Vapor Vertebrae 11-2015 Part C

Chinese Hackers
U n d e r g r o u n d

<( w i r e t a p )>

If a Vaporwave artist or collective goes into the underground, chances are that hilarity ensues – at least the naysayers will have a field day or two: ”why going underground if you have to leave it first?” Thankfully, AmbientExotica is not the primary place to go to for doubters of the movement, and so it is my pleasure to review the official single and public preview U n d e r g r o u n d, a prominent part of Chinese Hackers' ( w i r e t a p ) LP to be released on OSCOB's German headquarters label Bedlam Tapes in December 2015. While I cannot review the whole albm due to an upcoming CMS change, server movement, and whatnot, I wouldn't want to miss the chance to absorb the hazy vibes of this cerulean corker before the 30-day quasi-hibernation hits me. Said corker is rotten to the core and stokehold-based, but the realization of this mélange is splendidly achieved. Be it the purposefully hazy classic drum kit that is seemingly played live, the Spartan/Saugerties two-note Hip-Hop bassline, the joyless glints and chimes in the epicenter or the cautious isospin-loving asbestus particles, Chinese Hackers' self-proclaimed Vaporgoth ignis vanishes without a trace… for one track only, as the remaining tracks ought to consitute a behemoth for sure. 

Twitter: @chinesehackerz   @BedlamTapes

e—ra
Inevitable Praise From Above

<Single>

Inevitable Praise From Above is a potentially diffeomorphic track by Lynnwood, Washington-based Vaporwave artist e—ra, and its track title alone should make for an ambivalent reading alright. Who is praising whom? Is the man from above even a man, and if so, is the presence of God implied in this particular sanctuary? The title – in tandem with the lexical discourse on the artist's SoundCloud page – is auspiciously portentous, but the soundscape itself annihilates eldritch thoughts and brings you the kind of Mellotron/Mallsoft enchantment that ostracizes any discourse or higher suave laissez-faire attitude, mon frère. This is a gorgeous V cocktail with high levels of insouciance and life-affirming chord sequences to be cherished and cherried by the devoted fan. Right from the get-go, the wonky stop-and-go notion of the beat leads to faux-pentatonic tones, feisty beats, rhenium Rhodes and soulful vocals. The whole track proposes the amalgamation of R'n'B and the enchantment that tunes from that place called ”somewhere else” can give us, but again, the short micro jitters and arhythmic interstices let e—ra reside above the clouds. The gridlock endeavor isn't as apoplectic and over the top as the one that is applied by 悲しい ANDROID - APARTMENT¶, but the track is delightful regardless and one of the genre's many examples where accessibility doesn't translate to an awkwardly poppy fad.

Twitter: @dumboldpeople

Stevia Sphere
Elevator 8

<Elevator Relaxation Tape 3>

As stevia becomes quite important a source of pseudo-nutritious energy, it was about time for the Vaporwave genre to experience a different kind of saccharified view. Enter Stevia Sphere from the town of Lund in Sweden, otherwise known as a student bubble and eclectic biosphere of great music. Elevator 8 (This Love Is Lightning) is the track to cherish at this moment, or rather an unmixed version thereof. Being the opener of the album Elevator Relaxation Tape 3, it serves as the ever-crucial first contact of the whole endemic aural locale: if Stevia Sphere fails to enchant, chances are that the elevator won't lift off, metaphorically speaking. Luckily, the artist and Metrosong mage knows how to furnish such a narrow place. Auspiciously artificial clave clicks, bubbling MIDI trumpets, an apocryphal bassline in the veins of Crime Jazz and a delightfully over-the-top lead melody complete with a mellow Italo piano accompaniment make this one a laissez-faire lariat whose auroral sunset phase illumines the whole elevator in a rose-tinted magenta hue. If insouciance is your elixir, Elevator 8 is the small room to accommodate.

Twitter: @steviasphere

Bonus Fruit
Pineapple Blast

<銀河TOMAHAWK>

My guy Bonus Fruit aka GALAXIANオーブ aka Deiter Hetrick and owner of the Pizzabox Society label – let's leave it at that for now – carves out scrimshaw artifacts, baubles and potpourris aplenty when the synths start to smoke, and where there's smoke there's fyre with a "y". Pineapple Blast is such a dense diorama where sinewed sine saprotrophs are thrown into the cochleae of the listener. Serving as the official single of his album 銀河TOMAHAWK, it rightfully and fittingly exudes vigor, voluminosity, victory. Whether it is the cautiously exotic bongo and boobam beat, the birds of paradise that chirp and squawk in close proximity to the rotoscoping rhenium rhizomes or the tastefully ridiculous Rave patterns that are perfectly pitch-shifted in order to throw you into the second Summer of Love in a Sheffield glade from 1989, this here piece is an apoplectic wheel of fortune, a viscoelastic retinue of industrialism, stokehold stomps and that other kind of plant, you know, the one where smoke plumes and large chimneys fill the air with particles of inimical iridescence. Abrasive and tetragonal, shuttling between spiky Shoegaze and juggernauty Jungle, Pineapple Blast tastes like poisonous pixels, and that's good enough for me!

Twitter: @modernsqueeze

VIZION
E/I

<Single>

I have written hundreds over hundreds of reviews for AmbientExotica, and my endeavor of this site originally was – and still is – to capture the perfect loop by means of colorful language, sometimes overly ornate, sure, but described from deep within my heart. This loop doesn't need to be thrown through Fruity Loops, Reason or Logic… it can occur in handmade Jazz music, Exotica sparklers or Drone dioramas. But chances are good that the Vaporwave community can capture the caproic circumambience and vivid vigor best. Wyoming's VIZION would be your guy, thank you very much, for his single E/I, also known as Educational Entertainment 2003 promises, advertises and – here's the boon – delivers a next to perfect loop if you're up to a susurrant, smoothly mellow elevator engine. The loop is played through a metallic filter, it is slightly compressed, fragile and emaciated, but the fanfarous epiphany and mercilessly uplifting nucleus radiates through the purposefully decreased frequency spectrum. It seems as if it is played through the radio of a bodaciously equipped secretary, but the various synth lozenges, magenta MIDI brass blasts and prolonged northern light that glows and emanates throughout the runtime make this one potential pinnacle of Vaporwave… and Ambient. Runtime and loop form a symbiosis, and now it's everyone's turn to shine!

Twitter: @virtuastep

Vaporwave Review 141: Vapor Vertebrae 11/2015 [Part C]. Originally published on Nov 30, 2015 at AmbientExotica.com.