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Thread: Vaporwave

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    Vaporwave

    http://www.stereogum.com/1703068/tre...-parlors/news/

    Article speculates that this soundtrack aesthetic will be vaporwave, based on the Fincher quote.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SarahConnor View Post
    http://www.stereogum.com/1703068/tre...-parlors/news/

    Article speculates that this soundtrack aesthetic will be vaporwave, based on the Fincher quote.
    It think it would be fascinating to see Trent & Atticus tackle vaporwave, but there's so little chance that's what it'll actually sound like. The bit's we've heard so far also sound pretty much nothing like vaporwave.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SarahConnor View Post
    http://www.stereogum.com/1703068/tre...-parlors/news/

    Article speculates that this soundtrack aesthetic will be vaporwave, based on the Fincher quote.
    Maybe they give bad examples, but I clicked through on the quote "Ramona Vektroid already made that album; it was fucking terrifying" and the only thing terrifying about it was how many people have bought and cheered on that album. It's like being in a room full of people genuinely laughing at unintentionally terrible jokes. And as best as I can tell, it seems to be entirely derivative of other people's uncredited music. I take it back, I'm definitely a little bit horrified. If I keep typing, I'm going to have to split my own post out into the Shitty Music thread.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Leviathant View Post
    Maybe they give bad examples, but I clicked through on the quote "Ramona Vektroid already made that album; it was fucking terrifying" and the only thing terrifying about it was how many people have bought and cheered on that album. It's like being in a room full of people genuinely laughing at unintentionally terrible jokes. And as best as I can tell, it seems to be entirely derivative of other people's uncredited music. I take it back, I'm definitely a little bit horrified. If I keep typing, I'm going to have to split my own post out into the Shitty Music thread.
    I've never actually been in a spa or massage parlor, but that linked album is totally different than what I would imagine from the quote (and what I know about Trent and Atticus). I guess I wouldn't expect them to do something so obvious and conceptual (?). Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's much more likely that they'd try to write actual good positive-sounding music and build from there.

    I never heard of the vaporware genre, so maybe the album linked is an atypical example or maybe I didn't really listen to enough or pay enough attention to what I heard to get it (although it sounds kind of like plunderphonics to me), so maybe there's some possible connection I'm not seeing?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Leviathant View Post
    Maybe they give bad examples, but I clicked through on the quote "Ramona Vektroid already made that album; it was fucking terrifying" and the only thing terrifying about it was how many people have bought and cheered on that album. It's like being in a room full of people genuinely laughing at unintentionally terrible jokes. And as best as I can tell, it seems to be entirely derivative of other people's uncredited music. I take it back, I'm definitely a little bit horrified. If I keep typing, I'm going to have to split my own post out into the Shitty Music thread.
    i kept expecting the shitty smooth jazz to be overtaken by insane glitches or bitcrushing or foreboding soundscapes or SOMETHING that was actually terrifying, but it really just sounded like smooth jazz, to me. i don't understand what's terrifying about that other than it being crappy music...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Leviathant View Post
    Maybe they give bad examples, but I clicked through on the quote "Ramona Vektroid already made that album; it was fucking terrifying" and the only thing terrifying about it was how many people have bought and cheered on that album. It's like being in a room full of people genuinely laughing at unintentionally terrible jokes. And as best as I can tell, it seems to be entirely derivative of other people's uncredited music. I take it back, I'm definitely a little bit horrified. If I keep typing, I'm going to have to split my own post out into the Shitty Music thread.
    That Macintosh Plus album is one of the most demented things ever. Chopped and screwed adult contemporary put through various filters. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it really fucks with you and I enjoy that aspect. Take what is suppose to be comfortable and make it uncomfortable. It's a nostalgia hellride.
    Last edited by nooneimportant; 09-05-2014 at 11:43 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by nooneimportant View Post
    That Macintosh Plus album is one of the most demented things ever. Chopped and screwed adult contemporary put through various filters. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it really fucks with you and I enjoy that aspect. Take what is suppose to be comfortable and make it uncomfortable. It's a nostalgia hellride.
    Taking music that was shitty thirty years ago and lazily running it through some pirated plugins doesn't make that music not-shitty.
    No one cared about this music when it came out in the 80s, I'm not sure why anyone cares about it now. Any illusion of nostalgia is just being projected by the people putting this on bandcamp, or the idle minds running certain music culture blogs. In either case, it's coming from people born a decade after the wholesale-sampled music was originally put to tape. It's low-effort amateur-hour detritus. There's some kind of dementia involved alright, but it's not coming from the music. If I want 80s electronic dementia, I'll listen to the Akira soundtrack.

