Hitting the Vinyl Record Jackpot
Hitting the Vinyl Record Jackpot
The online record label VILL4IN is known for their noteworthy love of underground music, a platform more than anything that has held dozens and dozens of stellar releases, visual projects, online music raves and much more. Since their beginnings in 2016, the label has become known for having some of the most beautiful, well-tailored physical releases in the online music scene, and today, you and I are going to unbox these together and take a dive into a handful of the label’s releases. I want to waste no time so let’s jump right into this, if you are a fan of great music and great packaging, you are in for a treat.
輕描淡寫 (translated to: understatement) - 小圈子 (translated to: small circle)
First up we have the beautiful, mysterious 小圈子 (translated to: small circle) by 輕描淡寫 (translated to: understatement). Originally released back in 2017, this ambient-synth-based classic has been pressed multiple times, here on a limited edition 180g colored vinyl.
I discussed this album a long, long time ago on my YouTube channel, an album that has always feels brand new every time I stumble upon it. 小圈子 is so large in sound in every way, there is so much personality throughout it’s run time and the pressing here features this gorgeous, smokey gray treatment that compliments the rainy-day moods sprouted from the sounds of the album perfectly. There were a couple variants of this album pressed at VILL4IN, all of them long sold out and it is so nice to see demand for this album, despite rarely being talked about in my opinion when people are discussing legendary dreampunk or ambient music projects waiting for you throughout the web.小圈子 is truly wonderful and VILL4IN has represented it wonderfully in physical form.
Lifecycles by XMEMORY is a perfect one-two punch to go with 小圈子, featuring more rainy, atmospheric drone work perfect to keep on as your studying or working on something. This coming to us on a 180g red or violet pressing (honestly not really sure what color to call it).
I also want to mention that almost all VILL4IN releases come with a bunch of trading cards as well, from VILL4IN cards to Pokemon cards and it was exciting going through these records and seeing what else came with it besides the music.
The album covers for these things are so easy to get mesmerized and lost in, everything just goes so well with one another like here with these washed out purple, pinks and blues, retro typography, and the cinematic sounds all make Lifecycles come to life as much more than just a music album, but a full-on experience.
Lucid Living is the first ‘Wolf Lehman’ alias album by the Austria based Voyage Futur, 10 tracks all unique and textured in their own way. There are so many different sounds on here, from futuristic and electronic to sampled wishy-washy guitars, it kinda feels like a blend of Bibio and Boards of Canada so I absolutely love sound-collage projects like this one.
This 180g smokey gray vinyl paired up with the album artwork feels like im looking at some virtual reality museum of old science text book covers... This whole thing from the look to the sounds is a trip from start to finish.
If you love trippy beats to get lost in, definitely check this gem out when you get a minute.
Mysterious and other worldly, Motionfield’s Injection is an ambient trip into beautiful corners of relaxation, reflection and wonder. With seven “Injection” tracks that feel floaty and euphoric at all times, this project is just perfect for me as a big fan of ambient works on vinyl, most of the time I’m just spinning records from my collection that keeps me in a nice state of focus for whatever I’m working on and the VILL4IN catalog is loaded with projects like this.
This release here comes to us jam-packed with content, 180g colored vinyl that includes a clean obi strip, more trading cards and even a booklet containing a short story to pair with the music. This is another nice touch VILL4IN has added to many of their releases, and as someone who always loves when a physical releases is loaded to the gills with more material to give us a better understanding of the artist’s mindset and world they aim to create with the music, this all adds to the experience for me when connecting with the sounds Motionfield brings to the table.
It’s pretty amazing to see how much collaboration and effort goes into many of these projects, here is a look at all of the people who came together to bring Injection to life, and the end result
makes something like this feel like an open-world sci fi game that I can jump into and explore further.
Next up we got WHO by 1AM バイBLUNTS, a dark ambient project brought to life on this gorgeous teal, turquoise colored pressing. This features that same design layout and type treatment as Lifecycles by XMEMORY, beautiful design work all around from the front cover to the back cover, everything is always so clean with VILL4IN and i love these releases on the site that follow one strict color or look, it’s so aesthetically pleasing to look at.
As of the making of this video, there are actually 20 copies still in stock over at their site, so if you love venturing into brooding, ominous ambient soundscapes, pick this one up for your collection.
