With multiple releases under their belt and a surge of popularity since the release of 2018’s 都市のバマー (City Bomber), P U D E R P O L L I has been consistently releasing collections of short, driving vapor tracks since 2016. Their newest release, 마음과릴, offers more of this exact type of music with a collection of classic-style tracks that manage to explore a wide variety of moods and tones. From instrumentation to the emotion drawn from the sound itself, the only constant that seems to be kept throughout is an undeniable urge to groove that comes from listening to each one.
Even at its most wistful, such as the opening and closing tracks, the percussion draws a bob of the head from any listener with a predictable structure within the loops used to allow a consistent rhythm. Overall, these aspects make for a killer combo when combined with the shorter runtime of 마음과릴. Unless someone’s laser-focused on waiting for the end of it to pass by, they’re just as likely to accidentally spin the whole thing again as they would be to move on.
Working with such names as the prestigious Pure Life collective, Phorme sets a high bar for their newest tape release, Sea Of Souls. Presented by the Hanging Garden sublabel of Pure Life for its digital release and put onto tape by Underwater Computing, this album already had a decent amount of time to be listened to between its releases, though the physical presentation of it has garnered a more general audience towards the album.
Simply from a first look, the artwork is excellent, done by UK-based Dreampunk/Garage producer Cryosauna, who manages to blend pieces of art together in a beautiful, blaring flash of sharp color to extract pure emotion from the viewer. Throughout the runtime, there is a clear rise and fall of tension within each piece, though the intensity of each burst from ambient to active becomes less prominent with each repetition, working towards the album’s benefit by creating a slow creep downwards despite the album’s tone being much the same at the first and final track.
Album Art By CRYOSAUNA
The Sound
Composed in the same vein as other dreampunk style albums, Sea Of Souls presents a very abstracted view of emotions through the use of deep ambience, synth progressions, and long bouts of swelling emotion. Each of these elements are brought to a climax every few tracks in which the music flourishes, releasing tension from the current motion before swiftly traveling back down into less intensive methods of instrumentation. There is a clear rhythm to how this album’s flow is executed, giving it a sense of progression as the listener goes through each track.
The more ambient sections of this album are beautifully composed and easy to lose oneself in, the synths in the forefront drawling on as if through an endless, opaque ocean. Background tones bleed forward and take presence over time in tracks such as “Dreaming Together”, showing off richer, rougher tones along the dreamier presence of echoey melodies layered up above. The longer sprawls in which Sea Of Souls loses itself to these more dreamy tones ironically tend to be its high points, compared to the explosions of emotion that bridge each of them together.
Conversely, these previously mentioned peaks of the album tend to be somewhat lackluster, either through the tones of the synths being much too abrasive to match the rest of the album’s atmosphere (“Amongst Every Other Lingering Soul”), being too indulgent in its own length comparative to the value of its chord to truly make the motion meaningful (“Losing Memories”), or simply having audio errors resultant of clipping.
At several points throughout “Amongst Every Other Lingering Soul” (notably 3:20), there is audible clicking in the background — either an error in effects work, or a misapplied cut which caused such a thing to happen. Though this may be negligible in many circumstances, the lush, evocative atmosphere being created by Sea Of Souls tends to be somewhat dragged away during these moments, as the nature of these clicks match neither its fidelity nor tone during the times of their appearance.
Overall, the album struggles with one of its main goals, but is lucky enough to have relegated them to small portions of the album, only making these pitfalls a small annoyance whenever they appear. The exception to these flaws in terms of the tracks meant to serve as a climax within the album is “Feels Like Dying Again”, the most excellent example of letting the emotions of the previous tracks stew before delivering a swift, interesting piece with driving, synth-based melodies.
The Expression
As said before, the main form of expression within this album is its usage of peaks and lows within its composition, marked by a stretch of two ambient tracks before leading into a more driving piece directly after. This construction of the album alone feels as if it works wonders in helping realize the main themes of the album, each motion from low to high feeling like being pushed through a rolling tide. While the compositions may not hold up entirely to this form of quality, their presence helps solidify this aspect of the album and give it a flavor of its own.