    It's probably no coincidence that anything I've heard referred to as "chopped and screwed" has never lived up to that moniker. When you say chopped and screwed, I'm expecting Disco Hospital or The Anal Staircase, not low rate LA home studio pap.

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    I'd never heard vaporwave until just now, listening to a bit of the Ramona Vektroid album. It was "fucking terrifying" in the sense that it sounded exactly like 90s Cinemax on Friday nights, and at that time I was constantly "fucking terrified" that my parents would come in my room and find me engrossed in total softcore action!

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    Leviathant, I'm not sure you understand the MO of vaporwave music, which is to take "muzak" and turn it into something more, at the same time more palatable and sexy and yet more synthetic, which is at once a statement on anti-consumerism/corporatism and on the sleaze of music that is supposed to make you basically feel nothing at all. Much like David Lynch's Twin Peaks, it's exposing the darkness under the sheen. It has nothing to do with 80s nostalgia in the slightest.



    SarahConnor, I thought the same thing when I read that description. Perhaps it'll be an extension of what we heard on "Dinner With Sean"?

    Also I'm really into this Infinity Frequencies record. I think this is one of those perfect starting points for people who want to get into the genre.
    Last edited by nobies; 09-06-2014 at 03:51 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by nobies View Post
    Leviathant, I'm not sure you understand the MO of vaporwave music
    Correct

    which is to take "muzak" and turn it into something more, at the same time more palatable and sexy and yet more synthetic
    Maybe "Differently palatable" is better than "More Palatable" - Muzak was designed to be palatable.

    which is at once a statement on anti-consumerism/corporatism and on the sleaze of music that is supposed to make you basically feel nothing at all. Much like David Lynch's Twin Peaks, it's exposing the darkness under the sheen.
    Have you ever been to an art museum, made your way to the modern art section, and read the placards next to the works on the wall? This sentence reads like one of those.

    It has nothing to do with 80s nostalgia in the slightest.
    I was reacting to @nooneimportant calling Macintosh Plus a "nostalgia hellride" - I'm glad we're in agreeance about the role of nostalgia in the genre


    I'm really into this Infinity Frequencies record. I think this is one of those perfect starting points for people who want to get into the genre.
    Some of this reminds me of the stuff Plug did in the 90s (Drum n' Bass for Papa), if you got rid of the parts of his music where he actually made melodies and beats.

    I guess that I'm more of a BLT kind of guy when it comes to music, and some people are fine with just eating lettuce. While there's certainly work involved in curating a library of shitty 80s instrumental music, and picking items from that library to play back at a slower frequency, the end result doesn't really do anything for me. I keep waiting for something interesting to happen. Doesn't mean that I'm going to judge other people who like it - mostly I'm judging the people who make it I've been known to set up one of my analog synths to just drone on a note while it modulates filter frequencies and just play that over my speakers for an hour or two. But I don't think I'm going to put that drone up on Bandcamp or Soundcloud.

    If I've come out of this thread with anything positive, it's having found out that Plug put another album out in 2011.

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    I didn't mean it was actual nostalgia, I meant the fact Macintosh Plus conjured up a feeling of nostalgia but with a very... off tone to it. I was born in 1990, so I definitely haven't lived through that period. I once told my friend it was like having a really bad fever, laying in bed and the TV is stuck on Public Access or something. It's freaky. I can understand how nobody can really relate but some things just rub people differently, you know what I'm sayin'?

    I also don't think it's necessarily really good music either, It's okay and totally serviceable but If I want REALLY good Experimental music then I'll listen to The Residents which is something for another thread...
    Last edited by nooneimportant; 09-06-2014 at 08:19 PM.

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    I gotta say Floral Shoppe was one of my favorite records of the past couple years.

    Really looking forward to the next Nmesh record, that last record was a banger.

    Last edited by thefragile_jake; 09-07-2014 at 05:59 PM.

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    Been a fan of vaporwave since Far Side Virtual. Doesn't bother me that it's curated material chopped and sliced. I like to imagine each vaporwave album as a soundtrack to some Timecop-esque movie or as background music while I'm shopping at a JC Pennys in 1992. Here's a list of records to check out...

