Culprate - Deliverance: A Masterclass in Experimental Psychedelic Music

Culprate's Deliverance stands as one of the most inventive psychedelic albums of the 2010s. While the album has earned a devoted following, its experimental nature may cause it to be overlooked by those accustomed to more straightforward psychedelic artists like Shpongle and Ott. This review explores why Deliverance deserves your attention.

Culprate - Deliverance: he delivered

The album opens softly with Whispers, Pt. 1 - a warm introduction to the album, a set of friendly vocals and instruments. It begins with mysterious vocalizations, soon intertwining with entrancing guitar and piano, it quickly becomes complex—yet remains approachable and inviting. Then vocals emerge - lyrics like "Speak without sound and dream in hushed whisper" are great, and they're accompanied by immense amount of ear candy that makes it so trippy. The second part gets more mysterious with complex ethereal melodies, haunting echoes and beautiful sax lead.

Further we have Acid Rain, one of the shortest tracks on the album - but also among the most popular. Within the three and a half minutes, Culprate combines influences of several distinct genres. From soft guitar intro, through Cuban rhythms, to a bouncy beat with an acid lead, a subtle breakcore moment, and back to the guitar, except this time it's glitched and mangled - truly an extraordinary combination.

Later in the album we can find tracks like Within, which represents the darker and more experimental part of Deliverance. It takes influences primarily from genres like IDM and dubstep, but mixes them with flute and strings. It feels like you're stuck in some kind of a machination. The beat is slow and atmosphere is heavy. The machine seems to be procesing a signal, though there's some kind of interference. There's something dramatic going on, but I'll leave the interpretation to your imagination. With the end of this track we're transitioning into the last part of the album, more calming and intrumental.

The album ends with Relucent, which combines soft and playful melodies, IDM beats and various psychedelic effects. It's one of the longer tracks on Deliverance, and it's a perfect wrap up for it. It feels like different parts of the album are all intertwining in one final track, it feels like you're reliving it once again.

Who is Culprate?

Culprate is a stage name of John Hislop, a renowned dubstep, DnB and IDM producer from England. He is known for his EPs and singles in these genres, and psychedelic albums like Colours (2011), Deliverance (2014) and αριθμός τέσσερα (2022) - which I will surely cover in a future review. Even though he mostly produces dance music, he says that producing music like Deliverance is his true passion.

Final Thoughts on Deliverance

The album has met various criticisms that it was different than the artist used to do, and that there are a lot of sudden changes which might feel a bit shocking when you listen to it for the first time. The cover of Deliverance might also feel a bit misleading, the album was wildly different than what I expected at first, but I suppose the saying "don't judge a book by its cover" applies to albums as well. Either way, I consider both the cover and album great, and I highly recommend the album, especially if you're seeking an unconventional take on psychedelic music.