Talanus 3: Legends of Yasuga –  noyouyesme (2022) – Album Review

Album: Talanus 3: Legends of Yasuga [HTX102]

Artist: noyouyesme

Release Date: February 18, 2022

I feel like when a lot of electronic musicians picture themselves, they see some dime-store cyberpunk fantasy – slick glasses, cybernetic implants, long leather coat … a trench-dwelling uber messiah in four-four time. It’s the myth they sell to themselves between social media uploads and dopamine crashes. But the truth is meaner. You don’t earn a merc jacket until life has tried to peel your skin off. You don’t get quick reflexes without surviving a few explosions, emotional or otherwise. You don’t become the scarred anti-hero by acting like one – you get there by losing everything that made pretending easy. noyouyesme is that anti-hero.

Part of the fun of being a character in the world of Talanus, is that life often imitates art. Talanus 3: Legends of Yasuga sounds like the aftermath of a long war fought in sprawling isolation – both on Talanus and on our own puny planet. noyouyesme is a survivor. His art bleeds into the narrative of this album so well, you can’t tell which side of the universe you’re on. Both noyouyesme and the shuriken assassin Jasyndyl crawled out of the wreckage of this life. In noyouyesme’s case it was with a scorched soul, some charred gear and working headphones. He’s a survivor broadcasting from the edge of whatever of his own world is left standing.

There’s a lot of great production on this album. Elements of dark ambient, with a nice ominous cameo by Todd on track 2, coupled with some really satisfying IDM. Much like Talanus 2: Zero Point Funk, this music is quite literally otherworldly. We have scene reports here on Earth, but this album feels like a field report from another frontier, buried in dust and static. A field report from an assassin – still scarred, but alive and glowing with the faint mercy of a trinary star lit morning.

Definitely give this a listen.