vaporwave

Wasn’t feeling this one. It’s like a shittier vaporwave version of Daft Punk. I mean, it’s probably great if you’ve had a few too many expensive cocktails and you wanna dance, but otherwise it’s a no from me, dawg.

Dark, moody, slushy, obtuse “vaporwave” from one of the more immediately aesthetically recognisable projects in the genre. Imagine the kind of thing you’d usually hear on a dungeon synth record but chopped, sliced and obfuscated from you in a hazy cloud of what is essentially a blob of hypnagogic sound.

Another fantastic piece of work by Cat System Corp. Perhaps not as iconic as News At 11, but no less enjoyable or brilliant for it, Palm Mall Mars is a solid hour of the chillest of the chill vaporwave, at least in the original form and aesthetic of vaporwave. I’m no expert, but other artists have taken the genre in far more ambient and space-out directions. Palm Mall Mars is similar, but retains the dream-like,…

Smooth, relaxing vaporwave that doesn’t fall off too far into the ether due to the ever-prominent prescence of ticking beats holding everything together like glue. I’m not sure of the album’s aesthetic, being from the UK I have of course been to the red light districts of Amsterdam and Brussels to have a nosey at what goes on, but the IRL vibe at these kinds of places is so much more chaotic than the tunes…

I was searching RYM on the off-chance it had a listing already in place for Sam Powell’s work on the Sega Genesis Jurassic Park soundtrack when this DJ session came back in the search results (it samples one of the tracks from the Sega JP OST). What a happy little coincidence then, because this opened up an impromptu 4 hour journey that I listened to over the course of the rest of the day whilst…

Vektroid is easily one of the greatest producers in this style. Her style arguably defines the initial vaporwave movement, in not only “just slowing down” 80s pop songs but giving them a whole new life and meaning. It is easy to get caught up in the Floral Shoppe hype and not go further than that, but Color Ocean Road is proof enough that it is well worth doing that. Really cool, laid-back compositions are the…

Perfect chill and get shit done kinda music right here. As with other folk online, I also thought that this was a Blank Banshee side project, but nowadays I’m not too sure. Either way, shit is great. Real clean production, focussed beats and amazing tunes. Such a shame that it is only 21 minutes long but hey, thankfully there’s more releases from this project. My highlight has to be the reworking of THAT hold music…

Disjointed Bliss All over the place, but that’s why we are all here, right? Had the pleasure of hearing the EX version (2016 remaster) rather than the original but all in all, sounds really great and hits all the right buttons that you’d expect such dreamy, fractured styles of vaporwave to hit. I have no profound statement to make, but Prism Genesis is a stunning arrangement of audio clips. The atmosphere that some of these…

I got drawn in by that sweet, sweet vapor artwork, but quickly it became apparent that this was not the trip I was looking for. Too many fuggen trap beats, for real. If you’re into that, please go ahead and get stuck in, otherwise, stay far away.

Isn’t that art just lovely? You can always count on Windows96 to bring the vibes. Coming on like a cross between a video game soundtrack, an infomercial and a walk through a mall after a few edibles, Enchanted Instrumentals and Whispers showcases just about everything that is wonderful about the vaporwave movement. I’d love to know what drum samples this guy is using, they are really fantastic. Probably not good listening for first thing in…

An interesting selection of tunes and vibes, copy and pasted together with samples and other assorted aural bric-a-brac. Falling comfortably into the vaporwave genre, Yes! We’re Open also owes a lot to the found sound and plunderphonics movements.

Japanese radioactive-meltdown-themed vaporwave? Oh yes please, oh yes please indeed. This reminds me of the Windows 96 album News At 11 in the way it mixes real life samples from the time with snippets of various music vibes. Really cool stuff. FYI this band/project translate as Radioactive Hi5.

