Vaporwave

[Lane Visitor]

legit copy of eccojams for sale

 

Oh wow, if was strapped w cash right now id pick that up for sure

[purlieu]

I've seen a fair few releases with 'one tape per customer' on the Bandcamp. Catsystemcorp actually says he'll make copies for people if they ask him instead of them paying extortionate prices on Discogs.

[joshuatxuk]

what is the community consensus regarding high prices for the cassettes? are there places with limits on how many tapes you can buy, for instance?

 

It's a lot different now. Back in the day there wasn't much demand outside of 50-100 tapes and the months then years of renewed an grown interest made them so expensive - like Floral Shoppe or other early Beer On The Rug tapes/CDrs (or eccojams) were a lot more niche. The scarcity was organic. Now you have kids who WANT it on tape for no irrational reason as well as those who want to send $ and like the physical item as perk, so Dream Catalogue has upped their runs to 200+ in come cases and done a vinyl kickstarter.

 

In regards to tapes in general now with bandcamp a lot of people are keen on letting digital options out there but in the past - 5+ years ago before cassettes became a fad, it was not unusual for most tape labels to not have any digital copies available. So you'd have to track it down and/or hope someone ripped it and uploaded it. For example Matthewdavid's early tapes were not mp3s, same with cult hits like Run DMT and Eccojams (0PN) - those were never digitally available. That was 2009 or so.

 

Also, some labels exploit the demand. Hospital Records (noise label) and others use to hold on to a copy to sell for 10x more when demand rose because their tapes would sell out fast. Gnar Tapes did that recently too - selling the last copies of tapes for like $50-100+ when they were originally $5 or $6.

 

I won't lie, I've flipped a few vw tapes, 3 or 4 I think, usually for 2-3x more. So like $30 or less. Used it to buy more tapes and kept the digital downloads.

 

I've seen a fair few releases with 'one tape per customer' on the Bandcamp. Catsystemcorp actually says he'll make copies for people if they ask him instead of them paying extortionate prices on Discogs.

 

Yeah I got a second run copy from him once, classy dude.

[purlieu]

It kind of annoys me that a lot of people buy the tape and never listen to it, especially on super limited runs. I rarely listen to music on my computer so the tapes are invaluable to me - anything that has a physical release gets fifty times the plays of anything that doesn't - and it's annoying that there are tapes I want sitting around some kids bedroom unplayed. Seems a waste.

 

Depending on my financial situation, I'm hoping to get my label properly up and running this year, which should be putting out some vaporwave. I'm hoping to re-issue some out of print stuff and stuff that never had a physical release.

[joshuatxuk]

It kind of annoys me that a lot of people buy the tape and never listen to it, especially on super limited runs.

 

Yeah I always wonder about that. Some kids though, they'll play them to death in crappy walkman or decks.

 

Also regarding limited runs I found it interesting that Illuminated Paths still puts out the Saint Pepsi / Luxury Elite split. I think they've put out 500+ tapes. That label also sends out random shit in the mail with the tape - POGs, Japanese stickers, other crap.

[purlieu]

Ha yeah, I'm mates with Loose Link so bought his tape when it came out, all sorts of strange stuff came with it, pogs, trading cards, all sorts.

I love that he keeps putting that Saint Pepsi / Lux split. There's a demand for it so why the hell not?

[purlieu]

New 猫 シ Corp. tape

[prdctvsm]

º ¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸,ø¤°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ <3 :

 

[watmmisdead]

I listen often to Yung Bae

 

Is there anything like this????

Edited February 15, 2016 by Ayya Khema

[Ragnar]

i usually end up liking vaporwave album covers more than the actual music

[Lane Visitor]

haha yes this is kind of a classic criticism of it all

 

if you listen to enough you'll find artists who are actually very talented and original and who can match the visual side of things with the music and it can be very intriguing indeed. however i think there are just too many folks who have the reaction of 'vaporwave? yeah easy i can do that!' and just make lazy stuff by slowing songs down with a few effects without making much of an effort to pursue any particular vibe aside from just sounding the same as everyone else.

 

it's such a promising genre in terms of what is possible yet it seems as though most releases fail to live up to this potential. i found most of what i'm interested in is stuff that is influenced by vaporwave and could be considered 'post' or 'prog' vapor, and that's where the real vibes are at.

+1!

[purlieu]

Yeah, totally. Almost all of my favourite 'traditional' vaporwave is still the 2011/2012 era stuff. These days I tend to follow artists who are doing something different with it - CatSystemCorp and Luxury Elite are the only artists putting out old style stuff that I pay much attention to.

[Lane Visitor]

Discovered a great mallsoft release tonight... Might be a favorite of mine alongside Palm Mall & Hologram Plaza...

 

http://dmtrec.bandcamp.com/album/christmas-at-crystal-valley-mall

[Lane Visitor]

... And this one too...

 

https://malloffuturepast.bandcamp.com/album/welcome-to-crystal-valley-mall

[prdctvsm]

^ thx 4 linx lane, dwnldng now (:

 

 

http://alphasonics.com/alphasonics/categories.php?category=Discounted-Mini-Sets%252dTapes

[Cryptowen]

i usually end up liking vaporwave album covers more than the actual music

yeah same

i mean like a lot of the time i either want something that takes me back to how i felt at a radically different stage in my life, or something that goes a step further & causes me to have some realization about the nature of time, my sense of identity, and how it's informed by popular culture.