The usage of phasers deeper within the album also helps to add to this identity, adding a flavor similar to the deep waters of the sea as the listener is washed along them, unsure of exactly where they are headed. Most interestingly is that these effects rarely transcend usage outside of the background layer, allowing them to be present without being overwhelming. With the usage of these techniques being very prominent in vapor and vapor-related albums, it is refreshing to see them take more of a back seat to help build an atmosphere.
Conclusion
Overall, Sea Of Souls, while interesting in its structure, has some minor problems that keep it from rising up to a much higher standing than other pieces with a similar sound. Through audio fumbles, an excess use of the time it designates for climax, and minor mishaps along the way, it manages not to stand out very much alongside other contemporaries in the dreampunk sound.
The most enjoyable parts were the ones leaning towards a heavier ambience, with much more work being put into their intricacy and sound during those sections of the album. However, since this sort of sound takes up a much larger chunk of Sea Of Souls, some listeners may find enjoyment skimming through the tracks rather than sitting down and powering through the piece as a whole. Even past its previous faults however, this album is certainly worth a short skim on one’s lonesome before you decide whether or not the type of sound it has going gives off a personally enjoyable flavor.
Composed mainly of muzak and easy listening to construct its atmosphere, Places For People Volume 5 seems to be a classic sort of Utopian Virtual piece from the ground up, making use of slight bits of noises from the world to add into the scenes it builds. Calls from birds, the ambient noise of people walking about, and other sounds that one would expect on a pleasant walk pair well with tunes that wouldn’t sound out of place within an educational program. The samples are well cut and make use of minimal effects as to not distract from the backing pieces, something that helps keep the experience interesting as the listener progresses along.
Each piece is short and only dwells on each loop for as long as it needs to, extracting the value from its sound before moving onwards. This makes for an excellent listening experience, giving only raw value through the mix of music and chatter at each second without wasting any time. Fans of albums with a laid-back atmosphere, short runtime, or general cozy feel to them will gain a lot from listening to this.
Nanami Blitz’s debut project shows off a style that speaks to the artist’s skill as a producer. Future funk may controversially be considered by some to be low-effort (a discussion for another day), but this musician makes it clear that the genre can be as skillful as it wants, and accepts this wholeheartedly; in fact, acceptance is a strong theme throughout the album. A smooth opening into a suite of equally charming tracks — followed by an obligatory burst of hyperactive energy that all future funk needs a little bit of. The album ends with another relatively calm set that maintains the catchiness proudly upheld throughout the release while providing a satisfying winding-down to follow the energetic climax. Keep an eye out for Nanami Blitz’s special brand of future funk in the coming months. Infused with dreamy smoothness, it’s sure to please anybody who loves the style, but just doesn’t have the energy to keep up with a 24/7 sugar high.
Favorite Track: °˖✧(*/_＼) CAUGHT CROSS DRESSING AT 3 AM😢✧˖°
This album is a breath of fresh air in a sea of overrated, uniform, synth-laden sound sculptures reading from the same anti-capitalist scriptures. This album stands out as a release that can be called “innovative” within the vaporwave scene, while still being palatable to those who enjoy other genres, à la lo-fi beats, eclectic hip-hop instrumentals, and other late-night mixes (the poor low-energy future funk crowd is welcome here). The sampling on this album is superb, as is the instrumentation, with stylistic choices ranging from 1956 jazz cuts sculpted into a honey-smooth trap instrumental arrangement, to an airy, vocal chop-laden beat that still manages to maintain the lo-fi X-factor and conventional rhythm. In these two tracks, an anime sample, an ass compliment(?!), and a saxophone outro are also squeezed in. Sometimes, listeners may feel a bit choked by the abundance of sound in places that are normally occupied by silence in more traditional lo-fi chill-hop tracks, but calmer returns to form like “we must try to live ” quench this thirst for serenity easily. The album wears its influences on its sleeve right from the cover, paying homage to both classic hip-hop and anime as well as chill-beat and lo-fi culture. Overall, a stellar release that takes all of these things and synthesizes them into a sepia-toned nostalgia-fest. It draws the listener in with exciting new takes on lo-fi beats and wraps them in a warm hug of vinyl crackle and comfort from which they will never leave.
