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Machinedrum - Vapor City

cear

By cear
in New & Upcoming Releases

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ganus Veteran

ganus

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No one in seattle knows how to dance to juke, it's true. but I love it, and find his stuff a lot more danceable and interesting than Machinedrum right now. I've seen t-stewart twice, so I'm satisfied on that front, and the venue he's playing in is a shithole anyway.

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awepittance Grand Master

awepittance

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if you've already seen him I can understand that. I was really happy with his performance and the whole vibe of the evening when he played a surprise show in SF about 7-8 months ago.
It's very rare that someone like him wouldn't be playing at what I consider the shittiest club in San Francisco, 1015 folsom. This time he played at a very low key relatively small bar with a dancefloor for maybe 45 people max. All around great show

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rddm Collaborator

rddm

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lol at Gunshotta having an "intricate rhythm"

It sounds like a drum n bass loop. Shows that Anthony Fantano has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to electronic music.

 

I am so bored with Vapor City. It's predictable and tacky sounding to me, and seems a step back from some of the sounds heard on the JETS radio mix. I am not buying the album, and I am not going to see the debut Vapor City show at Decibel Fest on friday, although I had initially planned to do both before hearing the album and seeing the two (awful) music videos.

 

Seeing DJ Rashad and John Tejada at db instead, and very excited about it.

Theres a shit ton of good shows on Friday at DB. I almost drove down from Vancouver for Nicolas Jaar and Mount Kimbie. Though I'm not sure how WATMM feels about Jaar. Shigeto is playing as well. I'm going to see his show on saturday :D

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thief Mentor

thief

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tracks like gunshotta and rise n fall are just boring to me for some reason. the pads/melodic stuff/vocal loops aren't grabbing me the same they did on room(s), so all that's left is the bass and the breaks and they're especially boring to me. do both tracks really need to both be over 5 and a half minutes long?

 

infinite us goes on way too long aswell. there's few people out there skilled enough at programming to keep me entertained with a think break loop for 7 minutes; it turns out the t-stew isn't one of them.

 

dont 1 2 lose u isn't my style and i know it, so i won't say much about it. too slow. i liked room(s) for how fast and energetic it all was.

 

center your love is nice but feels completely out of place. reminds me a lot of wagon christ.

 

vizion serves its purpose as a noise/ambient/pad interlude i guess, but i was far far more impressed with 'where did we go wrong?' from room(s)

 

seesea is more like it, but sounds more like a room(s) out-take than anything else.

 

u still lie also sounds out of place but in a different way. i actually quite like this one and i think it could grow on me

 

eyes dont lie is also a nice return to the more energetic and speedy room(s) style, but again.. over 6 and a half minutes long. i'm really curious as to why he's gone for these track lengths this time. the brevity of room(s)' tracks was one of its strong points to me.

 

baby its u is an alright closer, but again not nearly as memorable or repeat-worthy as 'where did we go wrong' from room(s)

 

basically i miss the frantic energy found in the room(s) tracks. the tracks had a kind of spontaneous quality to them that i liked. these tracks on vapor city feel too 'soft' and polished. unexciting.

room(s) also had a more emotional pull for me too. pretty much every track on room(s) had segments in them that very clearly represented an emotion to me. happiness, delight, sadness, playfulness? i'm not getting any of that at all from vapor city unfortunately, it all just comes across as quite bland :(

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logboy Proficient

logboy

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been listening to 'rooms' for the first time this week. i don't know if it's my age, but although i can remember the kind of stuff this references from the 90's and slightly earlier, there's a use of it that's quite interesting and certainly puts things together that wouldn't have been considered possible elements of the same artists work. that said, it also makes the tracks seem a little old-fashioned at the same time.

 

and the use of vocal samples, although it can be done in a very interesting way by some artists today, sounds like a good cause for an attempt at unexpected commercial crossover success - it's just a bit too clear and regular, not abstract.

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joshuatxuk Grand Master

joshuatxuk

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and the use of vocal samples, although it can be done in a very interesting way by some artists today, sounds like a good cause for an attempt at unexpected commercial crossover success - it's just a bit too clear and regular, not abstract.

 

Yeah I felt the same about some of the vocal bits. I was hoping for more fucking around with those - more pitchshifting, delay, etc. Hell, it's actually pretty tame (overall) compared to the typical effects used on jungle or footwork vocals.

 

I'm really rooting for this album to do well critically - many of my friends who don't listen to electronic music as much (like beyond Disclosure and Daft Punk) are all blown away by this album. Sure it's not the best ever and to us it's clearly drawing from a lot of existing music, but I for one would be happy to see this as a "breakthrough" record.

