Vaporwave

[BoomTssPhace]

I've been watching the shit out of those dead mall videos recently, some of them get pretty wild i.e. when he breaks into actually dead (abandoned) malls. He puts a lot of DMT Tapes FL on his videos i recall, but the music is always equalized and reverberated so it sounds like it was actually playing in the mall. Sometimes he'll put footage/commercials from a mall's heyday just to contrast with what it is today. It's effectively v a p o r w a v e

[zaphod]

yeah his channel is the shit, he has another series that deals with horrible motels, mostly in maryland. very fun stuff.

[Joyrex]

 

 

Looks like somebody found Photoshop!

[Rotwang]

Those Dead Mall videos are both compelling and incredibly depressing.

[ManjuShri]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIUHCcrg-50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4muPJuTb0yM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMXrMpkH2-8

[fumi]

One thing I've noticed over the past two years or so is that listening to vaporwave and looking at all the accompanying visuals is that it has begun to colour and distort my real memories of that time.

 

What's alarming to me is that most of the people working in the vaporwave genre weren't even born in the 1980s (let alone of teenage age) and so their work is really a sort of series of imagined memories.

[fumi]

https://soundcloud.com/brokenlift/broken-lift-lost-in-love

[joshuatxuk]

One thing I've noticed over the past two years or so is that listening to vaporwave and looking at all the accompanying visuals is that it has begun to colour and distort my real memories of that time.

 

What's alarming to me is that most of the people working in the vaporwave genre weren't even born in the 1980s (let alone of teenage age) and so their work is really a sort of series of imagined memories.

 

Faux nostalgia is like the one thing talked a lot about on the vaporwave subforum. That's what I dubbed it anyway, it's pretty common for fans to be honest about being born not only after 1990 but after 2000. I have this struggle a lot - sometimes I actually have to tell myself to reset and go offline and/or listen to, watch, read, and just generally digest media I actually am nostalgic for and familiar with instead of what I think I am going to like. I think about all the hours and days I used to spend in my own head space and imagination or in the realm of creativity I had with other friends in a bubble. Now I and most others to some degree spend such idle time doing stuff online or in some manner that's shaped by social media and constant connected-ness.

 

Memory has always been in flux, it's just more distorted, fragmented, and fragile than ever. God forbid the more primal memory triggers - smells, tastes, touch, etc. start to dull. There's so much out there to explore than ever that visually and sonically you can pretty much grow up with an endless palette of other people's memories and creations online. It's def crept into music and art. There's a lot less incentive to try new stuff without hesitation when you can mine anything so easily. I think too that even sincere and talented artists working in the field of music shaped by nostalgia, retro appeal, samples, etc. can get lost in this dilemma. Part of the reason Burial was so appealing was his truly "fuck it" attitude production and sound wise. Personally I think he even started to sample and produce stuff that was truly cathartic - cheesy and "uncool" samples and vibes on Rival Dealer for example. People really seem hesitate to embrace and revisit guilty pleasures or corny music that was, at one point, a soundtrack to truly emotionally turmoil times. Or if they do it's in this way that comes off as ironic or overly hip. Vaporwave had actually done this early on though I think it's kind of fizzled out for many producers who are in the pursuit of different goals. There are exceptions, I remember finding the Pursuing Paradise that was sampling 90s alt rock in some tracks.

 

There's also just such a lack of canon, or at least this overt hesitation to it. There's a reason why so many early vaporwave and protovaporwave artists moved on or did their own stuff. There's still chillwave and hypnagogic pop that's more "vaporwave" in ethos than a lot of stuff considered essential vaporwave now. Which is fine, because this is a community and scene and I can't fault the seachanges that come when kids (mostly kids) are excited and hyped about where the genre is going.

 

I do perhaps get most irritated by people watering down and distorting what defines the "aesthetics" of the genre and retro stuff in general. This kind of brings that distorted memory dilemma. Random ads in late 80s magazines give me more of a punch in the feels than most of the tumblr art and cyan / fuchsia sunset photos people post all time.

 

For example this reminds me of actually living in mid-90s Okinawa as a kid

 

 

This doesn't do shit for me besides thinking it's neat

 

[prdctvsm]

^ great post, okinawa sunset photo is amaze.

i actually much prefer some of the more spaced-out vapour versions 2 their originals,

probably because of how their sampling invokes such an insight into memory &  context.

+ the whole fantasy vs. reality of capitalism - as ideas & sound.