2020’s FAKE FRIENDS by DEVD MVNE goes in a completely different direction compared to many of the ambient works we’ve explored today.
Here we got some fun, funky vaportrap accompanied by shiny, neon design elements and this smoky, hazy purple pink vinyl pressing. It’s been a minute since I’ve enjoyed some good vapor trap, I’ll always love me some VAPERROR or NxxxxxS so this was a nice treat to throw on and
vibe out to. It’s got this west coast, midnight club street racing kinda thing goin for it, FAKE FRIENDS is in your face, colorful and so much fun. As of the making of this video, only 12 of these are left in stock.
Here we got some cloudy, hazy classic Vaporwave brought to life on Internet Explorer by h a z e, which features the producer putting the entire album through a reel to reel machine to get that genuine, smokey sound terrain throughout all 7 tracks.
H a z e explains the album as “A journey towards a sinister nostalgic vibe of the early computer era”, and here we have it on this 180g blue colored vinyl with an obi strip and some fitting water type pokemon cards to go with it. This limited edition pressing has only a handful of copies left.
COMPACTdisc ステレオドラマ - サンドオブタイム (translated to: sand of time)
Another artist, and album, I have talked about before on the channel is COMPACTdisc ステレオ ドラマ’s サンドオブタイム (translated to: sand of time).
This is an amazing, dreamy slushwave album that I used to listen to a lot, and thank you VILL4IN for sending this over especially as I have now rediscovered my love for this album.
Released back in the Summer of 2021, サンドオブタイム was given new artwork to accompany it’s release for vinyl on VILL4IN. This is another one of those albums that I just don’t know how more people don’t know about, especially fans of dreamy ambient or slushwave.
Here we have it on a 180g Hi-FI vinyl to bring out all of the best this album has to offer. Despite the album being a pretty quick listen, the wanderlust the tracks evoke give this project so much replayability, and owning this on vinyl now is a great addition for those days where I just get stuck listening to nothing but slushwave.
Bathroom Plants - Installing Symbiotopia 2.0.1.
If you want to adventure into a late 90’s, early 2000’s CD-ROM jungle adventure game, look no further than Bathroom Plants Installing Symbiotopia 2.0.1., another 180g vinyl from VILL4IN that comes with a booklet to further immerse you into the world of the album.
This release is so shiny and nostalgic sounding, those sweet jingles and pan flutes flooded all throughout to really hammer home that computer generated jungle full of poorly rendered polygons your family computer just couldn’t get to function properly back in the day. I love the little art insert as well that comes with this, VILL4IN once again really giving these artists an opportunity to deliver a full experience to the people who pick up their work, and I just can’t get enough of all the colors and imagery presented.
Now let’s take it back to the classics, the album that put me onto the VILL4IN label in the first place, Mother by 暗号零 (translated to: birth).
Mother is the first release in VILL4IN’s “MANA” series, and to this day probably my favorite project on the entire catalog. This album is simply beautiful from start to end, Mother is so refreshing and feels like your transcending into this new dimension with tracks like the epic 7-minute opener Camilla or the incredibly powerful and vibrant synths in tracks like 走向世界 strike world.
I also can never get enough of the artwork on this, I love that glitchy VHS line art kinda vibe I’m not even sure how to explain it, simply put this is one of the most beautiful records I’ve ever seen shout out to POLYGON1993 for the artwork on this. Many of you may have stumbled across POLYGON1993’s artwork in the past, definitely show em’ some love if this style is your kinda thing. Mother comes to us on this light, translucent purple pressing with an obi strip, more trading cards and a simple back panel showcasing the tracklist.
I can’t give this album enough praise, please go listen to this whenever you get a minute or two it will definitely be worth your while.
Sangam never disappoints, and Lost Cause is another entry into their ambient dreampunk roster of albums that brings to life these post-apocalyptic themes wonderfully in musical form. Coming at us on this 180g smokey grey green vinyl, obi strip and booklet, Sangam has really mastered this form of audio story-telling.
The imagery on the cover tells it all: a city cloaked in a never ending night filled with neon lights and alleyways. This edition here is the supporters edition release, you can also find a couple dozen of these on VILL4IN in pink as well, whatever color you grab one in this is just more of that open-world, cyberpunk goodness I can never get enough of.
