Vapor Vertebrae 07-2015 Part C

King Quartz featuring
悲しい ANDROID - APARTMENT¶
Distant Passion

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Detroit meets Cagliari, the mephitic haze of the West now flickers in an ever-closer proximity to sun-dappled Rimini rhizomes: enter King Quartz and 悲しい ANDROID - APARTMENT¶ aka 悲しい ANDROID.chan who team up in an alkaloidal halide called Distant Passion which seems to be one of those deliciously yearning vapor-fueled Ambient corkers at first, but oh boy, no! After the beatless anacrusis, the stylistic range widens, featuring elasticized laser interferometry and resemblant swooshes, high-rise saxophone lariats and bubbling handclaps. In the epicenter of it all: a downwards-spiraling steelpan helix taken from Trinidad & Tobago which brings panchromatic sunbeams into the shawm-accentuated scenery. Watch out for the arpeggiated breakbeat gridlock during the track’s apex and the final decelerated serenade that kisses the listener goodbye. It is only then that the track title comes into play; in every other instance, an aliphatic sequence of complete immersions takes place. A successful rally!

Twitter: @kingquartzzz  @SadAndroid_chan

Nyetscape
Suspended Animation

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Now presumably residing near – or in – the Congo River, Nyetscape emerges with the cheekily titled corker Suspended Animation, an archetypal Vaporwave ventiduct of rhenium-alloyed smoke and mirrors, prolonged temple bells and an overall metalization that favors technocracy over nomological perianths. The TV is running in the background, ethereal-incidental synth washes flow through the lacustrine-orthorhombic hallway, and let’s not forget about the electric guitar in tandem with the classic drum kit that both protrude the superimposition of blurred tone sequences. Nyetscape goes all-in on the chirality or obliquity factor: the former term describes the asymmetry between an original and its mirrored image which can also be applied to the aural existence of Suspended Animation, whereas the latter term elucidates that within the soundscape itself, no point is made, neither directly nor in a hidden way. Suspended Animation just floats and oozes along, and while its lanthanum physiognomy is clearly loop-based, it still manages to enshrine its barycenter.

Twitter: @Nyetscape

Lancaster.
The 213

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Shuttling between Philadelphia and Los Angeles, Luis Lancaster aka ランカスター gets to know the desiccate, arid side of Future Funk and finds the very source of it in The 213, incidentally a postal code of the very area that is depicted in the attached artwork, its saffron-sepia duality already encapsulating an oneiric phantasmagoria right from the get-go, without having even sent one single note to the cochleae of the listener. Once the track is rolling in midtempo though, complete with the midtempo tropopause and dreamy tenor saxophone amid Rhodes piano fermions, a gravitational microlensing takes place. In lieu of advertising the umpteenth party, Lancaster focuses on a lilting immersion, allowing his track to rotoscope around summer breezes, cenobitism and the laid-back view onto hills, pools and other orographic landmarks. The weight and energy of the city are far away, but the setting also shies away from becoming overly moony or paradisiacal. Dissipative and debonair: The 213 feels like a haçienda or peninsula, what with its salubrious architecture that is awash with light.

Twitter: @Luis_Lancaster

J Λ V Λ . E X E
C r y s t a l 遊び場

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J Λ V Λ . E X E remains a force to reckon with, not that our guy from Neo-Japanistan has to prove anything to anyone. It’s nonetheless great that he develops his synth-focused style further, presumably relying on material from the infamous place called somewhere else, but skillfully curating the sampled bits regardless, with the aid of frequency-bending constructions and software. This is also applicable in terms of C r y s t a l 遊び場, the first track off his album 未解放2. The approach is noticeably different here: no ubiquitous histrionic synth slides of the 80’s await the listener. Here and now, J Λ V Λ . E X E pours the bucolic rusticity of a rural hamlet into each and every note, slowing its telomeres down so that the afterglow of the synthetic harmonica-resembling square punctilio can float through the dry air, only pushed forward by the fluvial aura of the washed-out cymbals. The laissez-faire melody has a certain comic relief in it, a pinch that translates into shrugged shoulders. I cannot for the life of me find an audible cross-linkage between the track title and attached soundscape, since the glint factor is so low. But still: iconoclasm is part of the V-genre, so just watch J Λ V Λ . E X E’s aural cornfields roll by and let them be crystals.

Twitter: @JAVAEXE

Wizard's Treats
Morning Sequence

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From Washington, DC hails the matutinal-mature Morning Sequence as envisioned by Wizard’s Treats, and considering the artwork of the less than 90 seconds long cerulean vignette, chances are that this is one of those potentially petrifying bits of municipal melancholy. Rise and shine is good and fine, but others have to do it first. And indeed, car horns and traffic noise are part of this here anthocyanin-hued song, but there's nothing paralyzing in this diaphanous diorama. Right from the get-go, the mood is uplifting and benignant, a fusillade of aqueous-ligneous pearls and blebs vesiculate through the concrete jungle, sun-harboring centrioles flutter through the molybdenized air, one’s personal assistant adds a human touch. 86 degrees aren’t too cold either. The oomph of the drums is lessened, and that’s a very good thing: it allows the reticulation of multitude marimbas and vitreous wind chimes to become entangled, to let their helicoidal pollination unfold freely. The result is longitudinal, adaxial and pectiniform, spawning liquedous constituents, bosky magnetotails and amicable aureoles aplenty. I’ve had far less energetic mornings.

Twitter: @wizardstreats

Ambient Review 444: Vapor Vertebrae 07/2015 [Part C]. Originally published on Jul. 29, 2015 at AmbientExotica.com.