget the middle of the song. Everything but the marimba and upright bass dissipates, and the marimba eventually fade out as well, leaving only the upright plucking away disorientedly. “Tell me about school.” The clinician stared intently at me. Typically I’d say something like, “I don’t know”, but that’s not what I was here for. “Well, I’m not doing too well. I’ve never really been great at focusing on doing what needs done, so I end up procrastinating on things like homework and projects.” She takes notes. We speak for a while longer and I leave with a prescription for Adderall. “Hey, I see you on the bus all the time. What’s your name?” “Tia.” “How long have you been staying here?” We were in the lobby of the hotel that you stay in until you move into a place on the “Economy”. As was typical of most military things, it was relatively ancient, built in the 50’s, or so I was told. “A couple months now, you?” “Same.” The elevator arrived and I got on. “Anywho, I’ll see you around, Tia.” “Later.” The doors in front of me closed, and somewhere another door opened.

THE MEMOIRS OF GREGORY OTTERMAN

The third track opens with a Rhodes playing a few chords in repetition. A faint, relaxed drum set accompanies it. A fast-paced snare fades in through a filter and an effect creates this sensation of spiraling upwards. Everything hangs in place for a few seconds before a kick and plucked bass guitar play. The chords are relegated to backing the bass and kick as different small sounds blip here and there. This repeats for a while. A bouncy, plucky synth then overlays on the bass guitar, and this continues until the outro. The percussion and bass drop out and a Hammond and the Rhodes play with a sort of tropical vibe. After that, the intro Rhodes and percussion play out the song in a quick fade with bubbling sound effects. “You should really leave him, Tia.” I was looking her in the eyes now. “Maybe, but we go through this all the time, it’s not-” “Exactly, you go through this all the time. Don’t you get tired of it?” She sighed. “Yeah, I guess. But I’m willing to put up with it.” My turn to sigh. “Fine.”

ACID RAIN

Acid. Rain. Used to be my favorite track. It’s possibly the most “all-over-the-place” of everything on here. It starts slow with an ambient sound like a large engine that’s silently trying to run. The popping and crackling is reminiscent of vinyl. The first instrument to speak up is a guitar. Clean, but muffled. It begins with a few simple strums and is accompanied by another guitar that sounds like it’s being run through a sort of telephone filter. This builds to the first guitar opening up. Clean, pure. Like the guitar and the beginning of “Roundabout” by Yes. It plays a short phrase and then the percussion and bass join in. The melody is still guitars, but the bass and percussion add a sort of Latin rhythm to it. This builds up and then everything drops. A simplistic synths plays the melody and the whole things goes from zero to one-hundred real fast. If you hadn’t picked up on the tempo before, you certainly will now. A bouncy kick plays on each beat. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s somewhere around 170 beats per minute. It’s an educated guess, as this part (complete with a wonderful harp-like sound and pumping bass) evolves into full on drum and bass. Like I said, it was an educated guess. The first time I heard this part, my jaw fell open. To be more accurate, it fell even further than it had in previous tracks. I listened to it again and again. Just this small drum and bass part. The amount of percussion squeezed into these few seconds of drum and bass bliss is mind-numbing. It may only be a few percussive instruments, but the sheer number of effects make it incredibly difficult to process in one go. The bass and mid synths are really just icing on the cake. The drum and bass ends, and it reverts to the pattern before: kicks on every beat, plucky synth playing, harp sound making its appearances again. This part goes on for a while until it culminates and the guitar reappears, alone. This time, it has a few effects thrown on every once in a while. The other guitar joins in, and they play for a bit until they also drop out. There’s huge atmospheric reverb put on them at the end, and a few notes are played sparingly here and there while the low engine-like sound from the beginning plays the song out. “Hey, stranger. Long time no see.” Tia. It really had been a long time. Months. “Yeah, how’ve you been?” I’d invited her to Starbucks after hearing that she’d broken up with Marcus. No ulterior motive or anything, I just missed her. We made small talk for a while. I glanced at my phone and noticed the date. “Hey, isn’t today your birthday?” It was, April 21st. I didn’t plan it that way, though. Just a coincidence. “You remembered?” “No,” I lied, “I just saw it on Facebook.” I probably wasn’t very convincing. “Anywho…it’s your birthday! Let’s go get you a gift!” “What?! No way am I letting you buy me something out of the blue.” I stood up to leave. “C’mon, let’s go.” I nudged her to get up and we left towards the mall.

