C3L3STIAL天の

review

my blinds don’t fully close at night. it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s definitely odd to always have the tiniest bit of light seep through, even during the latest of hours. there’s a couple hours every evening, though, as the sun sets, and the orange rays bleed through the gaps in the blinds. sometimes i’ll look outside, vaguely see the people trying to get back home, the cars on the road or the pedestrians walking. occasionally i see a dog, or a larger group walking together, or the bus run.

now, this usually doesn’t last long. it’s just a minute or two where i’ll enjoy the scenery, and then i’ll go back to doing whatever bullshit i was trying to avoid doing. but, for that one, small moment, it’s kind of fun to let my mind fade away and enjoy watching other people go about their lives.

C3L3STIAL天の is the album i usually start playing after i see the sunset. it’s just so… dreamy. it’s like that sunset through the blinds, where you just get small pockets of some world you care just enough to glance at but not enough to look any deeper.

pretty much every song is built off waving synths and distorted samples. sometimes there’s small pockets of lyrics, but they’re almost always too distant, covered by thumping bass hits or a small static hum, to be discernible. it doesn’t feel like you’re supposed to worry about any of it all, just be washed away in the grainy loops.

the whole thing flows in a really interesting way as well. almost half of the album are these shorter interludes to fill in the gaps between the work’s longer songs, and they work excellently to keep everything moving along exactly how it should. sometimes you’re sent smoothly sailing into the next track, other times it’s a complete jolt into a different sample loop. it’s like the car passing out of your sight: they could ride off slowly until they’re out of view, or make a turn behind a building and effectively disappear from your world.

the only real issue with said interludes is how much of the album they take up. the whole thing is only 22 minutes, and said interludes take up about 25% of the runtime, which means you’re really only getting ~17 minutes of fully-crafted songs here. not that it’s a horrible thing, but with everything laid out, there’s just not enough time given for everything to sink in as much as i’d like.

either way, within those 17 minutes, there are some absolutely divine songs. C3L3STIAL_CITY is, by all accounts, an extremely simple sample loop, but between the melody from the main sample, the thumping drums, beautifully layered notes and just the right amount of distortion, it just feels magical. sunset express to {eternal bliss} is also fantastic, starring a beautiful piano loop backgrounded by some static, waving synth notes and a fantastic melody. if i’m picking a favorite, though, it’s got to be REBIRTH天の. it’s the song with the most up-front trap beat, alongside some of the heaviest, forward distortion and a breathtaking sample to put it all together. it’s astounding how well every element melds to create this looping, ever-flowing closer.

individually, a lot of these songs wouldn’t stand alone as great. as a full piece, though, they add up to make C3L3STIAL天の one of the most immersive electronic albums of the 2020s so far.

score

9/10

notes

• released by bliss3three
• released on no label
• released in 2020
• crossposted to albumoftheyear