2814 - Rain Temple

  On 8/5/2016 at 11:04 PM, purlieu said:

I still don't understand why he actually seems to have some sort of voice or influence though.

Well, you watched his video didn't you? I stopped doing that. Be the change you want to see in the world and all that.

  On 8/5/2016 at 11:04 PM, purlieu said:

Think he's a bit harsh on it but I get where he's coming from. That's actually one of the less annoying Fantano videos I've seen; I only wanted to punch him a couple of times over its course. I still don't understand why he actually seems to have some sort of voice or influence though.

dunno, if he gave exai ''solid to stong 8'' then 6 is fair enough for this album imo

syro got 6 too, so...

It's all opinions at the end of the day. I find his videos amusing for the most part but disagreement over his ratings abounds.

For this record he has some decent points but I think the repetition is a stylistic choice of this project, I always got the sense that it's supposed to be a hypnotic kind of "getting lost" in the music sort of thing. I feel like Fantano is looking for something that's not even trying or cares to be there... If that makes any sense!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I like Fantano's stuff. I think he's a pretty astute reviewer. Lots of times he's given low or middling scores to things I hoped would be better. Often I wish I could disagree with him but usually when I go back a few weeks or months and listen to something he reviewed, I realised he was right. I think the reason he is so popular is because of this.

I think he gets lost of backlash from fanboys of music across different genres who cannot get over the fact that their favourite (insert artist) was given a 5 or a 6.

But when you look across the wider arena of what he reviews, he's good.

Things I don't like are his silly cut up style, posting videos where you can see his tattoos (not everyone loves these things) and his inclination towards reviewing things I've never even heard of. I wish he would just review what interests me (yeah, right).

As to the 2814 review, it was a pretty fair score. It's not an amazing album. It doesn't really do much for me. Just some FSOL demos that outstay their welcome. Aurally pretty but inconsequential. Maybe that's enough. I don't care if I ever hear it again.

Once upon a time, this would have been derided as 'New Age' and consigned to the bargain bin. History recycles and things come back into fashion.

What is good about this album is that 2814 is getting some good exposure for this (niche) genre and Dream Catalogue are also making some waves.

^Well said.

I rarely watch his videos, but Anthony is usually on-point with his analysis. He was very critical of Zomby in previous videos (and snagged himself a nice melon-meme from Zomby in the process), along with Burial's Rival Dealer, which DID stray way too deep into cheese territory for me. The general music press gushed over both, but I think history has proved Anthony right. Rain Temple is a massive disappointment compared to the sparse, beautiful first record. It's no doubt a better produced album, but it's lost a lot of what made Birth of a New Day so magical IMO. I think that album made an impact because Dream Catalogue was mostly unknown outside the VW niche and they quietly dropped a lovely album, that both surprised and enchanted the ears of people who heard it. It's the good kind of hype; People recommending it to each other by word of mouth (or message boards in this case) which eventually made it a grass-roots success, purely on the quality of the music. Rain Temple is the opposite. All copies were pretty much sold out on day 1, with people not even bothering to preview it first. It's the absolute definition of insane hype for the artists/label being more important than the actual music. It's still a decent album, but one I doubt I'll return to much (if ever) in the future.

It seems that some people aren't aware - Rain Temple is actually the third 2814 album. Their debut was released on Ailanthus in 2014.

https://ailanthusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/--2

I think this one from Telepath is a much more evocative album. Especially track 8.

https://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/--19

One thing that is really tiring now is the visuals. yeah, we get it, vapourwave artists. You watched Bladerunner (thirty years after it was made) saw the Syd Mead designs and Japanese adverts displayed on building exteriors - do we really need every track title written in Japanese?

I suppose there are much worse visual identities you could rinse do death, but yeah, it definitely begins to grate after a while. As a genre or musical identity, I can't imagine people will look back on Vaporwave in 10-20 years time with much love or adoration. Even now, outside it's niche circle (minus the occasional crossover success like 2814), it's not exactly looked upon favorably. I don't think the artists care though and may even be the entire point. It's just a mish-mash of things that came before, much like all "new" genres of music now.

Anyway, I don't see anything traditionally "vaporwavey" about 2814's music for what it's worth. Birth of a new day is pretty much an ambient album in my eyes. Rain Temple is more of a new age/downtempo ambient record. If this is an evolution of vaporwave or whatever else people may want to call it, then all it's evolving into is music genres that have already well established their sound decades previous. Not a problem of course, but suggesting it's anything more than what it is is just silly IMO.

^ A much better summary of what I wanted to say.