 

egs :

https://zadigthejasp.bandcamp.com/album/--24

 

 

https://zadigthejasp.bandcamp.com/album/--20

samples:

http://www.whosampled.com/album/Zadig-the-Jasp/１９８８-エスケープ・モール/

[joshuatxuk]

^great .gif 

[prdctvsm]

goodness gracious .gif

 

nth korean hotel vibes (:

https://vektroid.bandcamp.com/album/eden

 

http://cultureagency.net/album/pleasure-island

[TubularCorporation]

Not vaporwave but still seems like it belongs in here:

 

 

 

 

On an unrelated note, I haven't followed this thread much lately, has there already been discussion of the whole Trumpwave/Fashwave thing?  I'd noticed that some long-forgotten vaporwave-ish one-off tracks and projects I did in '13 had gotten a little attention again recently and it was mostly coming from people with long pro-Trump Reddit histories, and that was unpleasant enough but I didn't realize it was apparently A Thing now. The people making it may be trolling, but the people commenting on it seem 100% genuine.

[purlieu]

Alex/Nmesh posted a 'can all alt-right bastards fuck off' type post on his personal FB and had to delete a lot of friends as a result of people commenting on it, almost all of whom were vaporwave or synthwave musicians. There are a lot more cases of dodgy views all over it, lots of stuff I haven't the energy to go into in public, but I've actually sold off a fair few tapes based on things I've seen about certain musicians that I was just too uncomfortable with. 

[brian trageskin]

cheesewave

 

[ManjuShri]

[purlieu]

 

 

STATEMENT ON THE FUTURE

 

THE STATEMENT

 

Greetings. We are Danaseus and Mykena, the new owners of Dream Catalogue. We will be known, together, as The Chaos Angels Of Light And Dark.

 

After long talks with HKE, Dream Catalogue’s founder, we came to terms on buying out a 90% share of the company from him. Initial discussions took place over the course of this year through email, while the final contract was signed, in blood, at an undisclosed location within the city of Florence, Italy.

 

We have purchased Dream Catalogue on the basis we would be maintaining the ongoings of the company from now on. For all intents and purposes the basic foundational structure of the company will remain the same, with global shipping and distribution by the same contractors as before.

 

HKE will continue on with us here as a trusted advisor, spiritual ambassador and will continue his work as an artist when he is ready to return from his sabbatical. However, we will be taking over the majority of the operation from here on.

 

This transitional phase between HKE’s ownership and ours will come in three blocks. REISSUE PHASE, END SERIES and CHAOS ERA.

 

REISSUE PHASE starts immediately with the release of the first 2814 album on double 12″ vinyl for the first time, including a brand new reissue of Birth Of A New Day on vinyl which are out now as of the publishing of this statement. And available to order from October 1st will be a plethora of cassette reissues based on data given to us by the previous owner from fan requests. The specifics of these products will be announced in the days preceding their availability for order.

 

Following these physical reissues comes the END SERIES – a set of 16 brand new planned album releases which were organised under HKE’s stewardship, forming the end of this cycle of Dream Catalogue’s history. They will be released in 4 blocks of 4, all on 12” vinyl. The artists in this series will be revealed in the scheduled dates set out below.

 

After all this has been completed, then will begin the wider preparations for the CHAOS ERA, starting next summer.

 

We are fully aware our intentions are not sufficiently clear to all at this time, including our current roster. We will reveal more about who we are and our full plans for this new era of Dream Catalogue when we see fit.

 

Everything must change.

 

Chaos is birth, the fire is life…

 

Until then!

 

SCHEDULE

 

1. REISSUE PHASE

 

AUG 30: 2814 / Birth Of A New Day vinyl release pre-orders (available now)

OCT 01: Reissue phase: pre-orders available

OCT 15: Expected shipping date for initial 2814 vinyl pre-orders

 

2. END SERIES

 

NOV 01-16: Daily ‘END SERIES’ pre-release announcements

DEC 01: END 01-04

JAN 01: END 05-08

FEB 01: END 09-12

MAR 01: END 13-16

 

3. CHAOS ERA

 

JUN 01 2018: The new cycle begins

 

[fumi]

 

 

STATEMENT ON THE FUTURE

 

THE STATEMENT

 

Greetings. We are Danaseus and Mykena, the new owners of Dream Catalogue. We will be known, together, as The Chaos Angels Of Light And Dark.

 

After long talks with HKE, Dream Catalogue’s founder, we came to terms on buying out a 90% share of the company from him. Initial discussions took place over the course of this year through email, while the final contract was signed, in blood, at an undisclosed location within the city of Florence, Italy.