    James Ferraro - Far Side Virtual
    Macintosh Plus - Floral Shoppe
    Chuck Person (Oneohtrix Point Never) - Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1
    SAINT PEPSI - Hit Vibes
    ECO VIRTUAL - VIRTUAL大気中分析
    Miami Vice - Palm Haze
    Nmesh - Dream Sequins®
    PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises - ClearSkies™/Home™
    New Dreams Ltd. - Initiation Tape: Isle of Avalon Edition
    情報デスクVIRTUAL - 札幌コンテンポラリー

    Most of those are Ramona releases (because she's the best)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Leviathant View Post
    Have you ever been to an art museum, made your way to the modern art section, and read the placards next to the works on the wall? This sentence reads like one of those.
    DAE lol postmodern art?
    Last edited by nobies; 09-06-2014 at 08:54 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by nobies View Post
    DAE lol postmodern art?
    Aw, why did you delete the "so dum rite" line? Did you have a point, or did you just want to have a public swordfight with our art gallery dicks? I apologize if I'm offending your sensibilities, but not everyone likes the same things.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Leviathant View Post
    I apologize if I'm offending your sensibilities, but not everyone likes the same things.
    Because that's what my comment was about, right? I get it, nobody likes the same stuff. Cool. Don't be an arse because I attempted to explain something. Not trying to be a dick or anything.

    /argument
    Last edited by nobies; 09-07-2014 at 10:58 AM.

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    Dat trap influence doe.

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    Quote Originally Posted by nobies View Post
    I get it, nobody likes the same stuff. Cool. Don't be an arse because I attempted to explain something. Not trying to be a dick or anything.
    There we go! That's the kind of communication, free of acronyms and full of sentence structure, that clearly expresses what it is you were trying to say

    Sorry for writing you off earlier. That kind of reaction should have been limited to the music, not spilling over into your attempt to help me understand the appeal in it.

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    I think right now, R Plus Seven is my favorite vapor album, if not one of the best electronic albums of the past decade.
    Last edited by nobies; 09-07-2014 at 02:32 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by nobies View Post
    I think right now, R Plus Seven is my favorite vapor album, if not one of the best electronic albums of the past decade.
    Have you seen Point Never live? It's quite breathtaking. I remember he opened up with "Music For Steamed Rocks" off Commissions I and it was beyond incredible.

    Such a unexplainable melancholy piece. Great taste @nobies .


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    Quote Originally Posted by nobies View Post
    Leviathant, I'm not sure you understand the MO of vaporwave music, which is to take "muzak" and turn it into something more, at the same time more palatable and sexy and yet more synthetic, which is at once a statement on anti-consumerism/corporatism and on the sleaze of music that is supposed to make you basically feel nothing at all. Much like David Lynch's Twin Peaks, it's exposing the darkness under the sheen. It has nothing to do with 80s nostalgia in the slightest.



    SarahConnor, I thought the same thing when I read that description. Perhaps it'll be an extension of what we heard on "Dinner With Sean"?

    Also I'm really into this Infinity Frequencies record. I think this is one of those perfect starting points for people who want to get into the genre.
    Thanks for the reference! I'll have to listen to this all the way through, but I'm digging the first track's samples.

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    So I remember this thread from way back when; it's where I first heard about "Vapourwave"... so I went ahead and searched for "vapourwave" and found this...






    I was like "COOL"... it's chill... it's synth... its something I could get into...


    ...then recently I find out the above track is nothing more than this slowed down...



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    That's... kind of the point

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    https://reznovka.bandcamp.com/

    check out my newest record

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    Vaporwave

    Just got into Vaporwave...there are tons of subgenres (mallwave, futirefunk,etc)
    Sure its sounds like just a slow version of 70s/80s songs sampled but somehow seems right and "nostalgic"...shit this thing is good.

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    So many good albums under the vaporwave tag.









    Last edited by thefragile_jake; 07-11-2020 at 06:45 PM.

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    Luxury Elite, Saint Pepsi,Tupperwave...so many

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    Quote Originally Posted by adamsrib View Post
    Um no.
    Look. In 2014, when I posted that, "Um, yes." Sorry not sorry. 90% of what people shared with me as Vaporwave at the time could have been created with this boombox:



    Note that the clips @thefragile_jake posted just now are all from 2015, except for one - and I think it shows that there was growth in the genre, even in the course of a year - because you had to differentiate from that tiny boombox. I'm not responding to your quote to take another opportunity to dump on the genre like I did six years ago, because:

    You just don't get it, sweetie.
    ...that's okay! Just because it's not for me doesn't mean it's not for anyone else. But the production techniques surrounding early vaporwave aren't arguable - many of the examples from the time were literally tapes of 80s music/muzak played off a voltage starved tape deck, cut into loops, minimally rearranged, and run through a flanger or phaser, with some reverb. By 2015, creative original music elements seem to have become more common in the genre. Judging by Wikipedia (for all its faults) that seems to be when the genre hit peak popularity and began to really disseminate into other things.

    I'm glad to see the thread brought back to life, and I hope more people continue to post examples of the genre - it's been a while!

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    This chart was going around reddit last year. It's split into subgenres, and also lists record labels and YouTube channels which might be of interest:

    https://i.redd.it/ugr7m59ei7b31.jpg

    The chart is 7800x4846.

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