If the remixing in question is subpar or overwrought, then I have a problem. If the results work, then I have no problem. I mean, I've heard some of Oneohtrix Point Never's stuff compared to or referred to as vaporwave, and although I think that's probably not terribly accurate categorically, I really like his work on the whole. It's creepy and cool and reminds me of everything I love about '80s experimental cassette compilations.
I was mostly kidding.
I'm not even sure where one would find a large quantity of decent stock music.
I'm not even sure where one would find a large quantity of decent stock music.
Old VHS tapes, YouTube, uploads of old lounge albums...
I could probably make something like vaporwave if I really wanted to, and fairly easily at that, but I'm not sure if I could make it interesting enough to work to my satisfaction, short of turning it into a kind of synth-cheese-and-infommercials version of Homotopy to Marie.
an Omega One used to produce for Aesop Rock back in the nineties, but there are three or four producers by that name so I'm not sure if it's the same dude.
it's a classic slice of vsnares creep. love him going back to this darker stuff
re old vaporwave discussion kind of: have an uzbekistani folk tune with the most accidentally vaporwave possible cover. and ps while you're at it check out the whole channel, it's loads of hella cool eastern european jazz/folk/weird shit which the dude seems to be uploading straight from vinyls, for all your estonian jazz or abkhazian new-wave-with-a-children's-choir needs
man ive just been working my way thru this dude's blog. it's all stuff, turns out, from the former soviet state record company. here is a tasty ukrainian jazz number
"Christmas Unicorn". Quoting from Joy Division in a Christmas song. Rock on, Sufjan, rock on.
I was introduced to that track by a friend when it came out. When the interpolation came in, I wasn't sure how to react. The concept is certainly funny, and the way it happens is surreal, yet in context it's pretty dark. Not exactly Ian Curtis-dark, but bordering on "The Owl and the Tanager"-dark.
it's loads of hella cool eastern european jazz/folk/weird shit which the dude seems to be uploading straight from vinyls, for all your estonian jazz or abkhazian new-wave-with-a-children's-choir needs
"Christmas Unicorn". Quoting from Joy Division in a Christmas song. Rock on, Sufjan, rock on.
I was introduced to that track by a friend when it came out. When the interpolation came in, I wasn't sure how to react. The concept is certainly funny, and the way it happens is surreal, yet in context it's pretty dark. Not exactly Ian Curtis-dark, but bordering on "The Owl and the Tanager"-dark.
I liked it. Good song.
In the liner notes for Songs for Christmas, Volume I – V, Sufjan writes about how he used to hate Christmas, and especially hated Christmas music. That the "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" sentimentality rang false for him because his own holidays with his dysfunctional family were so miserable.Then, as an adult, he gave Christmas and its music another chance. The songs that won him over where the ones with a core of subtle melancholy, which he called "that creepy Christmas feeling". "I discovered that ... Christmas music poses a cosmological conundrum in requiring us to sing so sweetly and sentimentally about something so terrifying and tragic."
He continues and expounds further on that theme in Silver & Gold: Songs for Christmas, Volume 6 – 10. The liner notes have an essay from Reverend Vito (the same one that "Vito's Ordination Song" was written about, I'm certain) about the eschatological meaning of Christmas and the Advent. "The end is near. You are going to die. Happy Holidays." The song immediately before "Christmas Unicorn" has the lyrics:
Oh I see the end, I see the end
Everyone's waiting for death
How do you measure its worth?
Justice delivers its gift here on earth
I think what Suf is getting at is that, if you talk about Christ's birth but not his death, you're only getting half of the story. And perhaps the incarnation didn't just redeem mankind, but redeemed Death as well.
Hey, Section 42L, I said before that I thought Silver & Gold was musically unfocused? Well, I listened to the whole thing again and I need to amend that statement. Volume 6: Gloria, Volume 8: Christmas Infinity Voyage, and Volume 10: Christmas Unicorn each have a well-defined musical identity. Individually, they flow quite nicely. (By the way, Christmas Infinity Voyage is the one that was substantially re-recorded two years after the fact.)
I think mainly it's Volume 7: I Was Santa's Helper! that's throwing the rest off-kilter. There's four or five different genres on that one that don't play nicely with each other at all, but any one of them would have made for a nice EP by itself.
so, having owned this new EPROM album for a few days and having gotten time to wrap my head around it, I feel compelled to write a shitty little mini-review of the damn thing.
so yeah. EPROM - Halflife
It all starts out with a bang. A massive, ugly, undulating granular synth drone holds and writhes about about for a good 2 minutes before modulating itself into a massive drop propelled by sparse 808 hits and a frantic siren. This track (entitled Center of the Sun), while more aggressive than most of the album, does a fairly good job of showing off what EPROM is all about: digital, intricate, razor sharp sound design and head-nodding drum patterns that split the difference between dubstep and 90's IDM, with an infusion of trap. That said, the album goes all over the place, with blaring 8-bit synths, wonky basslines and elaborately manipulated and often quite over-the-top sample choices (*Vogel, with it's arpeggiated vox and rainforest field recording samples, is a good example of this*) With the tracks taking all these components all over the place, and most clocking in at under 3 minutes, a sense of frantic, exuberant hyperactivity is just barely roped in by a subtle touch and careful track selection that, miraculously, actually makes the album seem fairly cohesive.
in short, I loved it to pieces, highly recommended.
if you want strictly stuff from the 90's there is B12's Time Tourist
which is a very nice album, much better than any of The Orb's stuff imo but there are many who would disagree w/ me
of course i assume you just want something suitably moody and ambient, not necessarily 90's ambient techno, so here are some things to give a whirl that you might like, if you like one of these i can throw more similar stuff at you
espec. make sure to listen to the Pole and Andy Stott ones! (*Quadrant Dub is easily the best track here but it might be a bit... stripped down for your tastes*)
The terminology and other acts associated with these B12 guys is rather offputting (I am not known to be a big fan of either techno nor Aphex Twin), but I rather like this track.
Comments
I'm not even sure where one would find a large quantity of decent stock music.
Not in any interest of making vaporwave (whatever that is) but because it's interesting sample material in general.
Check out "Look Alive" by him and see if it's to your tastes. I can't listen to that song atm tho, occupied.
New Oval!
not that it is dude's fault but still.
I had a brainfart.
In any case though, I thought it was OK.
I don't really pay attention to trap producers that aren't in TNGHT myself either, so I can't really talk about it.
I don't really have many points of reference as to whether or not this is good by the standards of EDM Trap music. Two artists really isn't enough.
Something like Transglobal Underground's Dream of 100 Nations or, again, The Orb.
also this Pole guy did an album with Fat John, which is....weird.
*sigh*