Haircuts For Men’s discography can be quite intimidating, and I went into this, which has been on my to-do list for some time, believing it was a fairly recent offering, but it’s actually quite old. This is the problem when all of the album covers are fairly abstract in the same style, all in Japanese, and all, more or less, of the same consistent quality. Even if every record of his was a banger, telling…

Yeah this is exactly what I’m fucking looking for out of vaporwave; chill, dense atmospheres, big 80s beats pitched-down to oblivion, and a bizarre mix of relaxation and impending doom. Appealing to both my love of cool beats and love of ominous soundscapes, Dematerialize helps you slip into the backrooms, in particular the recesses of an abandoned mall where the lights are always on and it’s always 3am. Grand stuff.

File under the more dreamy, spacey end of vaporwave. Expect treacle-like synths and dense atmospheres, as if experiencing an acid trip through a 56kbs dial up connection modem. Stunning stuff.

Short, fragmented visions into a static-filled future (or past). Each track acts as a snippet into a different world, each world punctuated by its own version of a dreamy or somewhat haunting synthesizer mood or melody (I use melody in the loosest sense of the word). It’s kinda like channel hopping, or band hopping on the radio, and finding nothing but floating synthesizer soundscapes on every channel. One for the small hours. (Also, if that’s…

On first impressions, VHS Logos’ legendary Mantra record fits right in alongside the other early greats of the vaporwave genre. However, give it chance to develop and you are treated to a smattering of beats and vibes in the hip hop and funk styles too. Everything is wrapped in that warm, fuzzy 90s analogue sound that we all love vaporwave so much for, and I’m sure there’s plenty of re-worked samples and songs going on…

It seems almost pointless to write a blog post about a download-only single. But hey, I’ve listened to this thing a ridiculous amount of times so its probably a good idea to go ahead and commit it here to the archive of forever. This is unreasonably catchy. For someone who enjoys both vaporwave and TES III: Morrowind, this is a match made in heaven. Hey, April 1st seems a good a day as any to…

Very old school, early-days style vaporwave, but which didn’t come out until 2019. It’s nice to see folk still making good shit in this vein and not have it become derivative or what have you. That being said, Gateway 2000 is intensely treacle-like in its pace and runtime, and I find myself nodding off or drifting away, even in the middle of the day whilst working from home and drinking black coffee. Unsure if that…

Considered a classic of the vaporwave genre, I was surprised to find the original version of this “album” is only 19 minutes long. North Point Mall falls under the initial, original arm of vaporwave, where 80s classics are warped and moulded into reimagined versions of themselves. North Point Mall, I believe, is from one of the Grand Theft Auto video games, which is a perfect vibe for this kinda shit that’s going on here. There’s…

Intense, blocky old-style vaporwave is the order of the day, although there is an extra sense of mystery to this project. I’m starting to wonder when bad 80s music slowed down and warped beyond recognition will start to get old for me? But hey, whilst the neon sun shines, right!? I have absolutely no idea what the name of this project is, but I love the vibes, and I love the production, which is fairly…

H A Z E uses the vaporwave feel and aesthetic as ground work for building excellent and chilled out electronic offerings. However, like many modern entries into the genre, calling Internet Explorer simply vaporwave does the record a disservice. There are many forms of electronic meandering present here, and I’m reminded a lot of the more spacey and ambient stuff Mick Harris did in the 90s with Scorn, specifically here in the tracks “Connected” and…

This has to be one of my favourite vaporwave / future funk releases. I’ve always shyed away from using the term future funk but I think it certainly applies here more than vaporwave. Specifically, I think, because there seems to be zero repurposing of existing artist’s work; Buy Now appears to be entirely original compositions that are absolutely gorgeous in capturing that late 80s / early 90s synthesizer sound. There is also a prominent funky…

Ah, Haircuts For Men, can this project be faulted? It’s very prolific, yet the bar of quality remains consistently high. 共振 is no different, taking you on a vapor-tinged journey of old school electronics and introspective beats. Like watching infomercials at 3am whilst stoned off your nut. Banging.