 

We have purchased Dream Catalogue on the basis we would be maintaining the ongoings of the company from now on. For all intents and purposes the basic foundational structure of the company will remain the same, with global shipping and distribution by the same contractors as before.

 

HKE will continue on with us here as a trusted advisor, spiritual ambassador and will continue his work as an artist when he is ready to return from his sabbatical. However, we will be taking over the majority of the operation from here on.

 

This transitional phase between HKE’s ownership and ours will come in three blocks. REISSUE PHASE, END SERIES and CHAOS ERA.

 

REISSUE PHASE starts immediately with the release of the first 2814 album on double 12″ vinyl for the first time, including a brand new reissue of Birth Of A New Day on vinyl which are out now as of the publishing of this statement. And available to order from October 1st will be a plethora of cassette reissues based on data given to us by the previous owner from fan requests. The specifics of these products will be announced in the days preceding their availability for order.

 

Following these physical reissues comes the END SERIES – a set of 16 brand new planned album releases which were organised under HKE’s stewardship, forming the end of this cycle of Dream Catalogue’s history. They will be released in 4 blocks of 4, all on 12” vinyl. The artists in this series will be revealed in the scheduled dates set out below.

 

After all this has been completed, then will begin the wider preparations for the CHAOS ERA, starting next summer.

 

We are fully aware our intentions are not sufficiently clear to all at this time, including our current roster. We will reveal more about who we are and our full plans for this new era of Dream Catalogue when we see fit.

 

Everything must change.

 

Chaos is birth, the fire is life…

 

Until then!

 

SCHEDULE

 

1. REISSUE PHASE

 

AUG 30: 2814 / Birth Of A New Day vinyl release pre-orders (available now)

OCT 01: Reissue phase: pre-orders available

OCT 15: Expected shipping date for initial 2814 vinyl pre-orders

 

2. END SERIES

 

NOV 01-16: Daily ‘END SERIES’ pre-release announcements

DEC 01: END 01-04

JAN 01: END 05-08

FEB 01: END 09-12

MAR 01: END 13-16

 

3. CHAOS ERA

 

JUN 01 2018: The new cycle begins

 

 

 

 

LOL. What a bunch of fucking pretentious nonsense.

[purlieu]

Oh, it's all tongue-in-cheek. HKE is taking a step back from it to focus on health problems, I think he's using it as an opportunity to bring back a bit more of anonymity that the label started out with.

 

But yeah, HKE's a scouser, there's no way he wrote "We are Danaseus and Mykena, the new owners of Dream Catalogue. We will be known, together, as The Chaos Angels Of Light And Dark" without a smile on his face.

[joyeboy]

As goofy as it sounds, this seems like a great way to reorient the label and announce a lot of exciting stuff. And judging by how fast the new BOAND vinyl sold out, the Reissues period is probably gonna rake in some serious dough. Happy to see DC continue to do well!

[fumi]

 

Nice. 2nd half is lush.

[Lane Visitor]

I guess there was some huge business conference today and someone from DH Enterprises spoke with an update... 

[ManjuShri]

ESPRIT 空想 - 200% Electronica

 

200% Electronica combines fully original compositions in ESPRIT’s classic vaporwave style with chopped & screwed samples pulled from George Clanton’s own songs, inspired by two years of touring with nothing but a Roland SP 404-SX.

 

Releases November 18, 2017

 

http://esprit.100percentelectronica.com/album/200-electronica

Edited September 13, 2017 by ManjuShri

[TRiP]

ESPRIT 空想 - 200% Electronica

 

200% Electronica combines fully original compositions in ESPRIT’s classic vaporwave style with chopped & screwed samples pulled from George Clanton’s own songs, inspired by two years of touring with nothing but a Roland SP 404-SX.

 

Releases November 18, 2017

 

http://esprit.100percentelectronica.com/album/200-electronica

 

Nice - been really loving Virtua.zip and 100% lately, hopefully it wont be too much of a direct mixing of the 2, but new material is always welcome 

 

Can someone please post here again when it's released in November, just to remind us all

[ManjuShri]

Another track from the album.

 

[Alcofribas]

i don't really listen to this stuff anymore so this is kind of off topic but i've been following this guy's youtube channel for a bit now. he has a series called "dead malls" where he goes to east coast shitholes that have closed/are closing or have been abandoned and it's all very vaporwave and nostalgic and slightly creepy. good channel.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZFOhp6ustA

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5ggeeyfJmw

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h78geZglBiQ

 

this thread is big so forgive me if this has been posted already

this is cool as hell