Vapor Vertebrae 02-2016 Part A

コンシャスTHOUGHTS
ひろみ

<Single>

Not that I'm 60 years old or something like that, but I have to applaud Generation Y for their interest in the past, a generation I belong to with pride thanks to artists like Glaswegian vaporwaver and funk fillon Chris aka コンシャスTHOUGHTS who — consciously as fuck — presents the music of Tokyo's grande dame Hiromi Iwasaki in this single. ひろみ translates into "Hiromi only," a statement some people might falsify immediately, but once the laid-back sun-dappled moiré shimmers through the proscenium as the curtain wanes, the lady, born in '58 after all, sees her J-Pop gemstone called Street Dancer (off her 1980 LP Wish) ameliorated with breakbeat blebs. It is this kind of beat that is so luring here, particularly because Chris is more of a four-to-the-floor guy. Instances of his preference simmer in the distance, but this here tune is a pipe dream from start to finish, enchanting with lush vocals, steel guitar licks and legatofied granular/translucent Rhodes flumes. The original isn't revved up or boosted; it is mellowly enhanced. Eureka, コンシャスTHOUGHTS!

Twitter: @ChrissyCray1         Video: by Artzie Music

death's dynamic shroud.wmv
Loving Is Easy (DEZMO X OSCOB Remix)

<I'll Try Living Like This (NUWRLD Version)>

The original mix of Loving Is Easy by death's dynamic shroud.wmv: a cylonic-polyphonic steel mill beat-accentuated workout thunderstorm, adiabatically alloyed with steel, vitreously ameliorated through the power of chimes and various vixens. The remix of said tune by holy hustler OSCOB and vapor dame Dezmo: a milkier, more hibernal addendum that eventually turns into a fusillade of beatific bursts, apoplectic industrialism and cautiously stashed Tobago-isms thanks to the steel pans of one's mind. Featured on death dynamic shroud's spellbinding NUWRLD Version which encloses remixes and reworks of the genre-abiding I'll Try Living Like This as released on DREAM Catalogue in 2015, OSCOB and DEZMO stay true to the original tour de force which remains purposefully recognizable. Whether it was always intended or only jokingly referenced, but NUWRLD is now considered a (potential) genre, providing another dactylic element in the rotating vapor fan that is made of genre-related attempts, dreams and missions such as Hardvapour, Metrosong, and NUWRLD. Remember the time when Mallsoft was hailed as the silkiest shit? If you still bask in these times, then let NUWRLD, its remixers and original creators HCMJ and Giant Claw empty the medulla of you.

Twitter: @KeithKawaii  @HCMJmagic  @corporatemodel  @VirtualPlazaMax

Immune
Cold Transmission

<Single>

Shout-out to Immune, also stylized as IMMUNE//, the London-based visionary as frequently featured on DREAM Catalogue. Known for his full-length albums Nightvisions and Breathless, the above Cold Transmission is the first offering since the aforementioned latter tape release, appearing in the shape of a single… for now. Who knows if the artist rather sees it as a mere finger exercise or gateway to a new album. Clocking in at six and a half minutes, there's enough excitement to be had in any case, whether it is the gouraud-shaded harbor dust blowing through the lenticular sky, the Barucada-oriented bongo amalgamation which is sweeping staccato-like amidst the matutinal granuloma, or the sun-kissed beam of light outshining the glacial sinus helictite that is pulsating in the foreground. Cold Transmission boldly states its two conceptual focal points through its song title, but it is the fermions and nucleic counterpoints situated few and far between that maintain the balance after all. Ambient meets Vaporwave and Exotica. No wonder I like to jump on that bandwagon!

Twitter: @immunemusic

Vandelay Industries
Absorbed

<Single>

One of the greatest counties in the US of A has to be Yolo County, and granted, Vandelay Industries make it their task to translate the aureate sun rays into aural soundwaves. The setting is less dusty and much more bosky, mind you. Absorbed is a chapparral translated into music, a Vaportrap/Breakbeat hybrid akin to the erudite epithelia of STΛQQ ƟVERFLƟ, Vaperror and Cobalt Road, probably a bit thinner and less orthochromatic. The technicolor is lacking, but for a good and deliciously ethereal reason: the interstices between the molecules! Indeed, the textures feel aquatic and solid, crystalline and opaque, outgoing and remote at the same time. The stop-and-go notion as well as the ever-changing kaleidoscope of sound, sustain and silence turns out to be the actual deal, quiescence plays as important a role after all. The afterglow of each Mellotron muon, Rhodes rhizome and rain ray oscillates between — and simultaneously encapsulates — arcana and illumination, enigmatic wisps and enlightening centrioles. The industrial link to the moniker is traceable, but in small doses only, as the listening subject enters the nomological hypanthium.

Twitter: @_vandelayind_

Vaporwave Review 150: Vapor Vertebrae 02/2016 [Part A]. Originally published on Feb. 9, 2016 at AmbientExotica.com.