UverWorld - UNKNOWN ORCHESTRA by Lumino

can we talk about UverWorld - UNKNOWN ORCHESTRA (Insane)?

those acquainted with Lumino will be familiar with their 3 ranked sets. they're notable because... they're old -- some of the first maps ever made for osu! -- but they're also notable because each of these difficulties are more-or-less identical to one another, the only major differences being the difficulty settings. the lowest difficulties will have low approach rate and overall difficulty (at this point in osu!'s history, they were tied to be the same number always), and the highest difficulty will casually throw AR10 and OD10 on, a total clear lack of consideration for the player. i mean, the rhythms are very sparse in these maps so with AR10 each note functions with a level of tension and suspense that would have Alfred Hitchcock rolling in his grave. these maps are not great by any virtue, all of Lumino's maps sit comfortably around the 1.0 rating for me.

ok, so can we now talk about UverWorld - UNKNOWN ORCHESTRA (Insane)?

this top difficulty features the same train of thought as Lumino's sets, it's basically every other difficulty but with the settings senselessly amped up to max. the start of the map contains very much the same jumpscare experience as their other top difficulties, but then. out of nowhere. i think there's a real moment of accidental genius that appears as a result of these circumstances, and that accidental genius is right here: 00:22:023 (1,2,3) -

this long ass slider on a sightread with AR10 is a bewildering experience. it choreographs the appearance of the big swooping sparkly synth in the song perfectly, it choreographs the sudden amount of space in the song perfectly. your eyes are fixated on the top left corner, these maps feel suffocating to play thanks to the extremely low note density and approach rate, and suddenly this slider appears. it takes up the screen. it's kinda intimidating? to be honest i'm not sure what emotion i could name here that describes my experience here. i haven't really experienced anything like this in osu! before or since. i've tried to explain the importance of this slider before to some people in the past, to no avail. i can't be crazy, right? surely someone else knows what i'm talking about...

a few years ago i did try to make something similar to capture this feeling

Hirata Shihoko - sky's the limit (TV Size) (Special)