Vaporwave

[Stock]

kinda unrelated, but i saw avicii at coachella a few years back

 

"Your WATMM account has now been suspended."

 

(jk, the visuals look great !)

[Lane Visitor]

^Never really dug that guy but that is really fucking cool.

 

totally it was pretty unreal experience.. but modeselektor's live set may have been even more amazing..

 

 

 

kinda unrelated, but i saw avicii at coachella a few years back

 

"Your WATMM account has now been suspended."

 

(jk, the visuals look great !)

 

 

hahaha

[th555]

dope^

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHeQPJczQW8

this is sweet af neat vid collage too

[Lane Visitor]

this is so forward thinking... very idm in spirit

 

and very meta but in a refreshing way.. the album is centered on the theme/concept of vaporwave, but delivered through jagged left-field flying lotus meets cyberpunk/aggro broken beats, rather than an album centered on cyberpunk themes, but delivered through vaporwave sounds. this opposite is enthralling as it's a nice break from the slew of samey vapor and yet at the same time it allows us to appreciate the genre and the awesome weirdness that has come out of it. if i didn't know what vaporwave was and i heard this album, my curiosity of the genre would be immediately peaked.

 

Just as bands like early Dwarves, Alternative TV sounded pretty distinctively different from the "punk rock" at the time, and how Kanye and Outkast's experimental work sounded different from the hip hop at the time, this is an example of a release that i think pushes the genre/scene further to create wider boundaries and will ultimately open up doors to cooler and weirder music/art/concepts/ in general. Call it vaporwave or not, doesn't really matter, and this album is testament to it "not really mattering" because it's good and breaks out of the confines. i dont know that i love it or that it's groundbreaking, or that its brilliant or anything, just that it feels liberating and kind of exciting and natural, and that's what this genre has been needing for a little while now.

 

https://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/vaporwave-is-dead

 

 

side note:

 

in many ways as much as i sigh the sentiment "vaporwave is dead" or how many ppl keep repeating the idea that its been dead for a while now, i think there's something freeing to be able to say something is dead without harsh or scary reprecussions- i think it further expands the subject, and allows it to either find it's way through tunnels, new avenues, or become re-born even stronger. Society has repeated God's dead, punk is dead, rock n roll is dead, etc etc.. if anything it only makes the subjects more real and present imo. i personally dont think its dead (just that it's reached new levels of consciousness - it's not that innocent non-self aware child anymore).. but i like the artistic dramatic interpretation of that theme as presented in this release. theres also a slight sense of humor in the record which allows it to retain its sense of weirdness. (: good stuff!

Edited December 16, 2015 by Lane Visitor

[joshuatxuk]

^someone pointed out that DC dropped the "vaporwave" tag on bandcamp, with "dreampunk" as a tag for their discography among others

[Lane Visitor]

^someone pointed out that DC dropped the "vaporwave" tag on bandcamp, with "dreampunk" as a tag for their discography among others

Yeah i noticed that too... I think its healthy. I almost feel like getting some healthy distance from the term itself from time to time, like in a relationship, can help put things into perspective, and it also allows creators to distance themselves from any genre/tag /title.

 

The important part of it all is the spirit, the feel, imo.. Like when post-punk, new romantic, goth, hardcore, etc etc artists spawned from different offshoots of punk, it need not obsessively refer to itself as punk just because it came from punk or was inspired by it. Like ppl dont call The Cure or Bauhaus or Fugazi "punk rock" even though the spirit is there and the cadences and energy themes etc are very drawn from punk.

 

Aaanyway, im starting to rant here, but what im ultimately wanting to get to is that Dream Catalog is an example of the movement accelerating into new ground, and the lack of samey vapory material and the lack of the tags, labels and cliches doesnt actually mean that vwave is fading--rather quite the opposite.. It allows room for future scenarios of that every now and then "vaporwave as fuck/ classic as hell" album to drop that will get the "purists" excited again. That next Floral Shoppe, cuz fucking really- with punk rock there were more flagship albums then Nevermind The Bullocks. This whole scenario will all ultimately mature the genre and make it stronger and more... real, if that makes any sense...