Next up we have another 180g Hi-Fi vinyl, everlasting by van1sh. This one comes to us on a clean and smooth looking lavender pressing, obi strip and story booklet. Everlasting contains a really fun blend of energetic, uplifting vaportrap with a super heavy bass, all based around a story of one’s lost love discovered through the bits of vocals placed into these tracks and the accompanying story written by Samantha Tate. The track “reflection of the heart” is so beautiful.
Next up we have a really unique looking pressing in Lonely Streets by w u s o 命. Here we have the album pressed to a 180g Dark Neon Blue vinyl with some really clean looking artwork designed by Kevlar Studio.
w u s o 命 is known for many dreampunk classics, Lonely Streets brings a little bit of a rough, distorted vibe to the atmospheric vibe of the dreampunk style, and although it’s minimal it’s a really nice delicate tough to give the tracks on here a unique feeling and texture. This one also features another story by Samantha Tate to accompany the album, but unfortunately didn’t come with a story book. I love this vinyl treatment, that splatter-pressing look always looks incredible.
I think it’s impossible to have them look bad no matter what colors you use.
Let’s follow this one up with another wonderful looking splatter style pressing, Isorin’s Neon Tundra on this 180g white and green vinyl. This album sounds as minty and ice cold as the artwork and vinyl look, an awesome mix of vaportrap and atmospheric ambient brings to life this cold world you feel like you can reach out and touch.
Neon Tundra has this intergalactic, space-station type of feel in the design from the type to the geometric elements and linework making up the front and back artwork, it’s very hard to not give almost all of the records presented here today the same praise because they all look so damn
good, but y’all know me I’m a real sucker for that minty green color and this just knocks it out of the park for me.
PROJECT LAZARUS – УЧИТЕСЬ ЗАЩИЩАТЬ РОДИНУ!
Following up on the themes of outer space and intergalactic exploration, we also got this album by Project Lazurus which I can not pronounce nor do I know what it means but it has more of that vintage, space-race exploration vibe that pairs with many of the other albums we have here. This pressing comes to us on this 180g Hi-Fi blue colored marble vinyl, there was a red vinyl version of this album as well, both of these though now long sold out.
Let’s make our way back to another Voyage Futur release, this time Inner Sphere on a classy 180g Green Marble Colored Vinyl. Inner Sphere is subtle, calming and another one of those projects from the VILL4IN music bank that paints to life a whole new world in such extraordinary color. I love that 16-bit artwork on the front from kidpxl, which is followed up with 2 little sections of art on the back of the packaging, clearly the sounds are inspired by retro gaming and nature, so that forest green treatment for the pressing is perfect for this one. This gem is long sold out, alongside a very cool reel-to-reel edition that was also made for this album.
2020’s Fiend by Ghoul is a really cool and interesting release, here we have some downtempo, easy-listening that works perfectly late at night. Fiend comes loaded up with the obi strip, trading cards, and another story written out by Samantha Tate, the 180g smoky dark brown vinyl gives off those real late night, someone smoking deep within the alleyways of a huge city type of vibes. FIend is a cloudy, mystifying listen from start to end that blends all things ambient and trip hop.
Mackintosh plus - flower store
And, last but certainly not least, let’s end this unboxing with a bang, here we got the classic flower store by Mackintosh Plus, a parody version of the one and only Floral Shoppe by the actual Macintosh Plus.
Here, Floral Shoppe is re-imagined as this sketchy, off-brand bootleg edition that you would find maybe sold in some market or flea market or something. I love this and loved the one they did for Echojams which I also have in my collection.
Here we have flower store on this really random blue vinyl, I love how they just choose the most non-fitting color to pair with these types of parody releases, VILL4IN teaming up with Qingdao
Market to bring this project to life on vinyl once again. If you’re looking for that discount version of Floral Shoppe, this is the project for you.
I highly recommend checking out MTHRBORD.com, as that is where you will find everything VILL4IN from their shop to new music updates and much much more. I also recommend checking out their amazing yearly ENTER THE VOID festival which features many underground artists, musicians, labels, influencers and more. Their first event was a 83+ hour consecutive internet live show hosted on October 30 - November 2nd 2020 and another one on October 28th 2022 that lasted 118 hours, I actually did a DJ set for one of them which was a bunch of fun, go check it all out when you get the chance.
A huge, huge shout out and thank you to VILL4IN for sending over this awesome bundle of records to unbox and dive into, go show them some love when ya can.
Much luv, ur boi,
Pad Chennington