IN THE END

This is the one. This is the favorite. For now. Slow, somber. No tricks or deception like what some of the other tracks pull. Right from the start you know what this track is about, as if you always knew this would happen. It opens with an old, nearly detuned piano softly playing a melody. A booming kick starts to play and the piano repeats with slightly less filtration on it, but more effects. This continues, and a harp joins in. The harp and piano play their phrase, and then everything stops for a breath. A synth that sounds like an mechanical arm swinging across a production line sweeps through the song. It doesn’t pan, but it does filter through a low-pass with the quality turned up to create the motion of the sound. A full drum kit accompanies the sound. Booming kick, tight hi-hat, snare with just enough decay, even a shaker. It creates a pace towards inevitability. The piano resumes with the same amount of effects as before. There’s a few drum breaks and the whole thing threatens to fall apart, but it accommodates the new sounds that join in. This continues for a bit and then does make a sound as though it’s all fallen apart, leaving only the piano. The piano plays its melody, then a dry atmospheric sound brushes by and light analog sounds create a soft rhythm. I may have lied earlier. This song does sort of deceive the listener. I feel, however, that as different as the second part is, it is still very much the same song. Low percussion creates a fast, primal rhythm. This is no longer slow and somber, but fast and frantic. Full blown desperation exploded like buckets of paint across whatever canvassed painting had been rendered by the previous four tracks. Cymbals splash everywhere. Long synths drape over the horizon. Everything closes in. There is no escape. “Hey.” She leaned in. “Oh, uh…” I hesitated, and she opened her eyes. “Really?” “Yeah, sorry”. She sighed. “Okay, look: the last bus leaves in thirty minutes.” She turned over and faced away from me. I spent nearly the whole thirty minutes thinking about the repercussions. There would be no turning back. She was seeing someone, too. What would become of that? Would anything become of this anyways? I didn’t care. How many years had been spent working towards this? I couldn’t turn back. “Alright.” She turned back towards me. “I’m ready.” I saw her out in the morning. She entered the elevator that opened into my place. “I’ll see you around?” “Yeah.” The doors in front of me closed, and somewhere another opened.

VOID

“Void” begins unlike any of the tracks have so far. A large, yet conservative kick plays with a wooden percussion sound accompanying it for the intro. A sort of bubbly percussive synth plays every few measures with increasing amounts of reverberation. An atmospheric sound builds as it becomes more metallic, and then the beat continues, but with a bassline added on. A piano fades in and plays chords repeatedly with various effects manipulating its sound. Light drums are played by hand, and a guitar begins to wail overhead. This builds to a moment of silence, and a sharp synth chord hits like a slap to the face. Everything but the guitar, light drums, and piano play again with the new chords on top. This continues until a heavier bassline comes in. The chord synth drops out and an 808 sound adds to the percussion. It speeds up for a moment, and resumes its flow. Light percussion is added on in increasing amounts as this progresses. The drum pattern becomes increasingly complex. The synth chord returns, and the light percussion drops out again. This arrangement plays out the song. “Hey, you’re new. What’s your name?” I don’t know why I was so charismatic today, but something about her made me want to know her name. “Ari.” “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Ari. My name’s Constantine Alexander Tsimpinos.” I liked to use my full name because it was long enough to the point of funny, and my tone amplified this. She did laugh. “Your initials are ‘cat’?” I was surprised. Usually that was my next line. I smirked. “Yeah, that’s right. Most people don’t pick up on that.” She looked me in the eyes and proclaimed, “Well, I love cats.”

