January 17, 2008 issue
Asheville’s Telepath Plays Boone Saloon This Saturday
“Live Electronic Down Tempo ReWorld Breakbeat Dub”
Story by Sam Calhoun
In just more than a year of being together as a band, Asheville’s Telepath is making waves in the jam band, electronic and dub fan camps around the Southeast. Often compared to Thievery Corporation and self-described as “live electronic down tempo, ReWorld breakbeat dub,” Telepath plays Boone Saloon this Saturday, January 19, at 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $5.
ReWorld? Breakbeat? Dub? So which one are they? With so many musical genres colliding on stage, Telepath’s sound can best be described as an experience. With the popularity of jam band festivals and tours subsiding in the 21st century and the interest in pop music and indie rock and roll rising, a portion of the musical fan camps in America is searching, now harder than ever, for an experience—an ethereal experience that plays on all the senses and allows daily grooves to be forgotten. Telepath hits on this very note.
“We have had a mission statement from day one. With our music we want to create and provide a positive musical environment that takes audiences to whole new levels,” said Curt Heiny, bass and synthesizer bass player for Telepath. “We create the environment and people pull straight from it. People release and let go of things they come in with; they find peace with [the emotions] they walk in with. I think that’s what music is—it’s a powerful tool.”
Telepath finds its own path from keyboardist/producer Michael Christie. Like Heiny and Telepath drummer Mike B, Christie had many solo projects in the works before forming Telepath in August 2006. Before Telepath, Christie perfected the art of live and electronic samples—horn lines, rhythm guitars, Indian and Arabic musicians and vocalists. With the addition of Heiny and Mike B, Christie now lays those samples over deep groove drumming and dark, reggae-infused bass lines.
“Bringing in world influence is big for us. We aim to incorporate non-western elements into the music. For instance, when we do our horn samples, we want them to sound like they come from a 1970s Jamaican recording studio. We try to be authentic; we try to bring [those elements] in as opposed to more modern elements,” said Heiny.
The result of all of these influences, according to the Telepath website, is a multilayered journey of sound that can transport listeners from a remote village in Pakistan, to a dub studio in 1970s Jamaica, to a fat Philly hip-hop groove—sometimes in the same song. Telepath calls this fusion ReWorld—one question answered. The rest of the answers will have to wait until Saturday.
Telepath began 2008 with a split bill at the Georgia Theater with Dubconcious. Two days prior, the Asheville outfit played the official Sound Tribe Sector 9 after-party in Atlanta. Highlights of 2007 include playing ReGeneration—Sound Tribe’s annual festival—The Echo Project and Camp Bisco, the Disco Biscuits annual festival.
Saturday’s performance marks the fourth time Telepath has played in Boone.
For more information, click to www.telepathmusic.com or www.myspace.com/telepathmusic.
Want To Go?
Date: Saturday, January 19
Time: 10:30 p.m.
Location: Boone Saloon
Cost: $5
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