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colorful人生

ＶＡＰＯＲＷＡＶＥ ＴＨＲＥＡＤ

By colorful人生, in Global Music General Discussion

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colorful人生    2777

colorful人生
Posted (edited)

2u8xn44.pngＶＡＰＯＲＷＡＶＥ2u8xn44.png

 

The Vaporwave Essentials ULTRA EDITION Guide:

  • Spoiler
    • UuqU3AA.jpg

 

Vaporwave Essentials NU EDITION Guide:

  • Spoiler

    TYHsJ1y.jpg

     

Vaporwave Essentials Mix by DJzap152:

  • Spoiler

     

 

Vaporwave Subgenres Guide:

  • Spoiler
    • HKeBHdXrhsxIzqhECCtwoz3ASUZdHYHKzLrcT7kP

    

     Vaporwave, an electronic microgenre considered the love-child of Hypnagogic Pop and Chillwave, is in a nutshell, 80s/90s pop-hit plunderphonics. While Macintosh Plus' 2011 album, "Floral Shoppe" (containing the viral sensation "リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー") is considered the defining album of the genre, vaporwave's history goes back just a touch.  Chuck Person's "Eccojams" released in 2010 contains chopped & screwed samples from 80s hits and Ecco the Dolphin, and is credited for truly pioneering the style. What he called "echo jams" would eventually evolve into the classic vaporwave that we know of today.

     For a brief period of time, vaporwave existed alongside Seapunk, a closely related genre that was sort of a proto-vaporwave. The genre which would spawn from a single tweet, had elements of southern trap rap, 90s house, and witch house. While seapunk music garnered some interest, its distinctive aquamarine aesthetic would have a much larger presence, with artists like Azealia Banks and Rihanna donning outfits of that particular style and implementing the iconic aesthetic in their music videos. The genre from 2014-onward would be swallowed by vaporwave which, with its much broader influences, became the more popular genre.

 

 Vox Documentary on Seapunk:

Spoiler

 

 

     Current vaporwave comprises of many subgenres including Classic Vaporwave, Future Funk, Vapor-Trap, Vektroid, Simpsonswave, Hypnagogic, Mallsoft, etc. While the classic ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣ includes bright turquoise and pink colors with images of roman busts and aging malls, each subgenre, even release, has its own "flavor" (refer to the guides above). While vaporwave was labeled a satirical take on consumer capitalism, most people would flock to it because of the nostalgia factor. Japanese City Pop, 80s/90s Western Pop Hits, R&B, Lounge Music, Dead Malls, Japanese Typography, Internet Memes, Glitch Art, and Cyberpunk are some of the many topics that this genre encapsulates. It's a gigantic clusterfuck that can barely be described without going through several layers of irony and memes... I'll just let the music speak for itself:

 

Macintosh Plus - Floral Shoppe (2011) | Vektroid Style | Iconic, but objectively one of the least innovative albums in this list. 

Spoiler

 

 

ECO VIRTUAL - ATMOSPHERES 第1 (2013) | Classic Vaporwave | Notable for its atmospheric sounds. Hazy and relaxing.

Spoiler

 

 

SAINT PEPSI - Hit Vibes (2013) | Future Funk | Booming with chopped and screwed 70s/80s disco hits. Artzie's channel grew as a hub for this type of music.

LUXURY ELITE // SAINT PEPSI - LATE NIGHT DELIGHT (2013) | Hypnagogic | Along with LUXURY ELITE, SAINT PEPSI does it again with 80s/90s television references including the iconic McDonald's Commercial on the cover. Too bad the moon turned into an alt-right symbol during the 2016 election.

Spoiler

 

 

t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 - 現実を超えて (2014) | Dreamwave | Telepath has been this purveyor of Japanese typography in the vaporwave scene. Dreamy...

Spoiler

 

 

猫 シ Corp. - Palm Mall (2014) | Mallsoft | It's all dead malls from here, baby! Strong muzak/elevator music & jazz influences. 

Spoiler

 

 

Blank Banshee -  1 (2013) | Vapor-Trap | Fusion of trap music & vaporwave. It's a good place to start if you're more acquainted w/ the larger electronic scene.

Spoiler

 

 

I'll post my current favorites in a separate post.