In the waning days of 2020, I made a prediction for how 2021 would play out. I said to myself “People missed out on a lot this year, and to make up for lost time, people are going to be a bit…extra.”
When I made that statement, it was with the intention that the “extra” would be people putting out their best, giving 110%. This January, 3D Blast gave us “extra” with his latest release Music: Here to Stay
This 9 track album has a lot to say despite the short tracklist. Each track, however, paints a vivid picture packed with plunderphonics, genius genre blends, and a healthy peppering of memes.
Starting off with the album’s opening track “3rd Best.” This track is a swirling symphony of warm sounds and synths. The expertly sampled “Kokomo” gives us a taste of what this album aims to be, something familiar but still forward-thinking. 3D Blast always reminds us that we shouldn’t take him, or his music too seriously. Interspliced in this track are samples of Sans from Undertale and Isabelle from Animal Crossing.
Before we can get too comfortable, “Here to Stay” plunges us into a dreamy, trip-hoppy track that mashes “Fireflies” with “Superman” in a combination no one else would think about. Listening to this, we couldn’t help but have a spring in our step.
We take an odd detour with “Jameela Jamil”. Named after the British actress, this track features Jameela talking in an interview about being a “feminist in progress.” Accompanying her speech is the S.E.S song “I’m Your Girl” stretched and slowed. Every so often, a pitched sample from Neon Genesis Evangelion adds a dream-like quality to the track. Is there a deeper meaning? Or is 3D Blast just a big fan of The Good Place? Who knows.
Up until this point, the overall aesthetic of this record has been relaxing, groovy plunderphonics, but 3D Blast shifts things into high gear to on the back half of this record. Tracks like “Twentyinfinity” and “Nailed Frequencies” are bonafide future funk bops anyone can dance to. Interspersed throughout these two tracks are some well-placed samples, including a Joe Rogan clip that sends us right back to the dance floor.
The last couple of tracks were certainly not slept on either. Music: Here To Stay’s final three tracks have some very interesting features. 3D teams up with psychedelic grunge band The Effens on the track “Live Forever (You Got it)”. The dreamy, hypnopop lyrics mixed with 3D’s sampling and mixing makes this track sound like it could come right out of a George Clanton album.
Of course, it doesn’t hold a candle to the best track on this entire album; “Earth Worlder.” The Wizard of Loneliness and 3D Blast team up to craft a tale as old as time; The Legend of Earth Worlder. With a mix of high fantasy Bakshi-esque storytelling peppered with chiptune and video game samples, Earth Worlder rocked me to my very core and embedded itself deep in the caverns of my brain.
Last but certainly not least is “My Fault,” starring vaporwave’s saddest boy, Dan Mason. This song is actually a super wombo combo of two projects. The vocals are a pitched-up version of Dan Mason’s “little too late” and 3D’s own “Miss Resist”. The result is a track that makes us want to get up and dance while also holding back tears of unrequited love.
Put simply, this album is all gas, no breaks. It starts strong, maintains that energy through, and has managed to be one of our top vaporwave albums of the year, and it’s only January!
3D Blast
Get The Album!
Favorite Track: Earth Worlder (feat. The Wizard of Loneliness)
DISCLOSURE: The album art for this release was designed by Priestess, a member of the Utopia District team.
To celebrate the premiere of the newest release through Bogus Collective, we’ve decided to take a bit of a special approach. We have not one, but two writers on the team taking a look at Plastic Gardens, the collaboration between Tribe Down South and Chop!, and sharing their thoughts. Read on to check out what Voiture and Gbanas92 thought of the release!
