Vapor Vertebrae 06-2015 Part B

Vantage
When The Love Is Real

<Horeazon Records Single 007>

Future Funk has a name: Vantage. The French producer knows how to beguile the listener with Funk critters that are surprisingly deep and profound, not just based on the old formula of having a good time at all costs. Granted, When The Love Is Real does indeed belong to the latter category, but in lieu of a lowbrow lizard, an amethystine amanita is revealed. Whether it is the four-to-the-floor-driven physiognomy, the funk guitar-accentuated Ibiza piano adjuvants or the catchy vocal hook that encounters a slowed-down and much dreamier segue in the latter half of the song, Vantage has entrapped the sun and put it into the waveform for us to enjoy. Further filters, flanger fusillades and a euphony that can’t be beaten round off the diaphanous megafauna. Whether you prefer the punchy gist or the decelerated diorama which carves out the colorful scinitillation of the backing synths ever further, Vantage's track remains a lavabo at worst and high-rise headquarters at best. Or better still: a beachside in aural form, that’s When The Love Is Real! 

Twitter: @VantageNoise

death's dynamic shroud.wmv
Plaza Winds

<Virtual Utopia Experience>

Tech Honors and James Webster form death’s dynamic shroud.wmv, this being but one of many monikers the two share, deploy and vindicate on their Ghost Diamond conglomeration of collected tracks. Plaza Winds, taken from their album Virtual Utopia Experience,  is an auspicious soundscape right from the moment its track title reaches the synapses of the vaporwaver. Released at the end of 2014 already and thus fittingly launching the pyrethrin-fueled arrangement with crimbo harness à la Jingle Bells, the duo soon takes the megafauna into the plaza, ameliorating the marble-covered ceilings and cornerstones with syrinx centrioles, crimson acoustic guitars, exotic bongo blebs and pulsatile synth fibroblasts which altogether augment the sunset-colored atmosphere. A Mallsoft sparkler that is less hazy than direct and immersive, these winds bring you Latinized insouciance and carefreeness aplenty. 

Twitter: @HCMJmagic @techhonors

「サンセット N e t w o r k ❾❶」
Awake (feat. OSCOB)

<Single>

Everyone’s favorite cyberpunk 「サンセット N ｅｔｗｏｒｋ❾❶」teams up with demotic gentleman OSCOB in a track that is pat of a split EP with Replica Federation. The depicted atmosphere on Awake is less clear-cut and vigilant than the track title lets you believe. An alto saxophone is entrapped in heavily reverberated breakbeat patterns, smokily flangered hi-hat helixes are entrapped in an engine room, every centriole feels metallic and dissipative, but the good mood eventually wins. An 80’s Synth Pop hymn simmers in the background, which is a strange remark to make, given that its physiognomy is actually the primary landmark of the track. But both producers make sure to tone down the impression of just listening to a slowed-down vapor version of an existing track. It is hence once again the applied filters, bent frequencies and blurred interstices that are the actual stars of this phragmoplast, not the original source itself. Artwork and soundscape form a unison: Awake really does feel like a glaucous arch brick-plastered back alley. 

Twitter: @cyberrpunk_ @VirtualPlazaMax

(Koi)コイ。
You Without Me

<These Feelings Of Mine EP>

Kanagawa, Japan’s (Koi)コイ。is back with an EP called These Feelings Of Mine, from which the above You Without Me is distilled. Chosen by me due to its fluttering stylophone-driven atmosphere, this song is to be cherished for a whole lot of additional reasons as well. Firstly, there is the rotoscoped lariat colchicine whose stacked synths and diamantine aureoles evoke clarity and haze at the same time. Secondly, the erected melody, while memorable on its own, is further augmented by handclap-accompanied snare punctilios, revving up the energy level without harming the warmly sizzling balance. And finally, phase three of the coherent song hides bubbling vesicles and aquatic halides in the photometry, thereby boosting the stratiform complexion to another level. Since the various layers are serrated beautifully, These Feelings Of Mine never succumbs to plethorically overproduced states, but rather keeps the pace, prevents the gravitational redshift with the aid of its orthonormal superstructure. Dreamy with a cutting edge, that’s the music of (Koi)コイ。

Twitter: @pondofkoifish

Blurynu
Electronic Distance

<Single>

"Another product of vaporcore," that's how Blurynu describes Electronic Distance in a nutshell. Given the high-chroma artwork that is attached to the song and its popping colors, chances are that there is more to this tune than a grinding beat. As luck has it, Blurynu has created a bubblegum vortex that has much more in common with Dutch Hi-NRG rainbow ditties of the 90's. Deliberately overpowered, industrially twisted staccato bursts, a tachycardia-causing tempo, pitch-shifted Rave vocals and harmonious chords force deep blue skies down one's throat, and that's exactly what we're looking for most of the day. There's an odd grainy filter superimposed though, one which seems to swallow most of the highs… only in last 20 seconds or so is the frequency-related gamut widened and then comprises a greater plasticity. Time for reflection is usually amiss in Future Funk, now think of this genre, triple the tempo, and give in to Blurynu's tunnel vision where palmtrees, hot-air balloons and rustic effulgence trigger the retina, and you know one possible truth about Vaporcore. An aurally induced fovea is included in the package. Loud and shrill but with a warm nucleus, Electronic Distance is a song for workout and jogging hours, less compatible with a reverie, but make no mistake: don't miss it!

Twitter: @blurynu

Ambient Review 437: Vapor Vertebrae 06/2015 [Part B]. Originally published on Jun. 10, 2015 at AmbientExotica.com.