This gets thrown around a lot online for being idk, spooky or moving or dense or atmospheric or just fucking great. Reflection is all of those things, but its also a very, very slow burn. Its another one of those things that falls loosely under the vaporwave banner when in reality, its a million miles away, aurally at least. Dense atmospheric textures all round.

Vaporwave Aesthetic is probably the most uninspiring name for a vaporwave project that I have ever come across. Neon Love is a… compilation? Regular full length album? Who the fuck knows. Good friend and LIW contributor Gareth linked me this on Spotify, but with such a generic name I can’t find out anything about it at all. Its not bad per se, but its not for me, and I love this kind of shit. This…

Incredible, dense, brooding ambient soundscapes in the vaporwave style. Reminiscent in ways of Towers but without that ominous oppressive feel. The project name conjures stunning visuals as these three soundscapes unfold. Glorious stuff.

I’ve been coming back to this one on and off for a few months now. I’m unsure why it failed to grab me, I love this treacle-paced darker side to the vaporwave movement. Anyways, I finally got through the whole length of Nostalgi Gaius in one sitting and I have to say that I’m glad I committed and in the end I thoroughly enjoyed the record. I bet it would sound fantastic on cassette.

On Crystal Sun, Lost Cascades conjure an atmosphere as lush and as relaxing as the cover art promises. Heavily drawing from vaporwave, but without becoming trapped in the style, Crystal Sun is a uplifting and positive listen. Perfect working from home music, or even to unwind to. Brilliant stuff.

Deaths Dynamic Shroud are a really interesting duo (trio?). Regret When It Was Lost, which I believe is the full translation, from my limited vaporwave knowledge, appears to be the most well known release from the band. There’s a sort of morose quality coursing through these electronic compositions, which are, truly, vaporwave only in name (its a genuine album, not just 80s pop songs slowed down, for example).

Eccojams is considered a classic of the vaporwave genre, or least the initial movement. This makes sense as it has a lot of the tropes of the original projects, and can be compared in many ways to Macintosh Plus’s Floral Shoppe with its choppy, repetitive sampling and use of 80s pop songs playing at half speed (thereabouts). I’m unsure if there ever was a Vol. 2, but Vol. 1 is a fairly lengthy record. There…

Stunning, hypnotic electronic synthesiser soundscapes in the vaporwave aesthetic, however you could say this kind of thing borrows just as heavily from Berlin School and more traditional forms of electronic experimentation. Misty Eyes in the story of a man reflecting on the past 100 years (unless I have misunderstood that) and brings up all those powerful feelings of nostalgia and loss that reflection can touch upon, whether sad, bittersweet or even in a heartwarming way….

What a trip! What a mood! Bringing nothing but good vibes through the medium of electronic music, George Clanton excels in this gorgeous and snappy synth pop outing. I only ever stumbled across this due to Pad Chennington’s 107 vaporwave albums you must hear list, and whilst this is not strictly lodged in that genre, there are a lot of tropes from that world, including nostalgic synth sounds and the occassional wobbles as if you…

This was a special listen. I’ve come across Telepath a few times in my forays into vaporwave, but this is an earlier record. I had the pleasure of listening to somebody’s glorious double cassette upload, which contains a number of additional bonus tracks. All in all, this is a lo-fi journey through dense atmospheres (similar to genre-mate HKE) and chilled out, laid back beats and sampled tracks. It’s 90 minutes long, but its worth every…

I picked this up from a self-promoting post on Reddit. In what the artist describes as their 5th album, CD cobbles together chopped and scratchy Japanese samples in the true vaporwave / plunderphonics style. I’m not really clued up on Japanese culture at all, so I am not sure what the sources are for these sounds, in my ignorance I could take a guess at TV shows, commercial themes, and fuck knows what else. All…

Ultra pitch-shifted, slow and reminiscent of a bad acid trip. Disconscious is the soundtrack to wandering that abandoned mall in the recesses of your mind. Think of any mall today, and compare it to the glory days that you remember for that mall in the 80s or 90s. This is the soundtrack to those thoughts, which is a lot darker than its palm tree and classy car covered artwork would make it seem.