 

---

 

     I've been acquainted with the scene for about 4 years now, and it's been really neat. Having the idea of this genre (particularly the 80s/90s pad sounds) in the back of my head for years come into fruition by people more creative than I, has been quite the experience. On a slightly sour note, while vaporwave has evolved greatly from slowed down Diana Ross, a glaring negative that sticks out like a sore thumb is lack of transformativeness some artists can still get away with. While the album, Yung Bae - Bae was popular upon its release, it was a bit controversial because the editing done was "minimal", yet to fans, considered "subtle".  A lot of this still exists w/ "artists" daringly passing off slowed down 80s/90s compilations as their own creative work. For the amount of individuals trying to make a quick buck on Bandcamp, there are 100x more artists that really put effort into what they create. Additionally, many of it is free!

     One unique characteristic of this genre is the collectibility of cassette tapes. Similar to the resurgence in vinyl, physical cassette tape releases run rampant in the scene. Some of the more popular artists will have limited physical runs of their material on cassette tapes, and oh boy do they sell out quickly. Personally, I'm not one to collect these things w/ the limited lifespan they have, but others love the staticky, lo-fi nature of the cassette tapes.

 

     ...otherwise, most vaporwave is accessible via Bandcamp and Youtube.

 

 Here are some major labels to get you started (Also search for the terms in Bandcamp to view a lot more artists):

 

Shoutouts to FrankJaveCee's Channel and his chuckle-worthy how-to guides on many of the Vaporwave subgenres. 

More shoutouts to Dan Bell's Dead Mall Series.

Ｆｉｎａｌｌｙ，　ｓｈｏｕｔｏｕｔｓ　ｔｏ　ｆｕｌｌ－ｗｉｄｔｈ　ａｌｐｈａｎｕｍｅｒｉｃ　ｆｏｎｔ　ｆｏｒ　ｍａｋｉｎｇ　ｅｖｅｒｙ　ａｌｂｕｍ　ｔｉｔｌｅ　ｔａｋｅ　ｕｐ　ｍｏｒｅ　ｔｈａｎ　ｏｎｅ　ｌｉｎｅ．

 

Additionally going to mention one of the more obscure/dark subgenres in vaporwave called "Ocean Grunge". Idk if it's still truly around, but if we're talking about one of most bizarre music subgenres alongside stuff like Extratone, this is it. 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited by colorfuljinsei
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suji    8317

suji
Posted

dude I fucking love vaporwave *_* although I don't listen to it as much as I do vapor trap, that's something that I've long been craving for in music - something that's chill, but not at all boring, something to listen to when you're high as shit and falling through the clouds. If someone told me that there would be chillout versions of rap music, I'd laughed in their face. Although it's tiresome that the same soundbytes are used in every new song I listen to now, I still find joy in listening to it nonetheless. I also really love the nostalgic aesthetic that's rampant throughout these videos. Messy VHS edits of Simpsons, or other stuff like Dragon Ball, etc., are just as interesting to watch as listening to the music itself.

 

Here's the best vapor trap playlist that actually started it all for me (below). I remember seeing this thumbnail and generally being like, "Why the fuck is Youtube recommending me Simpsons videos with unicode titles and 420 references???" Since then, I've seen more Simpsonwave without realizing how much I've seen, maybe a lot, I know. Anyway, I'll stop blabbing.

 

 

Also, a really brilliant chillwave mix:

 

I could recommend more mixes, but this is all I can think of at the moment. I'll update when I find those said mixes.

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platy    3018

platy
Posted

Don't forget you can find some of these artists of Spotify too. Just gonna drop some contributions under the spoiler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

More bass-y stuff

 

 

 


 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

Unrelated, but somewhat relevant. If someone made a vaporwave remix of this it'd be perfect.

 

 

 

 

 

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Manji 卍    743

Manji 卍
Posted (edited)

when i'm drunk,sad,bored with my music and simply don't wanna listen to anything but still don't wanna be in silence

these two are my fav ones.from time to time i play both on loop

 

 

 

Edited by Manji 卍
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IGM_Oficial    1964

IGM_Oficial
Posted
On 8/17/2018 at 8:14 PM, colorfuljinsei said:

The Vaporwave Essentials ULTRA EDITION Guide:

  •   Reveal hidden contents
    • UuqU3AA.jpg

 

Vaporwave Essentials NU EDITION Guide:

  •   Reveal hidden contents

    TYHsJ1y.jpg

     

Dude, these guides helped me to dive, without going back, in this ｂｅａｕｔｉｆｕｌ ｗｏｒｌｄ. I'd like to recommend the music of this guy; this song was featured in an omnibus release of Elemental 95, another well-known vaporwave label.

 

 

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colorful人生    2777

colorful人生
Posted (edited)

@Manji 卍 I'm really enjoying that ΣPSON album!

@IGM_Oficial ローマンRoman's PARADISE is def. one of my most listened to vaporwave albums. I'll have to listen to his more recent Future Funk material.