  On 8/8/2016 at 1:02 PM, fumi said:

 

One thing that is really tiring now is the visuals. yeah, we get it, vapourwave artists. You watched Bladerunner (thirty years after it was made) saw the Syd Mead designs and Japanese adverts displayed on building exteriors - do we really need every track title written in Japanese?

This is something that's mostly Dream Catalogue's doing. Early vaporwave art had far more of a late 80s / early 90s appropriation of new age-y / modern / bright color corporate and ad art and aesthetics which honestly I found a lot more appealing and interesting. It was like my equivalent of what many BoC fans probably experienced in terms of re-visiting background sources of deep nostalgia from young childhood.

Of course even more done to death than the Bladerunner / Akira / Kowloon Slum noir aesthetics is the goddamn Roman bust memes that permeate so much after Floral Shoppe. It's fascinating how much a coincidental random art motif in a breakout album can retroactively become a "retro" icon to an audience that wasn't even around in the era the music is evoking.

  On 8/8/2016 at 1:48 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 8/8/2016 at 1:02 PM, fumi said:

 

One thing that is really tiring now is the visuals. yeah, we get it, vapourwave artists. You watched Bladerunner (thirty years after it was made) saw the Syd Mead designs and Japanese adverts displayed on building exteriors - do we really need every track title written in Japanese?

 

This is something that's mostly Dream Catalogue's doing. Early vaporwave art had far more of a late 80s / early 90s appropriation of new age-y / modern / bright color corporate and ad art and aesthetics which honestly I found a lot more appealing and interesting. It was like my equivalent of what many BoC fans probably experienced in terms of re-visiting background sources of deep nostalgia from young childhood.

 

Of course even more done to death than the Bladerunner / Akira / Kowloon Slum noir aesthetics is the goddamn Roman bust memes that permeate so much after Floral Shoppe. It's fascinating how much a coincidental random art motif in a breakout album can retroactively become a "retro" icon to an audience that wasn't even around in the era the music is evoking.

 

joshuatx, you're far more knowledgeable on Vapourware than I. It's always good reading your posts over in the dedicated thread.

  On 8/8/2016 at 1:48 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 8/8/2016 at 1:02 PM, fumi said:

 

One thing that is really tiring now is the visuals. yeah, we get it, vapourwave artists. You watched Bladerunner (thirty years after it was made) saw the Syd Mead designs and Japanese adverts displayed on building exteriors - do we really need every track title written in Japanese?

 

 It's fascinating how much a coincidental random art motif in a breakout album can retroactively become a "retro" icon to an audience that wasn't even around in the era the music is evoking.

 

Second-hand nostalgia by proxy :)

Honestly though, they can present their music however they wish. It's not like these vaporwave artists/labels hold the trademark on obnoxious artwork. As you say though, it does seem a little disingenuous when the majority of these artists/labels aren't old enough to have witnessed it for themselves the first time around. On the other hand, this modern appropriation can lead to some pretty interesting twists. It's like when Japanese artists like Kentaro Miura or Hideki Miyazaki do their own take on Western medieval-style horror/fantasy, from their own unique cultural perspective. Ironically, Berserk and Dark Souls have far more fresh, interesting ideas as a result.

One thing that I do find interesting about the apparent success of 'Rain Temple' is where Dream Catalogue decides to go after this. Will they try to coerce their artists to produce something more akin to this? As brisk mentioned, 'Rain Temple' is about as far away from Vaporwave as it's possible to get.

I've been listening to a lot of telepath over the past week and there's a point, around the time of the self-titled 2814, where you can hear his music gradually become that. Over the course of a few albums it becomes more and more stripped back and ambient, culminating in this, which I can't tell whether it's original, samples, a bit of both. Similarly HKE had been adding in beats to his own music that came from his interest in dubstep and things, on his own project and Subaeris - so can hear a direct evolution from vaporwave into this kind of stuff. At the time I think they called it vaporwave because it was the scene it grew out of, but since then they've gradually distanced themselves from it.

I don't think DC has actually put out much vaporwave at all this year. I suppose the Ruf Dug and Winter Sleep albums are rooted in it to some degree, but stuff like the Shima33 album, DJ Alina, Diamondstein and Cocainejesus definitely aren't vaporwave. HKE removed vaporwave from the tags at the start of the year and has mentioned that he's basically tired of how stale the scene had become and wanted to move on from it. They also have a partner label curated by Halo Acid (formerly Immune), with orders handled by DC, called Tekres which is basically a techno label.

Birth of a New Day is going for crazy money on vinyl. Dream supposedly doing another run.

https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/7932605?ev=rb

Yeah, a repress should hopefully be around by the end of the year.

  On 8/6/2016 at 10:44 AM, Rotwang said:

I really like the cover, do we know who made it?