WITHOUT

“Without” also opens unlike any of the previous tracks. A wind chime is played, a single note is struck on a piano, and a large, booming bass drum keeps the rhythm. A flute-like instrument plays an eerie melody that reverberates throughout the soundscape. Where everything before “In The End” seemed to paint on the canvas with a hyper sort of energy, everything after “In The End” paints with deliberate, slow strokes. Everything stops for a few beats, and an ambient synths builds to the noisy release of a strong mid and bass synth. It’s one of Culprate’s more notable sounds. The percussion is invigorated by this release, and more layers of percussion join the bass drum. Metallic strings cry out. Effects are overlaid. Electronic sounds pierce the atmosphere. A guitar begins to play an arpeggiation. More percussives blend in. It builds to silence. The Hammond plays a few chords alone. A tambourine is distorted and dragged along. The flute-like instrument returns with a guitar to play a relatively cheerful, almost whimsical melody. They fade, but the tambourine and Hammond remain as ambient sounds increase in volume. The Rhodes appear, and play a haunting melody over the same chords that the happy flute-like instrument and guitar once occupied. A rotating, atonal sound fades in panning and stretching under different effects. The flute-like instrument now plays the eerie melody from the beginning. The song stops abruptly. “Really? Just like that? We’ve been together for, what, four months now?” “I told you, family comes first.” I thought I was justifiably upset. Ari’s younger brother was supposed to help me grab a camping grill out of the back of my mom’s vehicle and ended up dropping it, spilling ash everywhere. I swore at him, and this was why we were here. “Fine. You know what, I think you coddle him too much. He’ll have to grow up someday.” She was furious. I called my parents and told them I’d be home late after I hopped on the nearest bus headed downtown. “Hey, what’s your name?” New year, new faces. I figured I’d get to know a few of them. “Maya.” “You weren’t here last week. Didja just move in?” “That’s right.” “Not much for conversation, huh?” Nice one. To my surprise, she smiled. It was a wonderful smile. “That’s ‘cause I’m trying to read, asshole.” “Oh yeah?” I sat down. “I’m Constantine by the way.” We were together within the weekend.

WITHIN

If “Without” was an ancient, cursed land of dark rituals, “Within” is the ancient beast that lies within the land, waiting to bring about ruination. It was my first favorite off of the album. It beings with a sound like a tape-based media rewinding. A cymbal rolls off sharply and an ethnic stringed instrument plays a short, mysterious melody. A rough bass plays a low note, and a kick with light percussion surrounding it plays the rhythm. A string-like synth softly relays unsettling chords to the listener, and the stringed instrument plays its melody again. A small cymbal percussive and a slightly different bass join in. The light percussion increases in complexity. A clean guitar adds flavor. The same flute-like instrument from “Without” returns, and plays an equally eerie melody. Effects and extraneous sounds seem to increase, and an ancient chant briefly plays. The procession of this intro is not unlike the “rough beast” and his movement in “The Second Coming”. This builds to all the sounds so far dropping out, and an almost space-y ambient set of sounds playing, with what sounds like a tape deck interrupting it occasionally. Then a kick like a heartbeat plays as a new ambient sound rises. What sounds like the intro begins to play again, but is then quickly altered by a bass/mid sound I can only describe as a set of monstrously large, powerful claws that move so fast, and with such force, that they rip holes in reality, letting forth unknowable things from unfathomable dimensions. Indeed, after this sound, aggressive bass/mid sounds slam against the listener. The sound of glass shattering accompanies this barrage. “The center cannot hold”, so to speak. This pattern continues a few times, like a battle between the forces which govern our reality and the instrument of their undoing. The flute-like instrument plays to overlay the tail end of this section. As the battle dissipates, a harp plays a melody which seems to encompass all of what has just happened. It is accompanied mostly by just the light percussion from the beginning. “Wait, you’re serious?” “Yeah, didn’t you read my message?” I was confused, stunned, surprised. She was over to celebrate one month, or so I thought. I didn’t even have time to be upset. “I’m moving soon, and I don’t want to drag this out.” I tried to bargain, but her mind was settled, and I knew better than to try to change that. We finished dinner and I saw her to the elevator. “I love you.” She looked up at me, “I know”. The doors in front of me closed, and somewhere another door opened. “Been a while.” “Sure has, Doc.” I hadn’t been to my clinician since April. Before Ari. I sat down and regaled her with my woeful tale, recounting the few months she’d missed out on. I left with a prescription for Prozac.