Plastic Gardens is a unique album in the sense that its confident and straightforward presentation makes both pros and cons unusually easy to pin down and quantify. The album’s playful sample choices and catchy tracks are enjoyable, if not a bit generic, upon first listen, but further inspection appears to yield diminishing returns. Tracks rely mostly on a central instrumental that makes up most of the songs, meaning that if you don’t like the beat, the track is done, but if you do, the track is sure to be uniformly good. The sampling is an entertaining way to break things up, but with repetitive structure and gaps that feel too long, the instrumentation and production communicate a need for additional creativity and ambition. Stylistic choices don’t always help this situation, with things like stabs at rhythmically creative lo-fi drum techniques making for less-than-satisfying percussion. Overall, the album is a perfectly fine “classic vaporwave” release, but when a deeper look is taken, problems are easy to spot. This isn’t indicative of an outright horrible release, but the flaws on this one just seem to stand out more than average joe-schmoe vaporwave, which this album ultimately seems to boil down to.
Favorite Track: f u t I i t y (I loved the intro sample on “t e n s i o n r e l a x” as well.)
Gbanas92:
While the brief runtime prevents the album from lingering in a way one might hope to experience from some of the more soothing strains of vaporwave, Plastic Garden does still have a lot to offer. The album displays a dizzying array of classic hip-hop beats, and makes use of sample chopping with such frenetic enthusiasm, you’d swear it was made by an axe murderer. Despite this, Chop! and Tribe Down South leave enough room for downtime, as pitched-down commercials allow you to catch your breath before moving on to the next gonzo beat.
Chock full of tasty rhythms, this intense, woefully short-lived EP from Sport3000 is downright infectious. Despite weighing in at five total tracks, Ultraviolet nonetheless showcases an impressive array of rhythms, with no less than a dozen memorable melodic moments. But the real star is percussion. The opening track, “Demons,” starts with a killer drum fill that sets the tone the whole way through, and the tracks never relinquish their hold on you. The forward momentum of the drums and synths across the entire EP also makes a great case for listening to this album while driving. Rarely is there something more perfectly suited to such an occasion.
Nigh uncontrollably funky, this re-release of iacon’s first album 並列処理 P A R A L L E L I S M sounds as fresh as ever. Lowering the overall audio level, the remastering also opens up room so that the tracks feel less flattened than in the original release.
Tingeing its highly dance-able rhythms with an edge of pitch-shifted melancholy and fairly sparse chops, AFFINITY rides a line somewhere between Disco and Vaporwave yet remains clearly distinct from Future Funk. In particular, if “再见 GOODBYE” doesn’t at least make you wiggle in your seat, you may need to seek medical attention.
While this new self-titled release may technically be the third album under Male Tears’ belt, it does in many ways represent a debut. What originally began as a solo act — under which the albums Endless Tears and Artism reside — is now a duo as Mister Mellow joins up, and the sound of the group has shifted and changed to reflect this new formula. While Male Tears remains at its core a synthpop outfit, there is now a greater representation of sounds, of styles, and most importantly, of personality.
Album Art By GRYFF
Right out of the gate, the opening track, “Chained Up” is able to evoke the greatest acts of the new wave. If that’s a genre or sound you’ve grown up on or just grown fond of, the influence is immediately apparent. But this is no mere copy. The music doesn’t exist merely to pay homage to that which came before. The tandem has something of its own to say. Between the many music videos that have been released for tracks off this album, as well as the artwork itself, there is a cohesive vision at play. While sonically things scream New Order, visually we are met with something a bit more malleable. Think more along the lines of the chameleonic nature that helped define the career of David Bowie and you’re in the ballpark. The album elicits a fiercely androgynous sex appeal that permeates every layer of the release. The masks of these two personae –lipstick, eye shadow, hairstyling- are no better represented than on the album cover, with a version for each member of the group. Even the instruments contribute to this, as the tones and choices made culminate to help you peer at the world through the lens of Male Tears.
