Quick Look falling into memories BY: Mur霧 Written by: Gbanas92 Published: June 7th, 2023   Released: June 1, 2021     Falling into memories offers up a lo-fi album with an incredible sense of longing. The romantic undertones, while no stranger to the genre, just feel all the more powerful here. This is thanks to […]

Quick Look Installation Disk BY: L a z u l i _ y e l l o w and Vivi Vulture Written by: C A S I N O  Published: September 27th, 2022   Released: July 23, 2022     Installation Disk is an album about installing an OS goddamn it, and I dare you […]

Quick Look PARADISE​ပ​ေ​ါ​်​တ​ယ​်​PORTALs BY: Vįr+üål ÅįrBñB & h º r ¡ z º n щ ¡ r e l e s s Written by: Big Finger Ro   Published: September 20th, 2022   Released: August 18, 2021     Vįr+üål Åįrßñß & h º r ¡ z º n щ ¡ r e l e […]

Quick Look Penthouse PLeasures BY: Crystal Eternal Written by: C A S I N O  Published: September 10th, 2022   Released: June 25, 2022   There is no easier way for an album to piss me off than to use a sample, slow it down, and call it a new piece of music that is […]

Quick Look Merced Mall [Virtual Tour 2004] BY: Color advance sp Written by: Gbanas92  Published: August 8th, 2022      Album Released May 5th, 2021     While most mallsoft albums try to recreate the experience of visiting a mall in real life, what would happen if a release strove to recreate the experience of […]

Quick Look mitsuki ep BY: Cat Barbers Written by: C A S I N O  Published: February 10th, 2022     There is a certain sub-genre of vaporwave that you play in the bedroom for when you want to set the right mood before you make sweet, sweet love to your significant other. These tracks […]

Quick Look Chrome BY: Ｓｐｏｒｔ３０００ Written by:  analogue cometa  Published: January 21st, 2022     Finding a home at Tiger Blood Tapes, vaporwave hero S p o r t  3 0 0 0 delivers another collection of timeless pieces: Chrome — instrumental gems with vintage attitude. Boasting a broader retro character, the opening track “c […]

Quick Look “Live” At Lowe’s, May 6th 2015 BY: Holographic technologies Written by: Gbanas92 Published: November 27th, 2021     Maybe mallsoft still has room to grow after all. All it took was departing the concourse. And that’s what we get with “Live” at Lowe’s, May 6 2015: a mallsoft album that feels fresh and exciting […]

Quick Look すべての鳥が飛ぶわけではありません (not all birds fly) BY: Happiness Written by: Matsu  Published: November 16th, 2021     Drowned out beneath a thick, delicately placed layer of fog, すべての鳥が飛ぶわけではありません evokes a sound that pulls at a deep sense of longing, evoking a sense of hollowness using both tracks that edge between the more mournful side of […]

Quick Look Music to Mood Boards By BY: Dopes Ov Air Written by: GBanas92    Published: November 11th, 2021 Music to Mood Boards By offers a chameleonic variety of sounds. As the opening track samples Anna German, you’d be forgiven for expecting a mellower release, but what we have here is an album absolutely jam-packed with hip-hop […]

Quick Look Luxury Simulator BY: Luxury Simulator Written by:  oracle fm   Published: October 13th, 2021 Creating a cohesive narrative in a listener’s head using only audio is a difficult task. Blended in that classic vapor style with slow, melancholic samples and seamless loops dripping with fuzz, Luxury Simulator has no problem with this. And the name […]

Quick Look Ghosts In Long HallS BY: Looking Through Sheets Written by:  Matsu  Published: October 5th, 2021 Wrung of their bass and left to dry in idle wind, the sounds used to construct Ghosts In Long Halls are strung together in a way which elicits an atmosphere that is simultaneously haunting, yet inviting. To contrast with […]

Quick Look TERRA ATLANTIS OST BY: BABEFAKE & SAMSUNG W4ṪER Written by:  Gbanas92 Published: September 22nd, 2021 You’ve been driving on this road for hours. Some of these signs look familiar. Haven’t you driven by that gas station before? No clue where to go next, you refer to your map, a whirlwind of directions that loop […]

Quick Look “…Is This It?” BY: Valet Girls Written by: Matsu  Published: August 16th, 2021 Constructed with seamless loops and a love for the classic compositions of early vaporwave, Valet Girls’ “…Is This It?” manages to evoke a sound that feels both longing and haunting in its tone. With a mixture of subtly crushed vocals […]

Quick Look POLYMONO – Twisted Metal 5 Written by: ≋ＡＢＹＳＳＹＡＬＬ ≋◯≋ ＳＥＡ≋ Published: July 13th, 2021 Strap into the red plastic driver’s seat in this seven track race to the finish. Despite the Gameboy Advance album artwork, the sound of Twisted Metal 5 gives you the experience of playing an old arcade racer with some […]

Quick Look Atmosphere Absorbency by: Mick Rudry Written By: Matsu Created by combining the sampling choices and ethos of a climatewave album with the type of production that one would find most commonly in a slush piece, Atmosphere Absorbency manages to create an interesting and fresh sound by combining two styles that listeners will find […]

Quick Look Pleasure of Conformity by: Executive Sound Producer Written By: Matsu Similar in its sound to many of the litany of aliases that DMT Tapes head Vito James has stashed under his belt, Pleasure of Conformity contains a choice selection of loops paired with a heavy use of distortion techniques, making the sound feel […]

Quick Look Sunsets by: Paradise Of Yesterday Written By: Matsu Album art by Mimi B. Similar in prose to the more exuberant, rhythm-driven ethos of mid-2010s vapor, Sunsets is a short run of tracks that run akin to the type of sound that 猫 シ Corp. (Cat System Corp) presented in the earlier stages of […]