Kidmograph

Funny how I was talking a couple of hours ago about how HKE is moving DC away from vaporwave, he recently closed his other vw-based labels TKX and Nirvana Port; within the last hour he's opened up a new label called Pyramids which is almost anti-vaporwave in its appearance.

I really enjoy this album. Danced to it in its entirety upon first listen. Had a wonderful experience, could really feel it. :)

  On 8/8/2016 at 8:03 PM, purlieu said:

 

  On 8/6/2016 at 10:44 AM, Rotwang said:

I really like the cover, do we know who made it?

Kidmograph

 

Thanks!

  On 8/8/2016 at 2:13 PM, brisk said:

 

  On 8/8/2016 at 1:48 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 8/8/2016 at 1:02 PM, fumi said:

 

One thing that is really tiring now is the visuals. yeah, we get it, vapourwave artists. You watched Bladerunner (thirty years after it was made) saw the Syd Mead designs and Japanese adverts displayed on building exteriors - do we really need every track title written in Japanese?

 

 It's fascinating how much a coincidental random art motif in a breakout album can retroactively become a "retro" icon to an audience that wasn't even around in the era the music is evoking.

 

 

Second-hand nostalgia by proxy :)

 

Honestly though, they can present their music however they wish. It's not like these vaporwave artists/labels hold the trademark on obnoxious artwork. As you say though, it does seem a little disingenuous when the majority of these artists/labels aren't old enough to have witnessed it for themselves the first time around. On the other hand, this modern appropriation can lead to some pretty interesting twists. It's like when Japanese artists like Kentaro Miura or Hideki Miyazaki do their own take on Western medieval-style horror/fantasy, from their own unique cultural perspective. Ironically, Berserk and Dark Souls have far more fresh, interesting ideas as a result.

 

Yeah I agree, artistic choice should trump all. I don't even mind the memes and proxy nostalgia, in fact i find it neat how much kids half my age find the genre so interesting and exciting because it's "new." I get irked by misinformation and historical revisionism a bit but it's not a huge deal. Ironically I got into vaporwave after the first internal criticism (saint pepsi being called broperwave, "vaporwave is dead" being quoted a lot, original artists essentially moving on, etc) in late 2013. Yet now I predate the huge wave of fans and artists that have since become the vocal core of the genre.

  On 8/8/2016 at 1:53 PM, fumi said:

 

  On 8/8/2016 at 1:48 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 8/8/2016 at 1:02 PM, fumi said:

 

One thing that is really tiring now is the visuals. yeah, we get it, vapourwave artists. You watched Bladerunner (thirty years after it was made) saw the Syd Mead designs and Japanese adverts displayed on building exteriors - do we really need every track title written in Japanese?

 

This is something that's mostly Dream Catalogue's doing. Early vaporwave art had far more of a late 80s / early 90s appropriation of new age-y / modern / bright color corporate and ad art and aesthetics which honestly I found a lot more appealing and interesting. It was like my equivalent of what many BoC fans probably experienced in terms of re-visiting background sources of deep nostalgia from young childhood.

 

Of course even more done to death than the Bladerunner / Akira / Kowloon Slum noir aesthetics is the goddamn Roman bust memes that permeate so much after Floral Shoppe. It's fascinating how much a coincidental random art motif in a breakout album can retroactively become a "retro" icon to an audience that wasn't even around in the era the music is evoking.

 

 

 

joshuatx, you're far more knowledgeable on Vapourware than I. It's always good reading your posts over in the dedicated thread.

 

thanks but I think purlieu is a lot more up to speed than I will ever be and Nebraska (and probably Gmanyo) are a lot more knowledgeable of the stuff that came before it and the early scene

I obsess over the eccojam loop stuff, 90s library music aping, and plunderphonics heavy vaporwave more than anything else

Given this a bunch of listens now, it's a grower, really enjoying it. Not taken with Lost in a Dream or Transference, but otherwise I think everything here is fucking great.

In related news, the debut album by Remember got reissued yesterday. Tapes sold out in a couple of hours but there are CDrs left. More stripped down but in a very similar vein to 2814, and features both HKE and telepath.

The original CDr issue of Birth of a New Day had a QR code that linked to an EP with two tracks each by the two guys, which is now being released on tape on the 15th on BLCR, and two days later Dream Cat have teased there'll be another 'surprise' album. telepath has retweeted it which has led many to think it's a new album by him (overdue, the last full-length he did was last December).

Birth of a New Day just got reissued on CD[/url].

  On 8/19/2016 at 12:53 PM, purlieu said:

Birth of a New Day just got reissued on CD[/url].

bought! thnx!

new interview w. HKE from 2814

.