Vapor Vertebrae 10-2015 Part B

ArtFluids
Avoc Cado

<Proteus LP>

The glistening MIDI-fueled vapor ventiducts of ArtFluids never meant to cause havoc. But now they're causing avoc, or to be more precise: Avoc Cado, the second track from his LP Proteus. Released in October 2015 on OSCOB's Bedlam Tapes in a limited edition of 50 cassettes, the track serves both as a single and a teaser, an artifact to test and detest the listener's expectations. It is hard to pinpoint the allure of ArtFluids: is it the purposefully emaciated synths whose physiognomy and complexion suddenly rise due to towers of stacked polyphony? Is it the occasional ancillary route that leads to Eurodance-accentuated rhythms? Whatever the truth – which I can only approximate anyway – may be, Avoc Cado has you covered: retrofuturistic crystal droplets and rain pads vesiculate through rhenium-alloyed Roland bass drums which protrude the darkness in tandem with phylogenetic bongo-oid percussion devices. Timbre- and melody-wise, ArtFluids makes this sound like one of those early C64 or Amiga music demos; the spirit of 30+ years of sound processor wizardry is in the air, emulated of course, but still graspable. Coldwave meets Glo(w)-Fi, and while Avoc Cado does not encapsulate everyone's interpretation of Vaporwave, it all the more embraces and exudes the heritage of post-Kraftwerk computer music. 

Twitter: @ArtFluids  @BedlamTapes

Ecosynthetics
Two Cars Colliding

<Single>

It is quite the catastrophic title, with all kinds of portent or would-be considerations whirled away in the wake of a horrible situation: Two Cars Colliding sports an apocalyptic connotation, but Canada's Ecosynthetics, otherwise known as Ghosting in Vaporwave (and Dream Catalogue) circles, makes the horrible situation his moment and unleashes adiabatic rotoscoping punctilio waves of Glitch that jitter and pulsate through the recondite darkness. Once the scything spikes, stereo-panned afterglows, screeching magnetotails and short visits into underwater-like hymnic halides run on all cylinders, the vignette showcases a beautifully condensed diorama of glacial globs, (hol)arctic isles and fluvial floes. There are people out there who may neglect any presence of Vaporwave whatsoever. But in the end, these jittered fractals and apoplectic bursts show the micrometry of bliss, moments of incisive clarity and cerulean hue. An overarching theme to hum along to is unrecognizable, but not completely ruled out; it is the textures and their Detroit-y nature of profoundness which altogether make this sound-based helictite a caproic crash. 

Twitter: @ghosting_tv

私Kyasuto
Visionary [ウイルス]

<Single>

To be honest, one look at the front artwork, and the thoughts of 私Kyasuto's home base Daytona Beach in Florida are annihilated, what with the olive-green/saffron-yellow grid and the cybernetic culture. The soundscape itself, however, leads back to sun-kissed lands and lores: Visionary [ウイルス] is a clear-cut beach-compatible theme of sizzling maracas complete with reverberated classic drum kits whose chromaticity inherits the aura of the 80's. Add the basketball-like bass droplets, lascivious guitar coils and ophidian elements such as clicking claves and goblet drum vestiges to the shore, and you find yourself near a salubrious cove. Don't let the sudden epiphany of the last three seconds fool you: this is a life-affirming song, hopelessly auroral and rose-tinted, yet awash with prolonged moments of nostalgia and remoteness. Once the soundscape is blurred and toned down, it doesn't seem like the oldest trick in the book anymore. Instead, the focus shifts, parallax layers are added, and everything is undeniably peachy. This is Vaporwave à la Florida, the sunlight remains surreal, the mood is slightly crestfallen, but the listening subject is in control of its fate. Feels good!

Twitter: @KyasutoMusic

Tilvera
わたしは p i s a n g

<p i s a n g w a v e 2 0 0 0>

German boy Luis aka Tilvera makes it clear right from the get-go: the ｐｉｓａｎｇｗａｖｅ２０００EP is a joke, and if you don't get it, no worries, all is fine. If it only were that easy. For starters, it's a rough world out there, and Vaporwave itself is considered a joke by many, so in the end, Tilvera only encapsulates a joke within a joke so that you can laugh while you laugh. But what if we – you and I – try to absorb some sort of postive aura from the above sparkler わたしはｐｉｓａｎｇ, would this be so wrong? "Yellow on the outside, white on the inside," Jin Hackman raps in a voice that's deeper than Tay Zonday's famously debonair soul, and while his toasts are agglutinated to sun-dappled acoustic licks and further ameliorated by steel guitar twangs, it becomes all of a sudden quite a bit possible to bask in the soothing insouciance that is altered by Tilvera. The staggering punchiness of the lo-freq bassline only augments the liveliness. Pisang embodies the magic of the banana. Peel and repeat.

Twitter: @Tilveravapor 

Rad Dan
Feature Presentation

<Blockbuster And Chill EP>

Vaporwave confronts Future Funk. Rad Dan versus Tubular Future. I against I. Our boy from Orlando, Florida is equally – and rightfully – at home in both genres, but this here Feature Presentation is a prime example of Vaporwave: slow as molasses, sticky as honey. In the opener of his seven-track Blockbuster And Chill EP/LP hybrid released on Pizzabox Society in October 2015, Rad Dan takes us back to a time where going to the movies was an exciting affair that you wholeheartedly embraced for all the right reasons, mainly the actors and storyline, the popcorn and soda, with the bae on your side. Rad Dan is in good company: his screen is somewhat akin to the aforementioned Ghosting’s Telenights (2014, Dream Catalogue) and the equally aforementioned OSCOB’s チャンネルサーフィン1978–1984 (2015, DMT Tapes), but much bigger, presentd in 21:9 and then some. Feature Presentation therefore prepares the listener for the grand things to come, enchanting with its washed out but hymnic Mellotron muons, apocryphal brass blasts and viridian conga centrioles. The anthem is nonetheless tawny and not fully shown in technicolor: the tone sequences aren't truly euphonious, there's something standardized and all too common in the presentation. Again, that is exactly the deal, it's only a feature after all, but undeniably drenched in the consumerism cathexis known as – wait for it – Vaporwave.

Twitter: @rad_dan_music  @pizzaboxsociety

Vaporwave Review 131: Vapor Vertebrae 10/2015 [Part B]. Originally published on Oct. 20, 2015 at AmbientExotica.com.