Vapor Vertebrae 11-2015 Part A

Rez x OSCOB x Digital Sex
三人組

<The Vape Council Volume 1>

Vaporwave is dead when artists that have gained more than just a bit of traction collaborate and iridesce between helluvalot of genres. This is what happens in 三人組, a benthic sporophyte that clocks in past the six minute (and six genre) mark. Featured on Elemental 95's The Vape Council Volume 1 compilation – the first but not the last time the longest of all Vaporwave epitomes appears on this Vapor Vertebrae roundup –, the tune encapsulates the sample-based prowess of OSCOB, the emerald smoke circulators of his real life friend Rez and the Wisconsinite mellowness of Digital Sex. The track title 三人組 is as close to the American idiom "Tom, Dick and Harry" as possible, the soundscape itself, however, is magnanimously varied in styles and congruous in terms of its purple haze. Starting with click-accentuated pulsatile manholes in Detroit, moving over to a staccatofied punctilio of slowed-down and flangered 80's Synth Pop presented in the style of glitchy Plunderphonics until the great finale takes place in the shape of Jungle-oriented aeriform Rave helixes, 三人組 is a gorgeous centriole which fulfills its intrinsic triptych at the very end when it becomes clear that it splices together three distinct parts, all of them highly compatible and expertly assembled. Ambient, Glitch, Detroit, Detroit, Drone, Plunderphonics, Jungle, Sheffield Rave, nah, that's only an empty collection of buzzwords, so let all of these instance be rightful constituents of… the mighty V.

Twitter: @DigitalSexual  @virtualhighrez  @VirtualPlazaMax

コンシャスTHOUGHTS feat. rxtlxck
I Forgot

<愛>

愛 means love. And the collaboration of Glasgow's コンシャス THOUGHTS and Fredericksburg's rxtlxck means Future Funk. I could leave it that, but there's much more to tell. Recently, Chris – who is the man behind the thoughtful moniker – created a cheerfully laissez-faire in-your-face account on SoundCloud called コンシャス MEMES which is about tongue-in-cheek riots and aural robberies. The artist's money quote: "ALL I DO IS STEAL SONGS HAHA." But no worries, he remains dedicated and attached to the interim stage of both the V-genre and FF-movement. I Forgot is the second track off his album 愛 which recently dropped on the Future Society Collective as envisioned and run by Aritus. Over the course of almost four minutes, the duo of コンシャス THOUGHTS and rxtlxck succumb to slower midtempo gro(o)ves plastered with electropositive piano gluons, treble-boosted ancillary intersections and MIDI-fueled brass blebs. In tandem with the mixed vocals and ocean waves, I Forgot feels like the genre's sunset phase, but the negativism of this thought is immediately annihilated by the fittingly conscious cathexis and dreamy micrometry: this is the out-of-body vision of a being that absorbs the slower, more soulful vibes of life, not the BPM quasi-tachycardia which the Future Funk movement is (also) known for, therefore making this amethystine beach a sound-based gemstone to cherish. Good work, gents!

Twitter: @ChrissyCray1  @rxtlxck

Windows 98の
New Mall Synthesis

<The Vape Council Volume 1>

The music of Windows 98の amalgamates constructions that gyre between Vaporwave and Glitch; as it should be, one might be tempted to add. However, the tracks of the Orlando-based clasically trained composer, drummer and musical infiltrator evoke a certain polysemy, a dubious twilight that lets the producer tower above the things he creates, winking and smiling in the wake of the general opinion which is then mobbed up. Windows 98の creates music for brains… which I happen to enjoy against all odds if you catch my drift. It is all the more surprising that New Mall Synthesis even exists, for it ventures into the flamboyant world of consumerism… or is it? New Mall Synthesis is a prominent part of Elemental 95's The Vape Council Volume 1 compilation, and yes, you can sense that paradisiac piano pericarp right at the beginning. But then the artist – true to form as ever – ennobles the bustling scenery with incisive Shoegaze guitars, medulla-emptying droning juggernaut frequencies and an increasingly overdriven peritoneum of static noise. Mallsoft and Windows 98の: for a brief moment, this pairing almost became reality. Then the snarky ambiguity kicked in. 

Twitter: @windows98wave

Dezmo
Nitetime Glo

<Single>

I recently asked Dezmo via Twitter whether her Corporate Model moniker would reappear some time in the future, presuming that it was replaced for good. I'm not entirely sure the above Nitetime Glo showcases the very moment of its resurrection. Said moment at least enshrines the best of both worlds: the artist of Nitetime Glo is set to Dezmo, the SoundCloud hashtag meanwhile reads #corporate model, so I guess the mentioning of both names is justified. Therefore we're good… and the track is good too. Almost passing the threshhold to the three minute mark, the glowing solanum exudes a strangely wondrous conglomerate of Rhodes pianos, a catchy ditty that could come straight out of a wooden musicbox, followed by a handclap-underlined mid-bass retinue. The tone sequences breathe Japanese lift erethism without the injection of any pentatonic timbre, and if the bass had been revved up, Dezmo would have crossed the paths to Future Funk. Even when the 4/4 beat does become a prominent part of the latter half, it is somehow washed out and deliciously fuzzy, less staggering and therefore more lactic and dreamy. Additional phases of blur, punctilio, smoke and mirrors consolidate the fact that this is as close to the Future Funk style as Dezmo is willed to get while constantly reassuring the listener that Nitetime Glo's bucolic, harmonica-finished unity is a Vaporwave pearl alright. As catchy as can be. Dezmo/Corporate Model knows best.

Twitter: @corporatemodel

Vaporwave Review 134: Vapor Vertebrae 11/2015 [Part A]. Originally published on Nov. 3, 2015 at AmbientExotica.com.