The Internet's Darkest Music Genre

Hidden deep within the virtual backrooms of the Internet exists a sound so forgotten, barren and bizarre...it’s a sound you can’t turn away from once you click the play button...a music scene left abandoned to time and the ever-expanding musical library of the digital realm.

Uncanny artwork, hyper-sensitive textures and a narrative that always ends the same way for every release: the pure decay and death of the music. Today, you and I will be exploring one of the most lonesome, dark, and mysterious music genres on the Internet, known as “Deathdream”, and what makes this extremely small collection of albums so suspiciously sinister. We will be taking a look at a handful of releases, explore some commentary from actual Deathdream producers, and ultimately, you and I will discover what makes this microgenre contain such immense power in its ability to revolutionize the concept of disposability in music, an ability that leaves us, the listener, in a state of pure audio and sensory purgatory.

Deathdream is a Bandcamp tag given to a small collection of albums that explore themes of isolation, depression, desperation, and other similar subject matters. As of the making of this video, only 75 releases pop up when searching for the “Deathdream” tag on Bandcamp. It’s a very niche style that clearly hit its prime between 2015 to 2016, and although you’ll find some more recent releases scattered here and there, the style is now trickling and rotting away to time. Stumbling upon Deathdream feels like you’ve discovered an abandoned city or ghost town, you’ve run out of gas and you pulled off the main highway only to enter a town vacant of all life.

Click on any of these releases and you’re entering a vacant house or storefront in this abandoned town, tracklists resembling the objects and outdated decor within that may paint some sort of picture as to what happened here. Using tools ranging from heavy drone work, repetitive, looping sabotage and just the straight-up eerie bending and twisting of samples and instrumentation, producers, or as i like to call them, practitioners of the Deathdream sound are determined to tell a story more than anything else. These constant barrages of the same sound chopped repetitively (perfect examples of this being Geolocationism and reflection) bring you into an almost trance-like state, hammering in that sort of hopeless, apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic setting the narrative brings to life so well. Instead of Deathdream being music, the releases feel more like expeditions varying in different intensities. Whether it’s dystopian armies roaming the streets to settings even more deserted, like ghost towns where all that is left is the struggling nature trying to find its way in a place void of hope and life.

Deathdream takes traces of Ambient, Dark Vaporwave, Broken Transmission, and Eccojams and distills the sound with a focus on death, anxiety, and decay. The world of Deathdream opens the door for incredible creative expression and rebirth in artists looking to try something new and explore the darker parts of storytelling. There is something inherently refreshing in creating a new alias to create a sound different from your usual work; Deathdream becomes a home for producers looking to become more anecdotal with their work in a disposable, no strings attached way.

"Deathdream is not about the sound, it's about the aesthetics surrounding the music. Not just the album covers, or the track titles or whatever, but the narrative inherent with every Deathdream album. Deathdream albums have stories attached to them. Sometimes the story is obvious and sometimes it’s a complete mystery, but Deathdream needs a narrative of some sort in order for it to work well.

If you’re someone who wants to make Deathdream, make a new anonymous alias. Don’t worry about publicity, there is someone out there that will notice it. And just try to make something you haven’t made before. Most Deathdream that exists is something someone made on the side, it can be a great way to filter creative energy."

- 暗い自然 (Dark Nature)

Deathdream producer & owner of Black Records 

There are two main labels on the Internet that house a heavy amount of these releases: BLCR Laboratories and Black Records. I highly recommend venturing through each of their respective catalogues, the two are truly a goldmine and will definitely provide you with the material you are looking for.

I want to focus our time today on a couple of Deathdream releases specifically, projects that caught my attention immensely and I just find them to be a perfect demonstration of how intense storytelling elements can be through fascinating presentation and production. Use these albums as undedicated, drowned out background noise late at night. On the other hand, you can allow yourself to be completely taken over by them. I recommend taking the time to lay down in bed, close your eyes, relax your muscles, and have the music absorb you into its world with your undivided attention.

I. 아버지 (father) - reflection

First up on our list today, I want to showcase the brilliance of 아버지’s (father) 2016 release titled “reflection”. This eight track gem explores themes of self-reflection, loneliness, rejection, depression, rebirth and it all concludes with the unfortunate fate of the inevitable crash at the end. When you look at how the track list is ordered or when you listen to each song in succession, you feel like you have suddenly transported into the body of someone going through a pretty tough sort of struggle.

The opening ten-and-a-half-minute track reflection is just mesmerizing: crushing, nonstop repetitive loops that just consume your mind, everything bringing to the forefront these memories you can’t stop thinking about, flashing in your head over and over...and over again. Tracks like “waking up the same”, “someone else”, and “loosing everything” all follow up with this rained on and weathered sample work struggling to make it through each measure, these brittle songs begging for your attention as they crawl out of your headphones.

아버지 (father) makes excellent work on taking sounds that feel depressing, beaten, and hopeless and makes you want to listen to them. Like I said, the narratives of these Deathdream releases feel very cinematic and heavy and you want to look in and examine what the music is going through.

There is always an unavoidable curiosity to it all.