 

Almost forgot to drop Architecture in Tokyo (and ULTRA ウルトラ) here. This a pretty iconic vaporwave track:

(I'll have to touch on more of the city pop influenced vaporwave in a later post. What's interesting is since city pop has been sampled so much, it's starting to rekindle interest in the genre itself. I don't think the sudden spikes in interest like the Plastic Love phenomenon, would've happened w/o vaporwave.)

 

Additionally, AMDISCS (which has released AiT's material) has a lot of vaporwave, synthwave, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/user/AMDISCS/

 

ESPRIT 空想 who is most famous for SUMMER NIGHT, now goes under the alias of George Clanton. He just recently put out Slide, a Madchester/Vaporwave fusion album that really puts a new spin on the genre (could just be considered "indie"). I've never really heard 00's influences and vaporwave intermixed before, and it works out really nicely!

 

Edited by colorfuljinsei
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ghost    2687

ghost
Posted
On 8/18/2018 at 6:31 PM, Cantavanda said:

I have a near complete collection (only one item missing) of Neoncity Records releases, a more recent but very influential Vaporwave label. Yes, that includes a SAILORWAVE LP.

Every neoncity release has eluded me. They're doing represses of A Million Miles and Sailorwave and I canNOT sleep on these again.

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ghost    2687

ghost
Posted

Also, my contributions to the thread:
 

Good for futurefunk vibes
 

 

Good for laid-back videogame-y vibes. The artist used a lot of SNES sounds for this. I think I recognize some sounds from Zelda a link to the past.

Also, thanks @colorfuljinsei for starting this thread!

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colorful人生    2777

colorful人生
Posted (edited)
On 8/17/2018 at 7:14 PM, colorfuljinsei said:

Personally, I'm not one to collect these things w/ the limited lifespan they have, but others love the staticky, lo-fi nature of the cassette tapes.

Well, I guess I've completely changed my mind. My cassette starter pack:

  • George Clanton - Slide
  • business casual - ANNIVERSARY VOL.5
  • Roex - Dissension
  • Architecture in Tokyo - s/t
  • スーパーセックス永遠にSUPERSEX420 x TENDENCIES - Split EP
  • Crystal Surge - VCR朋克
  • and a WM-FX33 Walkman

I swore up & down that I wouldn't start b/c I missed out on the World Class cassette run, but they're too pretty to pass up. Also shelling out $9 per cassette is much cheaper than what I shell out for live-limited CDs.

 

I also have a bunch of other cassettes (non-vaporwave) from a woman who was getting rid of her ex-husband's collection sooo, I figured it was time....

Edited by colorfuljinsei

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Cantavanda    141

Cantavanda
Posted
20 hours ago, ghost said:

Every neoncity release has eluded me. They're doing represses of A Million Miles and Sailorwave and I canNOT sleep on these again.

Woah! I just put one of the extra copies I have of the SAILORWAVE LP for sale thirty minutes ago, for 72.22EUR, and it ALREADY got sold!

That's my tactic, not ask 100+ or crazy amounts like other sellers. There's a difference between what people ask, and what people actually want to pay for it. I have two extra copies but I will wait a bit to sell them.

 

I mean if you want you can get one for the same price. But you said you want to wait foruntil a, reissue. Dunno if that will come, didn't hear of it.

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ghost    2687

ghost
Posted
1 hour ago, Cantavanda said:

I mean if you want you can get one for the same price. But you said you want to wait foruntil a, reissue. Dunno if that will come, didn't hear of it.

I'll take my chances.

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Cantavanda    141

Cantavanda
Posted (edited)

Here is a very bad lighting bad quality picture of my vaporwave collection. Not in pic: SAILORWAVE, A Million Miles Away and FANTASY LP's

I'll make a pleasing one later! That will include the Vinyl's and items that still have to arrive.

Vaporwave%202018.08.22%20ex.%20Vinyl_zps

Edited by Cantavanda
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colorful人生    2777

colorful人生
Posted (edited)

Dropping this link here for those interested: http://files.sq10.net/music/vaporwave/list/

 

This is a mirror of "The Vaporwave Library Project" that was active some time in 2014, which I remember using a lot myself. Most of the stuff you can grab on Bandcamp, but it's pretty convenient if you need to grab any early vaporwave gems. 

 

These are all the albums off the Ultra Edition Essentials Chart: https://mega.nz/#F!iwABUApY!MaExct8QR-gKyg_2zdt1YA

Someone compiled this a while back, too. 

Edited by colorfuljinsei
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