Greetings everyone. This is episode three
of vapor rainbow a series dedicated to
exploring vaporwave synth way of future
funk and other genres of Internet music.
I'd like to dedicate today's episode to
the independent producers who are self-
releasing their music on Bandcamp, who
maybe haven't been picked up yet by a
label or who are just making their own
music for their own enjoyment.
These people keep our scene alive with their passion and creativity.
So, let's chart a piece of the endless
sky that is the vaporwave tag on
Bandcamp and see if we can find our new
favorite album.
You find yourself in a grey, featureless
space. Darkness in every direction as far
as you can see. As you wander around you hear a faint indistinct sound.
It slowly grows louder and you may hear fragments of music. Suddenly, a recognizable beat
comes in, and you notice a silver boom
box at your feet.
It's playing AirWaves.
A  classic style vaporwave album by Perth
based producer James Burton.
When I listen to AirWaves, I'm reminded of all the things I loved about vaporwave in
the first place. The weird vibes you get
from stumbling upon new music, the
chopped and screwed the sample editing,
slowed vocals of eerie undertones, and so on.
If early vaporwave made me feel
nostalgia for a time past, this album
makes me feel nostalgia for those days
when I first discovered vaporwave.
[create] posted this album on a seemingly
anonymous Bandcamp account called vaporreality
which popped up virtually
overnight on April 8th and put up 12
albums over the following nine days. Each
with either some stock Wikipedia text in
a foreign language, or just a cloud of
emojis as the album description.
Aside from the aura of mystery surrounding the artist and label, the music itself is at
first shrouded an aura of calmness. The
triangle world seemingly spiraling
steadily out of control as we progress
through the six tracklist from smooth
jazz, to featureless new-age soundscapes, to commercial hold music.
This self-released vaporwave album from
[analog] MESSIAH is by no means the
producers first. With at least 13 earlier
releases, including albums on the Gulf
Audio Company and the Infinity Pool labels, the first thing that hits you
about [cursed radio breakup] is that it
just sounds amazing in terms of texture
and overall production style. There's a
sort of fuzzy VHS quality to every track.
Which is applied in a consistent way
creating a really cohesive experience.
The sample selection feature is heavily
in classic and modern rock. Just a little
bit off the beaten path for a vaporwave
sample selection, and you'll probably
recognize one or two of the songs that
are sampled here. The sample manipulation
here and composition are mostly the standard vaporwave stuff. Though, I had
definitely appreciated the use of some
interstitial spoken word samples between
tracks, and a few more experimental
elements thrown in towards the end of the tracklist.
Overall this is a well-tuned, consistently enjoyable listening experience, and it really shows off the
skills and experience of producer [analog] MESSIAH.
Pull up a chair, get comfortable, and do
not adjust your TV set, because [Nippon TV]
is the commercial break to end all
commercial breaks. An all-you-can-eat
buffet for broken transmission
junkies, and an extremely deep dive into
this style of vaporwave production. The
samples, as are typical, are almost
exclusively Japanese TV commercials and, a variety of effects are applied to
each track. Some slowed down to a muddy indecipherable mess, others ringing
clearly with an upbeat jingle - selling
you a snack food or laundry detergent of
some sort. While this is far from the most
challenging listen in the broken
transmission style, I would recommend
this album for fans who have first cut
their teeth on a few slightly more
accessible offerings, such as [commercial]
TV's Don't Change the Channel or even
Vektroid's re-released Fuji Grid TV EX.
If you want to be able to fully appreciate
[Nippon TV].
M V X X X has been posting music on
Bandcamp for a bit over three years from
the looks of it. And their description
there reads "I do this for fun."
In apocalypsis twilight, this carefree, fun
attitude comes out selecting samples
that evoke a sense of celebration. Though
from the album title, this seems to be a
celebration to spite the end of the
world. M V X X X seems to be making a
future funk album here that doesn't
follow the usual in-your-face,
high-energy attack that future funk is
often known for. Instead relying on a
laid-back attitude that's content to sit, watch, and relax as the sun sets for one final time.
