Vapor Vertebrae 09-2015 Part B

DEIPHIX
Mumbai Console (Vital Past)

<Modernist Deities Tape>

Somewhere between Mumbai and Kerala resides the saffron-colored gamut of Middle Eastern ouds whose slapped strings are encorporated and played back by DEIPHIX aka Noc Nista. Mumbai Console (Vital Past) is not your archetypal Vaporwave song – the first sign of a trend that continues throughout this Vapor Vertebrae edition – but intertwines many of its playful twists and craftsmanships. Take, for instance, two particularly enchanting integrations that are anything but delightfully prototypical at the end of the day: on the one hand, there's the high-pitched Banghra singsong of the temptress with its over-the-top yet heartfelt exoticism, and on the other hand a malleable, mercilessly elasticized time stretch effect that is applied to the formerly vivid strings, making them an yttrium-alloyed static noise fest. Eventually, the castanet-accompanied singer returns with her oud/sitar polysemy, respectfully rounding off the mirage of the desiccated desert. Is this Bollywave or Vaporwood… or something in-between?

Twitter:@NickXenol

Telozkope
Silica Gel

<Sumpnoia Panta LP>

Although Telozkope has hinted at a comparatively kaleidoscopic album in the making, the music of the Manitoba-based artist has to this point become increasingly sun-kissed and benignant, what with the heterodyned sentiments of summer evening lutes, willfully antediluvian/medieval sporophytes and almost gaseous lo-freq prongs. Silica Gel, the final track of the cleverly titled 'cause easily searchable Sumpnoia Panta EP only augments this perception with its sylphlike elevator erethism: while it would be harsh to dismiss the circumambience of this bosky chaparral’s glade as muzak for lifts, it shares the quality of insouciance and carefreeness, and luckily so. There’s a striking immediacy embroidered within the synthetic chords alright, but it is the jazzy piano that fully emits and ameliorates the thermal state of affairs. A circulator of helical sunbeams and aa multiplex of sound, sustain and silence, Silica Gel is not your typically enforced addendum of hastily packaged hard drive disc packages or solid state disc cardboard boxes: its braiding is eminently organic, with aureate aureoles and horticultural/hieratic hydromagnesite to cherish. It showcases Telozkope’s cathexis best, and while he has overcome Vaporwave a long time ago, whatever this means to the respective reader, I still see those archetypal diffeomorphic vestiges in his music.

Twitter: @telozkope

Boocanan
To A Better Place

<Iron Lung LP Preview>

To A Better Place the new single of Boocanan is called, and it is the harbinger of the things to come around Halloween 2015 when the full-length release Iron Lung sees the tawny fog of the night. At the moment, it is naturally hard to pinpoint her final result, but the Nova Scotia-based artist leaves the field of veiled Vaporwave and harsh Glitch with the above song in order to come up with an unexpectedly spacy open air Ambient antrum whose alcoves are illumined by glistening galactosamine synths. These elements – while a tad icy and holarctic – spawn pristine purity and are ultimately amicable. They mesh well with the mellow amethystine magnetotails whose thermal afterglow flickers through the alluvial air. Oscillating between mysticism and clarity, To A Better Place is a superb appetizer, and I for one am wondering whether there will be room for contrapuntal sawtooth remnants or ogival outings in the future album too. 

Twitter: @boocanan

2047 부드러운 아픈
인간의 눈물 ／ 안드로이드 눈물

<의 로봇 죽음 2298 LP>

Neo-Seoul’s 2047 부드러운 아픈 aka 2047 A.D. flirts with dystopian dioramas and hopeless halides, there’s no denial. Thankfully, this is all part of the plan, as the aesthetic realization of this aural imagery is flawlessly realized and vividly painted. It shouldn’t come as a surprise in this Vapor Vertebrae edition, as it is the transparent theme, but I want to utter the obvious once more: Their album 의 로봇 죽음 2298 (which translates into robot death 2298) is a clear-cut Ambient-focused omnium gatherum. The V-genre reaches into the thickly wadded atmosphere regardless, and this also applies to the single 인간의 눈물 ／ 안드로이드 눈물 which juxtaposes human tears with androids. Crestfallen, rubicund legato drones inherit the rust-covered romanticism of forlorn harbors at night, portentous and partially cacophonous sinews back up the eldritch locale. It is only near the end that the consolatory cloudlets become clearly audible. Similar to Boocanan’s track, 인간의 눈물 ／ 안드로이드 눈물 is eminently organic… and despises the – presumably – highest order of organic setups: us humans.

Twitter: @2047_sicksoft

Wizard's Treats
Commodity Fetishism

<V o i d  O v e r c a s t  LP>

Commodity Fetishism is the fifth constituent of V o i d  O v e r c a s t, a matutinal/melancholic mélange of tracks by Wizard's Treats whose music defies the notion of a genre. Yes, his sounds obviously appear in the Vapor Vertebrae writeup, but there is also a wondrously retrogressive New Age vibe engrained. Since the omnipresence of the distant city is yet again nearby, it is certainly a dualistic dob. Commodity Fetishism starts with a lilac lanthanum gas already in place, a soothing yet clandestine bokeh for the three-note coruscation of the chimes to unfold and float. These two elements are later joined by a third and final one, an acidic seesaw polymer. On paper or the pixels of your reading device, it seems as if this potentially harsh antagonistic device may protrude the caproic ambience for malevolent reasons, but it isn't even harsh to begin with; it rather absorbs the enigmatic energy that surrounds and flickers nearby. Commodity Fetishism offers a deep stasis of Detroit-y characteristics and unites Ambient with Vaporwave, two juggernauts that become harder and harder to separate.

Twitter: @wizardstreats

Iacon
Fields

<[写本] // Codex LP>

Florida is the Vaporwave headquarters when it comes to qualitative and quantitative aspects, spawning (too?) many talented artists, with Iacon at the forefront. You wouldn’t necessarily expect this – the Florida aspect, not the forefront remark – when listening to the [写本] // Codex LP due to its abstract Ambient atmosphere, making it the sixth entity of this Vapor Vertebrae edition to follow the grand daddy of all electronic genres and leave Vaporwave almost quasi-behind. I have chosen the track Fields due to its glacial cinematography that perfectly reflects the front artwork. After the anacrusis of a heavily exhaling mountaineer, a frosty-matutinal segue is climbed, one which unites the peacefulness of a birdsong-accentuated forest with rolling thunder and pentatonic pan flute synths. It is the latter that exude New Age erethism and a peacefulness that is amicably majestic, not at all threatening, despite the rumbling low frequency peritoneum. This, then, could be the prime example of proselytizing weathered Ambient fans to taste a pinch of Vaporwave. One of the best songs Iacon has ever come up with, even though I adore his synth flares and panchromatic 80’s endeavors too.

Twitter: @IaconAesthetics

Ambient Review 451: Vapor Vertebrae 09/2015 [Part B]. Originally published on Sep. 16, 2015 at AmbientExotica.com.