Album Art By GRYFF
After the opener, things get even more energetic, with the intriguing “Let’s Pretend,” an uncannily catchy tune that revels in hypotheticals. In a world still reeling from the ongoing pandemic, the idea of viewing love or romance as an idea to be solely indulged in hypothetically is an especially intriguing concept. After the opener, it’s the first real moment where the album “locks eyes” with the listener as well. While the gaze may grow ever intense as the release wears on, here it’s teasing, playful.
But as we dive deeper into the release, the darker side of things starts to show up. While the tunes maintain their airiness thanks in large part to tinkling synths, the subject matter gets more concerning. Even the track titles themselves start to paint this picture. Playing pretend was fun and all, but “Good in the Dark” starts to take these fleeting fantasies further. While on the surface, this is the best Pat Benatar track in decades, the manifestations of those casual glances are getting more intense. Things are heating up, but what happens when the dark gives way to light?
“Creep Distance” is the answer to that question, which carries a far less peppy melody. The drums cut that extra bit harder, the vocals croon more, and the fantasy seems to be over. The most frequently uttered line in the track is “don’t stand so close to me.” A divide in the earlier dreams has formed. This is further reaffirmed by the lyrics explicity, saying “now that we’ve grown far apart.” If that doesn’t spell things out enough, the next track, “Human Errorz,” unbelievably gets more sinister. While the lyrical content is more pensive and less dramatic, the synths in this one are downright sinister. And that’s to say nothing of the punctuating, downright propulsive percussion.
But things can’t all be grim, can they? Surely you’ve got to be able to turn a corner eventually, right? Well what if we just fast-forwarded right to that? That’s what “Future X” decides to do, jumping forward past the dour ruminations of the last couple emotional tracks. We have a more peppy beat again, the synthesized strings are back, and the lyrics talk about not wanting to “think about any time but the future,” before repeating “take me to the future” in the chorus. A future where things are looking up perhaps?
But not so fast. “Adult Film” hasn’t had its say just yet. Opening with a solo bass line that sounds handmade for a keytar, this track probably has the most dramatic vocals of the release. The rigors of singing are more evident than ever, with the emotional strain of the subject matter being most evident. Really, the whole track feels off the rails. The dizzying arpeggiated xylophones represent the nucleus of the tune running through basically the whole song. But this manic pace was never going to last.
“She Lives in the Pipes” tones things back down a bit, bringing the tempo to a calmer, more controlled level. While the subject matter on the surface might sound, well, strange, sonically, this is one of the standouts on the album. While it’s a little trickier to find a place for this in the “story” we’ve crafted here, it’s got maybe the best chorus on the whole album. So let’s think of it as a narrative interlude or the infectiously catchy commercial that interrupted your regularly scheduled programming.
The respite doesn’t last long though, as the penultimate track brings an incredibly important revelation both in the context of the album, and more broadly, in everyday life. “I Should Feel How I Feel” may attempt to tackle the ability — or inability — to accept oneself for who they are. The song appears to deal with some pretty troubling subject matter, almost as if not being accepted is deserved for someone being the way that they are, and trying to come to grips with that revelation. After all of the events that had come before, this track may represent some kind of resigned acceptance to one’s role or purpose in the world. But understanding and acknowledging that is an important step in being able to move beyond it. It’s pretty bleak stuff, so what comes next is rather surprising.
Whatever you were expecting next, it’s probably not a brilliant Rick Astley-esque tune, is it? Well with “Take My Picture”, that’s what we get. The drums carry the expected crisp gated reverb that defined much of ‘80s drumming — and don’t get us started on the synth tones! Given how bleak some of the past few minutes have felt, it’s perhaps encouraging that the album ends so optimistically. It affords us some hope for the future. And it’s a wonderful closer on an album that has us as optimistic as ever for the future of Male Tears.
If you’re anxious to get your hands on the album you won’t need to wait long, as it will be dropping on Pacific Plaza Records Sunday, February 14th –yes, that’s Valentine’s Day- at 12PM PST.