Quick Look Morning Appointment by: TV2 Written By: Matsu   A collection of mellow loops, just occasionally dipping into more driving beats to add to the atmosphere. Each track is composed from an excellent selection of hold music, waiting room tunes, and general jingles that are often present within climatewave albums. A heavy layer of […]

Quick Look Red Twilightby: Gavriel Written By:Stuad^Dib   Twilight, by nature, is a transitional state. For many in our extended community, change is often met with anxiety – either mourning what it has taken or dreading what it may bring. But considering that each of life’s lived moments are themselves transitions between the past and […]

Quick Look F o r g o t t e n s i g n a l s by: F a m I l i a r Written By: Matsu Lit up with a heavy layer of static and simple tunes illuminating its foreground, Forgotten Signals presents a collection of tunes that feel extremely relaxing […]

Quick Look Prime by: Office WRKR Written By: Gbanas92  A sprawling, meditative excursion to Tallon IV, the famed planet Samus Aran explores in Metroid: Prime. With music that brilliantly mixes the familiarity of one of Nintendo’s greatest series with that of a relaxing ambient album, Prime is a hypnotic aural excursion across an alien landscape. […]

Quick Look 마음과 릴 (Heart And Reel) by: P U D E R P O L L I Written By: Matsu     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 […]

Quick Look 我思う、ゆえに我あり(I think, therefore I am) by: desert sand feels warm at night Written By: Matsu Album art By: l u n i t a s Anyone who has listened to a desert sand album in recent years will go in knowing what to expect from this one. His style of longform, phaser-heavy, high […]

Quick Look Places For People Volume 5 by: Places For People Written By: Matsu 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 […]

Quick Look LATE NIGHTS & TRANS RIGHTS by: Nanami Blitz Written By: Voiture <3 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 […]

Quick Look Autogrill by: Tiny Dumpsters Inc. Written By: Gbanas92  It’s late at night. There’s not a car on the road, and all you have to keep you company is the radio. But why can’t you get a signal? Surely there must be something coming in clearly, right? And that’s when it happens. A confounding […]

Quick Look close but no cigar (deluxe edition) by: P-Body Written By:Voiture <3  Album Art By: D 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 […]

Quick Look Liminal Spaces by: Hantasi Written By:Voiture <3 Proto-vapor and related pre-genres are always the coolest of the bunch when it comes to the endless varieties of music that fall under the vaporwave umbrella. The vaporwave progenitors of yore carry a uniquely mysterious atmosphere that sometimes matters more than the music itself when listening. […]

Quick Look Brand New Lifestyle Center Two by: Looking THrough Sheets Written By:Voiture <3 Half sound-texture charcuterie board, half sample-riddled mallsoft goodness, Looking Through Sheets’ latest release wraps you in a warm envelope of sound and takes you back to the days of consumerist mega-monuments, and doesn’t stop until the very end of the tracklist. […]

Quick Look Unbottle // Fangs by: eventual infinity & Fake Fever Written By: Gbanas92 The debut of a collaboration between eventual infinity and Fake Fever, Unbottle // Fangs offers a great glimpse of what’s to come between these two artists. This release showcases the first two songs in what is being described as a “series […]

Quick Look Plastic Garden by: Tribe X Chop! Written By: Voiture <3 &Gbanas92  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 […]

Quick Look Ultraviolet by: Sport3000 Written By: Gbanas92  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 […]

Quick Look Affinity by: iacon Written By:  Stuad^Dib 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 […]

Quick Look Love Languages by: Premium Value Written By: Brian Duran-Fuentes Premium Value has everything you need to pull at your heartstrings without emptying your wallet. Love Languages is made up of 7 tracks of unadulterated vapor, ready to pop and jam to while you drive, work, or stare at dim lights in your bedroom […]

Quick Look Thank You! Private Suite! A Compilation by: First Class Collective Album Art By: Sheepy For those who might not know, Utopia District comprises quite a few former members of the Private Suite Magazine team. As such, we thought it would be interesting to share our thoughts on the magnificent and humbling release from […]

Quick Look Sports & Leisure by: Home & Office Written By: Gbanas92   When thinking of ‘90s corporate videos or training tapes, odds are you have a distinct idea of how they sound. But what happens if the video is preparing you not for a cushy desk job, but how to hit better home runs? […]

Quick Look 永遠の至福を求めて(In Search of Eternal BlisS)  by: E U P H O R I A 永遠の Written By: Gbanas92 An hour-long excursion into a calm circuitous spa of, uh, euphoria. A concise, calming drone track opens the album before descending into a brilliant slushwave title that hearkens back to the days when there was […]

Quick Look 方法を求めて (Seeking A Way)  by: coldvenice Written By: Gbanas92 A frigid slushwave title, Coldvenice’s latest clues the listener in on what to expect from the second you see the album art. The color palette perfectly matches that of the music. A pouring sheet of icy rain envelopes the whole affair, from the opening […]

Quick Look 我一个人在家，这就是我所能做的 (I Am At Home Alone, THis Is All I Can Do) by: 死亡頻道 (Death Channel) Written By: Gbanas92  Album Art By Lyndon Wier What a ride this album is. Dream Channel’s darker, more ominous side-project delivers a titan of texture and melodicism. Rather handily bouncing back and forth between somber piano tracks […]

Quick Look Satanic Panic 3: Hell House by: Vacation Bible School Written By: Gbanas92  The 3rd entry in the Satanic Panic series, Vacation Bible School delivers another autumnal feast for the ears. Littered with fear-mongering news snippets playing over ominous, Carpenter-esque soundscapes, Satanic Panic 3 brings the goods. The album provides a fascinating mixture of […]

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 […]

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 […]