YIN

Yin is impossible to describe in a play-by-play fashion as I have done with the previous tracks. It is so abstract that to attempt to break down its mysteries into processable chunks is to do a disservice to the artist. It is the culmination of the second half of the journey. It has fast parts, and it has slow parts. It has no simple parts. Even the outro, which is just the Rhodes with a few effects on it, is beyond description. It is foreign, and yet, I can recognize it as music. Listening to and trying to make sense of this piece is like reading and trying to make sense of Joyce’s “Finnegan’s Wake”. It may be my new favorite. “It’s been amazing, unlike anywhere we’ve been before.” I was on the phone with my mom, telling her about Tokyo. I had been living there for a couple months, and had one month left. “Seriously. We should all come back here again someday. Words don’t do it justice.” Visiting Tokyo cost about as much as a semester of college, so I had decided to go learn Japanese there. It was the best decision I had ever made. It was like arriving on a new world, totally removed from all of the baggage of my past life. I went out, I sang karaoke, I had fun. I’d never done such things before; at least, not with such sincerity. I hung up the phone and decided to go out for a walk. “Tell me about your Uncle.” New therapist. I had ditched my old clinician after deciding to try someone new. She had piercing eyes that seemed to dig into my soul. My heartrate increased, I couldn’t find the words to say. “Well, uh…” What was the problem? Why couldn’t I talk about my Uncle? I had done it before, in front of my speech class. I wrote a whole speech about how his suicide sent my life headfirst into where and who I was today, about how his death gave birth to a life that may have never been. About how it caused divorce, caused me to move, to develop depression, to fear my own mind, to loathe my family, to avoid commitment, to fail at love. Yet here I was, unable to render hardly a single intelligible sentence. Was this a panic attack? She sat back a bit, relaxed, “Oof. Maybe another time.” “Yeah, maybe.” I reached for tissues to dry the tears that had welled up. I left with a prescription for Wellbutrin.

WHISPERS (Pt. II)

Whispers (Pt. II) begins with rustic strings playing moving chords for about a minute until percussion and a meaty guitar join in. The melody is similar to that of the first track. Chanting accompanies the arrangement. An electric guitar begins to play over a rhythm more like what was heard in the first. It is a victorious melody. The sort that one might hear on the return of a long voyage. The percussion switches rhythms between that of the first song and this new, expeditious one. The familiar melody comes back after the electric guitar finishes. This continues until the saxophone fades in. It plays with the percussion and chanting, as well as guitar, until the end, where the string arrangement from the beginning plays alone. Minimal effects are used in the track. “Like I said, I’ll be visiting a friend in Spain for a few weeks and then I’ll be moving to Anchorage, Alaska.” “Well, I can’t guarantee that you’ll get the time off” I was speaking to my supervisor. At the time, I had been working at the School Age Center with children aged six to thirteen. It was fun while it lasted, but it was time for me to go. “I know, I’ll submit my papers.” “Alright.” We made some idle chit-chat and I was promised a parting gift before I left.

RELUCENT Ft. ZES

I’ve always thought of Relucent as a strange piece that perhaps didn’t quite belong with the rest of the album. It seems like a bonus track that, while retaining a semblance of the feeling of the album, lacks the album’s sheer genius that perseveres through each track. It could perhaps be taken to be something after the journey has ended. As though a new one has begun, retaining some of the characteristics of the previous one while not quite having the same maturity. It is no doubt a lovely piece, but when put against an album such as this, it is outshined. “Did you-?” “Yeah.” “Oh God.” “I know.” “I’m scared.” “I know.” I held her more tightly. “It is scary. But there’s no reason to panic about it right now.” I collected my thoughts in the silence. “I know it’s cheesy, but you have to just go with the flow.” I couldn’t believe I said that. “Seriously.” She seemed dubious. “Think about it. Swimming against an insurmountable current will not only get you nowhere, but it will also tire you out. You may not be able to keep yourself afloat. You might drown.” She seemed to be listening. “The best thing to do is to let the current take you where it may. To follow it as best you can until you reach a point where you can regain control.” She was staring at me intently. “That point may not come for some time. But you have to trust that it will eventually arrive.” Silence. “Right?” “Yeah.”

#words #culprate #deliverance #english #essay

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