This is just glorious in every conceivable way. The legendary Floral Shoppe by Macintosh Plus is “re-imagined” in this recent reworking from the (I’m sure intentionally) similarly-named MACマイナス. That may undersell this record however; this is not just a re-hashing, although some themes from the original do get a reprise. This is much more, this is a record with its own life and its own vibe, although I have to agree that it does carry…

News At 11 is now something of a legendary release in the ever growing and evolving world that is vaporwave. Evoking somewhat more of a sad nostalgia rather than the warm yet melancholic lost futures of regular mall vapor, News At 11 treats us to a treacle-paced retrospective back to a morning when the world changed forever.

Reset is the sophomore Tower Of The Sun record, and showcases the gorgeous expansion that the project has made with its sound. Like an unusual fungi growing across a dirty crystal on a far away planet spinning around an even farther away star, Reset does not so much as press restart on the group’s sound, but instead represents a delicious mutation instead.

I look at the sleeve art for this record and I look at the name of the project and all I get are intense Annihilation vibes. Which is furthered by the project’s Bandcamp, where each release is augmented with a cryptic message for its listeners. Similarily, the music too has its own fractured, futuristic feel. Discogs has this classed under vaporwave, but I would class it as such in the loosest sense; Anomalous Planet sounds…

This bizarre project has been on my to-do list for a very long time. Today I finally listened, and was taken away on a wonderful musical experience. Chanelling aspects of both dungeon synth and vaporwave (my favourite niche electronic subgenres no less) and filtering them through the worship of an old RPG, we have some glorious low-key compositions that creep and crawl with the right amount of emotional leads over the top. Like, that sounds…

HKE’s HK record lies somewhere on the more spaced out, introspective end of vaporwave. Few and far between are the tropes of nostalgia and the repurposing of 80s and 90s music (at least, any that is immediately recognisable). Instead we have swathes of crushing ethereal ambience; soundscapes that seem to live their own life with analogue flutter. Its deep, moving stuff, and a listen that I would strongly recommend.

Haircuts For Men is one of my favourite “vaporwave” producers and 壊滅悲しみ is of no exception. Despite the title, the vibes are not quite so downbeat or depressing as some of the other records, but in general this is a morose and chilled out journey through some fantastic electronic music.

My first – and long overdue – foray into the genre of sovietwave. Can’t say I’m really sold on it just yet, but eery ambient electronics is the order of the day, sounds from the past representing a future that was promised.

Haircuts For Men are one of the most consistent projects that operate in the vaporwave style. Their records are more than that though, truly. Even so, I would go on to say, that they are often more than the sum of their parts, and 必要 is of no exception.  The music here invokes heavy nostalgia, a morose longing and a sense of the unknown. I’m reminded in part of Evanescence era Scorn with the slight…

Cool, calm, relaxing vapor. Ah, its the musical equivalent of valium. †Nematophy has been in my online playlist for about a year, and I must have played it through now a number of times. Its time to delete it and let some other stuff shine instead, so here I am committing it to the site and filing it away. †Nematophy is another fantastic Windows 96 album, further cementing this project as one of my favourites…

Floral Shoppe is the oddity that defined the genre (or shall I say movement?) of vaporwave, which is still passed off as a meme by some. But hey, it’s their loss. Floral Shoppe hosts – or birthed? – many tropes of the style; pitchshifted beats and vocals, fluttering synths, a treacle-like atmospheric consistency, and a distorted window into the realms of either the past or the future. Am I dreaming about a past that I…

What Mega seemingly has over 0 and 1 is the instant glossy hit of electronic shine. Out of nowhere the record is in your face, all colours flashing, and from then on out you are enraptured in the world of the Blank Banshee, and have no choice but to go on the ride. Is it possible to improve on the cult status and legendary electronic work of the first two records? The answer, of course,…