[Lane Visitor]

even if it is dead its influence will carry on...there's still much more to explore with this idea imo.

Exactly. Well said. I dont think its dead, i think it's matured into something real and living, rather than a sleeping concept or potential energy floating around (which ironically enough gave it its charm in the early days- that sort of unaware experiment on autopilot.) Now there's intention, filters, ideas, philosophy, and most impactful--community.. Community that feels the need to consistently "understand" the genre/style, when really there's nothing to understand--and that's kinda the point. Vaporwave is but a dream, here and then gone, and potentially never existed in the first place. Its an elementary school-equation disguised as an ancient buddhist riddle, or vice versa- whichever one prefers to see it as. And that's the fun and power of it. Vaporwave will never die as long as there are still people intrigued by its mystery, its ridiculous pretentiousness, its corny-ness, its weirdness, its hyper-nostalgic gooeyness, its ultimate absurdity, and its simple brilliance.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Lane Visitor

[cruising for burgers]

 

Edited December 16, 2015 by THIS IS MICHAEL JACKSON

[cruising for burgers]

[schafseckel]

what are some of the best vaporwave releases? i haven't looked much into the genre since like 2012, and i'd rather get recs from people on here than by googling "best vaporwave albums".

[purlieu]

A few favourites:

 

Nmesh - nu.wav hallucinations

Nmesh - Dream Sequins

2814 - 新しい日の誕生

Internet Club - Redefining the Workplace

猫 シ Corp. - Special Edition

2047 - Snow

Pursuing Paradise - Adult Contemporary Novel

LifeMod - A

Remember - ルートバックホーム

[schafseckel]

thanks, digging quite a few of those. im like really getting into vaporwave, been listening to it all day.

[Joyrex]

 

Zero Divide on the PS1 is better (and more vaporwave if I must say):

Watch for the Aphex Twin reference (Xtal)!

[schafseckel]

https://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/executive-towers

 

probably my fav vaporwave album ive listened to yet

[Lane Visitor]

https://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/executive-towers

 

probably my fav vaporwave album ive listened to yet

 

^ yeah that's a stellar release.. one of my favorite cover arts of all time too

[Nebraska]

https://youtu.be/b1Ilr8WpkgY

[prdctvsm]

^ holy shit;

"...all made for the casual businessman who demands style & comfort."

 

https://mindspringmemories.bandcamp.com/album/destination-infinite

https://momentstogether.bandcamp.com/releases

[Lane Visitor]

^ holy shit;

"...all made for the casual businessman who demands style & comfort."

 

https://mindspringmemories.bandcamp.com/album/destination-infinite

 

 

https://momentstogether.bandcamp.com/releases

 

^ the visuals you post are amazing.. this is the chillest thing ive seen in a while (:

[prdctvsm]

thx lane (: ... go chill team 2016

choc vectorwave 4 dem dank vpr nutz:

[Lane Visitor]

Anytime :D Yummmmmm vaporluscious

Edited December 18, 2015 by Lane Visitor

[watmmisdead]

A few favourites:

 

Nmesh - nu.wav hallucinations

Nmesh - Dream Sequins

2814 - 新しい日の誕生

Internet Club - Redefining the Workplace

猫 シ Corp. - Special Edition

2047 - Snow

Pursuing Paradise - Adult Contemporary Novel

LifeMod - A

Remember - ルートバックホーム

thanks!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCG5kiXRfxQ

Edited December 19, 2015 by Ayya Khema

[watmmisdead]

why the new account, murphy? was wondering where you had gone

l wanted to delete my account, so I changed my password and my email with a random email address. now that I want to come back here, I cannot retrieve my previous account. lol

[purlieu]

Second run of that latest 猫 シ Corp. tape, managed to grab one this time!

https://catsystemcorp.bandcamp.com/album/oasys

[YO303]

spoken word vaporwave

 

[TubularCorporation]

Seconding Redefining the Workplace bigtime.