Once we pass the halfway point of the album however, “reflection” becomes enticingly hopeful and less gloomy, especially when we get to the longest, and in my opinion, best track on the album: “tomorrow”. This eleven minute epic sticks out tremendously from the rest of the sorrowful sounding work on the album; these beautiful angelic voices breaking through with warm rays of sun behind them crashing into your ears.

Unfortunately, the refreshing joy of this track ends after this. The last track “untitled” seals away the angelic voices and the sun and returns with these jarring repetitive loops, it feels like the previous track crumbling and burning to the ground, proving it to all to be an illusion as we end the album with this hard stop that goes right back into the first track of the album. This move makes the album feel like a looping cycle and further nails in the notion that whatever this person is going through, this subject you create in your head as you listen to the album, it is all just this never ending cycle of sadness, a possibility for light shining through, and then it just divebombs back into despair and hopelessness. Sounds miserable, I know. But trust me, definitely start with this release. “Reflection” is an incredible journey through hypnotic sound design that feels like an artistic film rather than an album.

II. 아버지 (father) - 흰색 죽음 (White Death)

This is a beautiful piece of work.

One year before “reflection” was released, father dropped “흰색 죽음” (White Death). While “reflection” was a bit more jumpy, I would say, with its repetitive chops and, at times, colorful sounds scattered throughout, “흰색 죽음” (White Death) is way more parasitic and sinister. The whole album feels like you’re walking through this pitch-black hallway, a hallway so dark that even though there isn’t any light, the surface of a white object could eventually become visualized after your eyes adjust to the dark. As you're venturing through the hallway, slowly realizing that there may be no end to this, you begin to sense the entity that is hovering behind you.

The album is very quiet. There are these ambient passages moving at a snail’s pace only interrupted by haunting echoes, a ticking clock, static fuzz or confusing piano keys with no rhyme or rhythm, every moment floats in limbo. “흰색 죽음” (White Death) almost feels like the work of The Caretaker, especially toward the last stages of “Everywhere at the End of Time”. Audio on “흰색 죽음” (White Death) barely makes it through and crackles similarly to “Everywhere at the End of Time”. There is a moment where it sounds like someone is hitting the same two keys of a piano but the audio keeps cutting in and out, your headphones will feel like they are broken and this feature common throughout the project all adds to the unsettling aura this release gives off.

The last track of the album, which simply translates to death, is the moment where this entity finally begins to interact with you on a conversational level. All the textures overlaid on top of the tracks that came before you finally dissipates. The piano keys become crystal clear, your mind is as pure and empty as it can possibly be. You speak with death itself as it guides you through your last moments of whatever control you have left, only for it all to abruptly end as you're just beginning to learn the true meaning of the album. I dare you to listen to all of White Death laying down with your eyes closed and noise canceling headphones on. Enjoy the trip.

III. The various releases of 暗い自然 (Dark Nature)

Albums: Bleed | Soul Drainage | The Dark Forest 最も暗い夜 | The Sounds of Life

If you search for Deathdream on Bandcamp, you’re going to notice this name pop up a lot. 暗い自然 (Dark Nature) captures the ominous energy of being lost in nature or abandoned places. Harsh winds and distant remnants of a town that once was in the 29 minute long release of “Soul Drainage”, The hyper heightened sounds of birds and bugs with the “Sounds of Life”, the most brutally cold day of your life with “Bleed”, or the hidden beauty of a dark forest as night turns to morning on a cloudy, cold, and rainy November day…2015’s “The Dark Forest 最も暗い夜”.

暗い自然 (Dark Nature) does a stellar job at recognizing the disposability in music, the idea that anything you do or anything that has been done before can be sampled, recontextualized, and repurposed as something new. Nothing is ever untouchable, unmalleable, off-limits. Nothing can live or last forever. I was able to get in contact with 暗い自然 (Dark Nature), who had some interesting things to say about the concept of music as a whole:

“I think that music is disposable... Vaporwave kind of made me realize this, sampling stuff I would never have heard of otherwise. For an example, I’m pretty sure more people have heard リサフランク420 - 現代のコンピュー rather than the original Diana Ross song.

 

Vaporwave was definitely not the first musical genre that sampled music, that’s literally been done since music was invented. But I feel vaporwave was the first genre that sampled music in a completely decontextualized way. Using samples without caring where they came from, just taking old music and distorting it, until it sounded nostalgic or depressing or whatever the artist was doing with it. Recontextualizing it without even knowing what the original artist wanted to express with their music.

 

That’s only really possible when you think of music as disposable, and I think Deathdream really captures that. Not necessarily because it samples stuff, not all Deathdream does, but because it uses the disposability to decay itself out. Entire Deathdream albums and aliases have all been essentially deleted and forgotten, with very few people even remembering what it was... with each passing year, more and more people forget. I know of this first hand.

 

I think it’s special when there are entire albums that can only be recalled via your memory. When the only thing preventing this art from fading away forever is you staying alive. Having a relationship like that with music is super special. Deathdream should be able to die, is what I guess I am saying.”