Blank Banshee is another one of those projects that gets lumped in with vaporwave when in reality the sound reaches across several styles of electronic music. I’ll admit that 1 often gets overlooked by me, either by the sheer gloss of Mega or the instant classic status of 0. The compositions are glorious however, ranging from banging 80s pop to drawn out ambient soundscapes and synths. Lush. Blank Banshee 1 by Blank Banshee

Pulsing, gorgeous, ethereal soundscapes are the order of the day. I’d barely say that this even fits into the genre of vaporwave, having more in common with ambient or even the trippier side of the psytrance movement. A million miles from invoking nostalgia, Building A Better World instead seems to look forward to the future in all its dreamy, hazy synth meandering. A fantastic collaboration and recommended to any fan of electronic music.

With a name like PrismCorp (is that a Watchmen reference maybe?) Virtual Enterprises, and of course the artwork displayed above, one surely could not be accused too harshly of heavily assuming what kind of tunes that are in store on Home(TM)? Think 80s television mixed with The Sims or that weird upbeat music you’d get over porno on VHS, and you’re on the right track. Home(TM) meanders in its own way, sometimes to jazz, sometimes…

Just look at that art! Despite the heavy nostalgic tones, Diskette Park instead wallows in oceanic waves of moody, melancholic synth work, rather than your more [ t y p i c a l ] vaporwave. In fact, as time goes on, and whilst I agree that the genre does have its own solid base, I find that these days it is more of a marker for a starting point; a pointer as to the…

Odyssey is… well… a near 50 minute odyssey (I can only apologise) through vaporwave style and gorgeous electronic production. HOME doesn’t seem to fall as hard into the trappings of the genre, for better or worse, and the music just sounds more original and inspired, rather than “hey, this is just slowed down 80s infomercials!”. I was building my home work rig (an overstatement if I ever wrote one) whilst listening to this and I…

Well isn’t this just delightful? Saint Pepsi got that fantastic chilled out vapor vibe to their sound, where Luxury Elite brings a bit more of a stomp to the 90s infomercial style. This split album was recently banned from YouTube over some shit about the album cover, but I’m glad to see its back, as its a fucking great piece of work. 

I love all this fucking mental vaporwave / nostalgia stuff. If I was a billionaire I’d buy a townhouse in Amsterdam and spend my days building a library of rare vinyl pressings of stuff like this, along with a sub-basement full of dodgy goregrind tapes. One Hundred Mornings is glorious, chilled-out, laid-back, takes-you-way-back brilliance. I’ll be running out of ways to describe vaporwave soon, but this shit is fantastic. Sold out as fuck on vinyl,…

An intoxicating combination of ambient atmospherics and mangled vaporwave. A giant infomercial for relaxation of the mind, body and soul. Fetches a pretty penny on vinyl, and has been repressed in some very tasty looking packages.

If Skyrim met Stranger Things. Dragonborn by Lisette

Playing heavily on nostalgia (both of 2002’s Bethesda Softworks epic, TES III: Morrowind, and that of the vaporwave style of music), Young Scrolls dropped this absolute banger. Not as silly as “Dagoth Wave” or Sheogorath’s rap record, “Neon Vivec” instead showcases the project’s serious musical chops. Neon Vivec by young scrolls

I might be a bit late to the Blank Banshee party, but that doesn’t stop me from chaining the entire discography a few times on a night shift or two. It definitely got the ol’ chair reclining; it was actually quite pleasant working away to the busy-yet-lucid tunes in a 2am caffeine haze. What stood out to me the most out of the Blank Banshee records was this one, the first one. There’s just something…

Perhaps it is because I find myself more and more nocturnal, with my life seemingly spent basking in the constant glow of some sort of screen or interface, but I find myself becoming one with the [ v a p o r ] ((( a  e  s  t  h  e  t  i  c ))). Yes, this is the only logical reason I can think for my sudden interested in what is referred to as vaporwave….