Telephonist – Gegen die Wand

With Gegen die Wand, Telephonist reaffirm why they stand among my absolute favorite German acts — right alongside Roman Tisch (from Cologne) Roman Tisch (Bandcamp). Few bands in the German dream pop and shoegaze sphere manage to craft a sonic identity as instantly recognizable, intimate, and emotionally charged as Telephonist. This five-track EP is another deep dive into their shimmering, melancholy universe, but this time the edges feel sharper, the tension thicker, the emotional pull even more magnetic.

A sound defined by fragility, force, and spectral beauty

Telephonist has always thrived in contradiction. Their music lives in the delicate space between collapse and transcendence.
Here, they sharpen that tension with:

• hushed, airy vocals that feel like confessions whispered into fog,

• reverb-drenched guitars rising like distant sirens,

• basslines that pulse with a low, aching gravity,

• beats that hold everything in a hypnotic slow sway.

Gegen die Wand is dream pop drifting toward darkness, shoegaze collapsing into introspection — a sound both comforting and unsettling, familiar yet constantly shifting beneath your feet.

An EP built around emotional pressure and release

Its title, Gegen die Wand (“Against the Wall”), feels like a thesis statement.
Across five tracks, Telephonist explores what it means to run out of room — emotionally, mentally, relationally — and how that pressure can create something strangely luminous.

Each piece grows gradually, beginning with fragile sweetness, then swelling into thick swirls of distortion and reverb, until everything finally breaks open into cathartic haze. It’s a narrative told through texture rather than words, and the band executes that arc with remarkable precision.

A signature sound that’s utterly their own

Telephonist belong to that rare group of artists who don’t just imitate shoegaze traditions — they reshape them. Their sound merges:

• the hushed dreaminess of classic dream pop,

• the abrasive beauty of early shoegaze,

• and a uniquely German emotional minimalism — clean, cold, introspective, beautifully restrained.

Just as Roman Tisch crafts electronic shoegaze landscapes with an unmistakable Cologne coolness, Telephonist taps into Dortmund’s post-industrial atmosphere: vast spaces, empty streets, neon reflections on wet pavement. Their music sounds like those places feel.

One of their most affecting releases yet

For longtime listeners, Gegen die Wand stands among the band’s most emotionally potent works — concise yet expansive, delicate yet forceful.
For newcomers, it’s an ideal entry point: an EP that captures everything that makes Telephonist special while pushing their sound into even more resonant territory.

Telephonist and Roman Tisch continue to represent the most compelling, forward-thinking side of German dream pop and shoegaze — artists who treat atmosphere as storytelling, and emotion as architecture.

With Gegen die Wand, Telephonist once again prove why they remain one of my absolute favorites.

© Thusblog