 

A lot of vaporwave just makes me go, "oh yeah, that's a sound from the before times", or "oh yeah, a lot of producers my age grew up with computers & an intuitive understanding of art as a communal, often referential practice". which is fine by me but like the stereotypical cheesy 80s pop slowed down sound just doesn't interest me in terms of actual sounds (most cases)

[Lane Visitor]

 

i usually end up liking vaporwave album covers more than the actual music

yeah same

i mean like a lot of the time i either want something that takes me back to how i felt at a radically different stage in my life, or something that goes a step further & causes me to have some realization about the nature of time, my sense of identity, and how it's informed by popular culture.

 

A lot of vaporwave just makes me go, "oh yeah, that's a sound from the before times", or "oh yeah, a lot of producers my age grew up with computers & an intuitive understanding of art as a communal, often referential practice". which is fine by me but like the stereotypical cheesy 80s pop slowed down sound just doesn't interest me in terms of actual sounds (most cases)

Totally...

 

Ive noticed that many of the images and concepts usually grab my interest while only a small percentage of those albums contain music that I have interest in. However, there are certain artists or labels whose output I can pretty much always count on to enjoy like Lux, CatCorp, of course all of Vek's stuff, etc...

 

and there are the once in a while random brilliant releases like the recent Western Digital or US Golf 95 and boatloads of others that I love.

 

*** Snob alert*** I don't typically like those loosely tied together eclectic vapor albums without uniform concepts or atmospheres, ya know the ones whose cover art images always look so tasty and neon with absurdly warped pop art collages and stuff, but usually there's like no direction on those... It's like a pool of seapunk/pc music-fused vapor-trap w flourishes of soul samples and funny water drop sounds and chiptune and then some nice ambient textures .. And then [enter microgenre here]... Usually great grooves and sound design and mixing but almost always little focus or purpose. Don't get me wrong I like dada and eccentricity but I guess I just like my vapor to serve as background muzak rather than at the forefront demanding focus.

 

And then there are those suuper generic (not in a good way) vaporwave-just for sake of it releases where almost every track is either recognizable stuff like Barry White, or Marvin Gaye samples or Madonna/MJ instrumentals pitched down a tad or easy listening stuff that youd almost recognize from soundtracks etc, like as if a 15 yr old just did a yt search for "easy listening" and mp3 ripped literally the first result that comes up --most likely herb alpert / james taylor / carpenters etc and threw it into ableton, looped the intro and exported lol. BS

 

Yeah so im super specific w my vaporwave lol.. Its gotta be reeeaally weird (or extremely mundane, thus making it weird in effect), really conceptual, reaally intentional (unless of course the producer is talented enough to make me confused as to whether there was focused intention or sheer unintentional genius at play- like PrismCorp or Internet Club)... This is partly why I love mallsoft-- you almost always know what youre gonna get, its consistent, forgettable, generic, it's background, and yet its still surreal and adventurous because it takes you to another place. Its an echo of an echo of an echo that may or may not exist. Thats how i like my vaporwave.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Lane Visitor

[Stock]

Great post Lane. You put words on what vaporwave (especially mallsoft) sounded to me, pretty sure it will be way easier to explain it to my friends now!

[prdctvsm]

(❛ัॢᵕ❛ั ॢ)✩*ೃ.⋆ ( ख़ืིڞ◟྄ख़ืི) (ּơ̑ළּơ̑) :

[purlieu]

So, the first (threatened) legal action over a vaporwave record has happened, over 'Snow' by 2047.

Reddit thread

Turns out some tracks on Snow are literally just Solar Fields tracks slowed down with no additional editing. Apparently SF isn't going to take further action now the album's been taken offline. 2047 seems pretty upset over the whole thing, according to his Twitter.

[Stock]

So, the first (threatened) legal action over a vaporwave record has happened, over 'Snow' by 2047.

Reddit thread

Turns out some tracks on Snow are literally just Solar Fields tracks slowed down with no additional editing. Apparently SF isn't going to take further action now the album's been taken offline. 2047 seems pretty upset over the whole thing, according to his Twitter.

 

Woopsie. Hopefully Diana Ross' legal service still doesn't know about Vaporwave

[purlieu]

I'm still astonished that that track's not been taken offline by now.

[joshuatxuk]

 

So, the first (threatened) legal action over a vaporwave record has happened, over 'Snow' by 2047.

Reddit thread

Turns out some tracks on Snow are literally just Solar Fields tracks slowed down with no additional editing. Apparently SF isn't going to take further action now the album's been taken offline. 2047 seems pretty upset over the whole thing, according to his Twitter.

 

Woopsie. Hopefully Diana Ross' legal service still doesn't know about Vaporwave

 

 

Nah, this 2047 debacle is fair game. Sampling is subjective sure, but that's lazy and cheap to release stuff like that, paulstretching some contemporary electronic composer versus clever looping/chopping up older more mainstream samples.

[Threads]

New HELLCOM album incoming:

 

[purlieu]

HKE's dropping a track from the new 2814 record tonight:

https://twitter.com/HKEdream/status/702508236113575936