Author: Gbanas92

Quick Look: Sanctuary – Soulvapor

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Soulvapor - Sanctuary

Quick Look

Sanctuary
by: Soulvapor

Written By: Gbanas92  

Album Art By Skylark

With just the right amount of reverb and static interfering with things, you would swear you were watching old footage of a mall. Soulvapor’s most recent release offers their unique spin on mallsoft, that includes a fresh new ingredient: voyeurism.

This release doesn’t put you personally inside of a mall as you meander through the shops but rather plants you in front of a screen watching someone else wander through a mall. The melodies in use are more or less what you’d expect of a mallsoft drop —calming, meandering piano, and crowd chatter. But the new perspective when listening is what really sets this album apart.

 

 

 

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Gbanas92

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Quick Look: Promises For A Better Life – S.a.x.

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S.a.x Promises for a better life

Quick Look

Promises For A Better Life
by: S.a.X.

Written By: Gbanas92 

The album title and subject matter here sure feel timely, no? With America completely a shambles in some regions, and a certain little pandemic interfering with many facets of life that were once taken for granted, the album doesn’t exactly seem to be honing in on any cause for optimism. Luckily, that’s not the case.

Sure, the initial message may be dour — but underneath that is an album able to shine a light on hidden pockets of optimism. Many of the melodies and sounds harken back to a pre-9/11 corporate America. Back when things were “good.” This pining for what once came before may be pointless to some, but isn’t it just nice to remember a happier time once in a while?

 

 

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News: Windows96 Adopts New Name

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windows96 Gavriel

NEWS

Windows96 Adopts New Name

Amidst the myriad of new releases on the most recent Bandcamp Friday, one curious piece of news manifested on Twitter:

Windows96, a wildly versatile artist with many great releases starting with 2015’s Vibes, is changing their name. Newly-minted “Gavriel” debuted their album In The Worlde on October 2020’s Bandcamp Friday.

You can find the tweets here, but it’s a pretty quick exchange. Gavriel no longer likes the old moniker –which they very strongly clarify- and wants to move to something new. The important thing is that the music will keep coming, and it will likely continue being great!

Gavriel has their own artist account on Spotify, without affiliation to the prior work under Windows96. So if Spotify is your platform of choice, make sure you follow the new account, which you can find here. Although for the time being, the Bandcamp seems to be the same place as before.

 

windows96 Gavriel

 

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Physical Review: 猫 シ Corp. Double Cassette Box: Palm Mall & アウディAudi

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猫 シ CORP. DOUBLE CASSETTE BOX 12

Physical Review

猫 シ Corp. Double Cassette Box: Palm Mall & アウディAudi

Written By: Gbanas92

No Problem Tapes are one of the founding fathers when it comes to physical vaporwave media. Getting started all the way back in 2013, they are the progenitor of such classics as Palm Mall, the Fragmented Memories boxset, and夢の国 —and that’s only a few of the nearly two hundred releases they’ve helped usher through the doors. They also happen to be going through a bit of a tragedy recently, but more on that at the end.

Now synonymous with both mallsoft and vaporwave in general, 猫 シ Corp. is easily one of the most well-known artists in the scene. But once upon a time, that renown wasn’t quite as widespread, when No Problema Tapes released a little album called Palm Mall (perhaps you’ve heard of it?) The original cassette was released back in 2014 and has had numerous reissues through the years: a second 2014 drop, one in 2015, 2016, 2017, and another in 2020.

Each of these had runs ranging wildly in numbers from 25 all the way up to 100. This latest reissue was met with much excitement, not just because it had been several years since the last run, but because it coincided with the re-release of another of 猫 シ Corp.’s No Problem releases; アウディAudi. While not quite as prolific as Palm Mall, this re-release was nonetheless also met with excitement. アウディAudi has released a few times on other labels, but this is the first re-issue since it first dropped back in 2015. As if that weren’t enough, it was also revealed that the two would be packaged together with a unique O-Card to unify the set. And it just happens I was able to snag one of those first ones.

After feverishly hitting refresh on my computer for the ten minutes leading up to the tape drop, and making sure all of Paypal information was properly set, I secured one. And just like that, they were all gone. All 50 of the boxsets, and both sets of 100 for each tape individually (there would be a second, slightly larger drop a few weeks later).

It was an exciting moment though. As someone who’s absolutely obsessed with mallsoft, Palm Mall is something of a big deal. While I do have it on vinyl thanks to Geometric Lullaby, I really prefer my vaporwave releases on tape if I can help it. So between that and the fact I didn’t own アウディAudi in any format, I knew I needed this. And sure enough, when they arrived, they were absolutely immaculate.

Each release has beautiful on-shell printing differing on each side, while the shells themselves are delicate shades of pink for Palm Mall and blue for アウディAudi. The O-Card offers a sleek look at the tracklists before opening the tapes themselves, even if it was a little bit banged up upon opening the package.

The J-Cards are equally gorgeous, offering the album art we all know and love as well a nice little notation of “No Problem Tapes, 2020” beneath each tape’s tracklist, helping identify which version they are rather nicely. Each tape is so exquisitely packaged on its own, let alone together, that it’s hard not to love them. Of all my 猫 シ Corp. tapes, these are easily my favorites.

Before we dip out, we do want to mention the aforementioned tragedy that No Problem Tapes is currently undergoing. The label’s workshop and HQ were burned to the ground in a fire, with steep losses in regards to equipment and supplies. In a really encouraging show of solidarity with the label, many vaporwave outlets have stopped up to donate proceeds from sales to No Problema, and a couple of charities have sprouted up. Many of these are visible on No Problema’s own Twitter , and we encourage you to check it out! No Problema Tapes are an essential member of the vaporwave community, and anything anyone can do to help would of course be appreciated!

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Gbanas92

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