Vaporwave

gmanyo, just because your avatar is a slowly rotating diamond .gif doesn't mean you are the lone sentinel of the vaporwaves. And is that Torn Hawk album really vaporwave? I mean, if we are actually going to say what is and isn't "vaporwave" at this point.

Seriously though, what's next?

*imo

  On 10/16/2013 at 11:33 AM, Djeroek said:

http://fortune500.bandcamp.com/album/cybernet-utopia

So is Ultra your friend in real life? Love all of his/her stuff.

  On 10/17/2013 at 4:14 AM, gmanyo said:

*imo

It's too bad you and I never hung out when I was in Ohio. Columbus is a chill place.

I mean, I guess I think that these guys might not be "vaporwave"; music is music, genres are genres, whatever. But they are making forward, as opposed to lateral, movement with the style in my opinion, along with a few other people I've heard like Jono Mi Lo. Also, Internet Club had that release as Monument XIII that was pretty much vaporwave, and not at all like the Saint Pepsi style with catchy beats and stuff. Not that I think that other stuff is bad, I just really think that there are some people pushing the ideas forward as opposed to just making slowed down catchy stuff, which is typical of Fortune 500. But others may feel differently; perhaps the combination of Vektroid and Lopatin-era vaporwave with catchy hip hop beats in order to make it more listenable and accessible is actually bigger forward movement.

Also, when I said "hardly even vaporwave", I really just meant that very few people make what was originally considered vaporwave and even the people who I think are making it aren't really making it, at least as far as I've seen. This kind of makes sense though, because vaporwave is a pretty specific sub-genre; to keep making the same stuff could get old fast (although I would probably still like it lol).

Side note: the avatar is more inspired by Future Bass and Grime music, acts like Fatima al Qadiri. In no way do I intend it to be original, I just think it's cool. I don't even really know Future Bass music, I just like some Fade to Mind and Jam City shit.

  On 10/17/2013 at 3:34 AM, sheatheman said:

 

Seriously though, what's next?

Well clearly it's GASWAVE

  On 10/17/2013 at 4:32 AM, gmanyo said:

I mean, I guess I think that these guys might not be "vaporwave"; music is music, genres are genres, whatever. But they are making forward, as opposed to lateral, movement with the style in my opinion, along with a few other people I've heard like Jono Mi Lo. Also, Internet Club had that release as Monument XIII that was pretty much vaporwave, and not at all like the Saint Pepsi style with catchy beats and stuff. Not that I think that other stuff is bad, I just really think that there are some people pushing the ideas forward as opposed to just making slowed down catchy stuff, which is typical of Fortune 500. But others may feel differently; perhaps the combination of Vektroid and Lopatin-era vaporwave with catchy hip hop beats in order to make it more listenable and accessible is actually bigger forward movement.

 

Also, when I said "hardly even vaporwave", I really just meant that very few people make what was originally considered vaporwave and even the people who I think are making it aren't really making it, at least as far as I've seen. This kind of makes sense though, because vaporwave is a pretty specific sub-genre; to keep making the same stuff could get old fast (although I would probably still like it lol).

 

Side note: the avatar is more inspired by Future Bass and Grime music, acts like Fatima al Qadiri. In no way do I intend it to be original, I just think it's cool. I don't even really know Future Bass music, I just like some Fade to Mind and Jam City shit.

What is the stuff that was originally considered vaporwave? Also, who are the people pushing it forward? Internet Club? Beer on the Rug? I met CVLTS and they were cool.

And please, I love your avatar. It makes me happy to stare at it.

  On 10/17/2013 at 4:38 AM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 10/17/2013 at 3:34 AM, sheatheman said:

 

Seriously though, what's next?

 

Well clearly it's GASWAVE

 

Get with the times, Grandad - all the cool kids are down with SUBLIMWAVE

Granddad? I just uploaded some CONDENSATIONCORE to bandcamp.

Actually, I have been making FUSIONOVA for some time.

so uh... yeah guys.. Can anyone find Spore? I ask because he made a bad-ass series of tracks that sounded Eccojams esque. I just looked through the entire vaporwave category on bandcamp and... yikes. So much of the shit up here is pure pisstake ie: take this 80s pop song, slow it down add delay (see: http://walkman91.bandcamp.com/album/--2) . Eccojams was so much more than that to me. Is it too much to ask that the person making this music has a basic rhythmic understanding of how to cut a seamless loop?