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ganus Veteran

ganus

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... I am not going to see the debut Vapor City show at Decibel Fest on friday, although I had initially planned to ...

 

Seeing DJ Rashad and John Tejada at db instead, and very excited about it.

LOL

 

No accounting for taste. DJ Spinn played last night cause Rashad couldn't make it, but it was the best show I've ever been to.

People don't even dance at Machinedrum shows, they just have bro-gasms at all the sweet drops

 

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dr lopez Grand Master

dr lopez

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got good and shitfaced before hand ready to dance like a prick

lol what did you end up doing after your pre-show ritual

 

i yelled at my girlfriend while she cried in the bathroom cause i said her tacos were subpar

 

 

so essentially:

he got disgusting with salsa instead.

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zero Grand Master

zero

Posted
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after 1st listen - this album is badass. I like that he's fleshed out the actual music and toned down the rhythms. I loved rooms but look past the juke beats/throbbing bass/vocal samples and you realize the synth work left something to be desired.

 

I really dig the more ambient style of this one...if I still smoked weed, I would be inspired to roll a blunt for this one

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Guest cult fiction

Guest cult fiction

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Machinedrum was pretty good last night.

 

Good things:

He played guitar on most of the Vapor City tracks, definitely added something

T-stew did all of the "bodytouch", "u don't survive" etc. vocals live

Regis Chillbin remix was fucking amazing, the place went nuts

Visuals were expanded versions of that sweet eyesdontlie video for the 10 minutes they were visible

 

Bad things:

Visuals cut out 10 min. into the show with a visible "You have lost MIDI connection" error, and T-stew didn't bother to try and fix it

T-stew did not wear a v neck

The live drummer was playing on top of ableton beats a lot of the time, so his contribution was significantly diminished

Did not play Clissold VIP

Most of the Vapor City tracks were pretty low energy and almost monotonous, Room(s) tracks played way better to the audience

 

Overall, Travis is still better at party mode than reflective proggy deep v-neckless Travis. Maybe that will change with time.

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Guest cult fiction

Guest cult fiction

Posted
Posted

 

T-stew did not wear a v neck

 

dude i feel so sorry for you. must be a real let-down.

 

He didn't have a mustache either. Furthermore he has lost weight.

 

He is gradually turning into a Banana Republic model.

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danshoebridge Experienced

danshoebridge

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The vinyl package of this is very nice - good artwork, interesting looking black and white vinyl, and a nice booklet attached to the inside of the gatefold sleeve. One of the advantages of moving to ninja I guess, they do some excellent album design.

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awepittance Grand Master

awepittance

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the review is totally valid but nick henderson's overall taste in music tell me he's being extra hard on this album. He gives higher reviews to albums that are much more bland, have far less feeling. IT seems like the overwhelming praise for Rooms is causing some people to be a little extra critical. He's VERY soft on shit that to me sounds like a 13 year old making a beat on fruityloops and throwing it through reverb, but again there seems to be a fascination with the young/naive/underdeveloped spirit of a lot of new electronic music. I will never fucking understand that personally. Being punk and rebellious is not the equivalent to not knowing how to produce something compelling or interesting. but that's a whole other area of critique. Travis is not an 18 year old kid, if he was and it was reflected in a more low quality execution of the same sound (worse production chops, mixing not as good, 808s galore) i feel like people like Nick Henderson would actually praise it, which to me seems sort of twighlight zone-esque

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Guest cult fiction

Guest cult fiction

Posted
Posted

the review is totally valid but nick henderson's overall taste in music tell me he's being extra hard on this album. He gives higher reviews to albums that are much more bland, have far less feeling. IT seems like the overwhelming praise for Rooms is causing some people to be a little extra critical. He's VERY soft on shit that to me sounds like a 13 year old making a beat on fruityloops and throwing it through reverb, but again there seems to be a fascination with the young/naive/underdeveloped spirit of a lot of new electronic music. I will never fucking understand that personally. Being punk and rebellious is not the equivalent to not knowing how to produce something compelling or interesting. but that's a whole other area of critique. Travis is not an 18 year old kid, if he was and it was reflected in a more low quality execution of the same sound (worse production chops, mixing not as good, 808s galore) i feel like people like Nick Henderson would actually praise it, which to me seems sort of twighlight zone-esque

 

That reverb-y fruity loops shit is

 

RAW

 

Old man Travis doesn't even wear v-necks anymore. Put him out to pasture.

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