I'm all for the aesthetics this 'genre' is trying to convey, but not when it's just blatantly badly and lazily done to the point of being some dude adjusting the speed on his winamp player and running it through a preset delay effect trying to sound like a eccojams

If I recall correctly, OPN used Goldwave. I get what you're saying too, there's so much in the sample and loop itself that made Eccojams so effective. It works over minutes and minutes because you start honing in on every little detail, and it's more in that mysterious "sounds familiar but I can't pinpoint" territory. It's not just the care put in the loop, it's the effort put in the content itself. The novelty of it remains even when you find out the source.

That's part of the reason I brought up The Field as well, his first album especially had these very tiny loops that would be the basis of a more complete track. That said, he was coming the "glitch-hop" scene and minimal techno/microhouse angle (i.e. more akin to the "Click and Cuts" artists of the 90s onward) so it's not really vaporwave related, more of a parallel development than anything. I think the attention to detail is there though.

Also, Chris Ott, who WATMM mostly knows for his takedown of the Disintegration Loops below, made a "Eccojams Vol. 2" and uploaded it to his site Shallow Rewards but I can't seem to find the link (he deleted his content over a month ago but is slowly adding a few things like his vimeo videos onto YT) but I think I downloaded the .zip of it. I'll give it a listen at home and look into uploading it. He had made loop ambient music as the "Grace Note" so it's probably in that vein.

http://youtu.be/Z1H1nyNRWAw

^Edit: Not Grace Note, I meant Grace Period

I cannot find spore.

I don't explicitly consider slowed down 70's/80's/90's songs to be vaporwave. Most of vaporwave is using samples, but people like computer dreams use(d) them more judiciously, and ma[k](d)e new songs with them. Doing a "good" job really isn't hard though. I've made a couple things like that for fun.

I like that rant a lot. Also interestingly validating that I had the same theory and thoughts about William Basinski's album from only reading a few press releases about it as well as the praise given to it from watmmers and friends

Why is he wearing his coat?

Anyway, interesting video and I agree with him, although I do kind of like the sound of the Disintegration Loops per se.

Don't quite get what he's saying about the delay, is his observation just that the delay/echo was applied over the pops and other degradations, or is he saying that there's no tape 'disintegrating' at all in these recordings? I've never even seen a reel to reel in person so I wouldn't have any idea what it's supposed to sound like when the tape goes.

i think he's saying that it's bullshit that the tapes are actually disintegrating and causing the effects being heard on the album. I would agree with him from what i've heard

This just came out today, there are sounds on it that are pleasing to the ears.

http://blankbanshee.bandcamp.com/album/blank-banshee-1

  On 10/20/2013 at 5:24 PM, Gravity said:

This just came out today, there are sounds on it that are pleasing to the ears.

 

http://blankbanshee.bandcamp.com/album/blank-banshee-1

Also I know it's not what you would really call vaporwave but the guy came out around the whole "scene" going on last year and it has some of the aesthetics, so I figured it's better to post it in here rather than making a whole thread about it.

Good find Gravity - new on one me. Seems to tick most of the VW boxes:

  On 10/17/2013 at 2:33 PM, joshuatx said:

Granddad? I just uploaded some CONDENSATIONCORE to bandcamp.

Steampunk was ahead of the curve then?

  On 10/21/2013 at 10:15 AM, jasondonervan said:

Good find Gravity - new on one me. Seems to tick most of the VW boxes:

 

music is not bad, the aesthetics of the video just play way too heavily into this homogenous style of retro 90s fetishism. Why when so many people are referencing the 90s they manage to reference things that appear exactly the same as each-other? Is it bad to expect a little bit more creativity out of these people?

Yeah a lot of the visual side of vaporwave can be very similar, still a cool video though IMO. The album on the other hand is an interesting mix that I've never really heard from the genre.

these are great

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2373523775/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/t=3/transparent=true/

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2373523775/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/t=8/transparent=true/

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2373523775/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/t=11/transparent=true/

  On 10/21/2013 at 1:15 PM, wabby said:

 

  On 10/17/2013 at 2:33 PM, joshuatx said:

Granddad? I just uploaded some CONDENSATIONCORE to bandcamp.

Steampunk was ahead of the curve then?

 

(nice)

Here's another good one, don't think it's been posted yet.

http://disconscious.bandcamp.com/album/hologram-plaza

  On 10/17/2013 at 4:23 AM, sheatheman said:

 

  On 10/16/2013 at 11:33 AM, Djeroek said:

http://fortune500.bandcamp.com/album/cybernet-utopia

 

So is Ultra your friend in real life? Love all of his/her stuff.

He's an old colleague from school, dude used to make hardcore noise stuff in supercollider. Last person I'd expect making this kind of musics.