- 暗い自然

Deathdream producer & owner of Black Records

Accompanied with the cheap aesthetic of VHS-weathered artwork, 暗い自然 (Dark Nature) captures a wide range of moods, there are releases that feel hazy, longing and tranquil while others are just straight up sporadic. 暗い自然 (Dark Nature), or the person behind the alias, is also the owner of Black Records, a label I highly recommend you check out for more Deathdream material and it was great getting their insight on the integrity of Deathdream, it all goes beyond just the charm of something feeling cheap, brittle and repurposed… the gradual decay of the music brings to life a whole other avenue of narrative to any project. 暗い自然 (Dark Nature) believes this is where the “death” in Deathdream comes from, the fact that the ending is always planned. Deathdream should be built around the idea of the impending end of the art, a story with a beginning, middle, and conclusion.

"Deathdream is not about the sound, it’s about the aesthetics surrounding the music. Not just the album covers, or the track titles or whatever, but the narrative inherent with every Deathdream album. Deathdream albums have stories attached to them. Sometimes the story is obvious and sometimes it’s a complete mystery, but Deathdream needs a narrative of some sort in order for it to work well."

- 暗い自然

Deathdream producer & owner of Black Records

IV. 死亡頻道 (Death Channel) - 超越灵魂 (Beyond Soul)

In March of 2019, a producer by the name of 死亡頻道 (Death Channel) would release a project called “超越灵魂” (Beyond Soul). 超越灵魂 (Beyond Soul), from everything I’ve heard up until making this video, may be my favorite Deathdream project yet.

Compared to his other aliases which both translate to Dream Channel (夢のチャンネル & 夢想的頻道), the birth of the third alias 死亡頻道 (Death Channel) would focus more on the practice of making darker sounds all while telling a story at the same time.

On “超越灵魂” (Beyond Soul), 死亡頻道 (Death Channel) tried to imagine a story in which a sad and lonely man was left adrift in his own home due to an accident and what would happen as the situation goes from bad to worse. As you listen to the album, the sound changes a bit, but the essence of sadness and darkness remains. The first two songs are crisp, crystal clear and sort of peaceful. By the end of that second song. we clearly hear that our character dies. It is at this moment where the album truly begins, where it’s real depth comes into play, as from the third song on we accompany this character on their journey into the realization that they have passed away and that they were abandoned during their time of need.

The artwork for this release works perfectly, the overlaying images conjuring up a dazed and confused feeling of awakening in a hospital late at night after everyone has left, confused on how you got here in the first place. Medical instrumentation on the side of your stretcher, a long corridor through which you wander while thinking that you are fine, and your soul being the lonely trooper to go through it all.

"Undoubtedly, the sounds you mention always tell a story, or try to make your imagination fly about what you hear and how you can interpret it. 超越 灵魂 (Death Channel) was also like that and what I can recommend for anyone who wants to achieve something of that style, they should simply think about something in their life, in some passage or memory or anecdote, in any situation, and try to figure it out and portray it In music."

- 超越灵魂

Death Channel

When reaching out to 死亡頻道 (Death Channel) regarding any commentary or interesting information regarding the release of “超越灵魂” (Beyond Soul), they told me the inspiration for the project comes mostly from video game soundtrack elements, like Silent Hill and Alice: Madness Returns. That, combined with vaporwave techniques with projects like メディカル= (Medical) and 아버지 (father) led to the creation of 死亡頻道 (Death Channel).

“超越灵魂” (Beyond Soul) is born with sounds and interpretation from some parts of the producers own personal life as well.

"I have been hospitalized 4 times in my life and most of it between 2010 and 2014 I spent in the doctor and hospital accompanying my grandmother until her death (RIP). All those moments of my life, those feelings, being there and living it, was what gave the sound of 超越灵魂 (Death Channel)."

- 超越灵魂

Death Channel

Deathdream is an abandoned goldmine of music, a collection of releases forgotten to time and left to rot away in the furthest corners of Bandcamp. But as we’ve learned today, that may be the ultimate plan of it all anyway. If you are someone who is interested in making Deathdream, 暗い自然 (Dark Nature) notes that you should make a new anonymous alias. Do not worry or stress about publicity, there is someone out there who will notice you. Most importantly, just try to make something you haven’t made before. Dive into the deepest parts of your mind. Most Deathdream that exists is something someone made on the side as a great way to filter creative energy.

So...what will you create, my friend?

Until next time, much love, ur boi,

Pad Chennington

Also known as "Youtube's Vaporwave Valedictorian", Pad Chennington is a content creator who has created a substantial following on YouTube for his videos discussing all things Vaporwave. Starting in the Fall of 2017, Pad's videos range from reviews to breakdowns, interviews to unboxings, and much more, always revolving around odd and interesting music genres found throughout the internet. Pad has also recently released an album in February titled "CONTRAST", available as a free download via the My Pet Flamingo label.

LETTER FROM THE CEO

Hello everyone!

This is River, the CEO. I just wanted to personally thank you for checking out Vapor95 and becoming a part of our family.

Here is a little message from me about why I started the company and our future at Vapor95:

Almost four years ago, I started this company from my bedroom. Now, it’s expanded into something I could never have imagined. I will be eternally grateful for this. My gratitude really stems from two things. The first is Vaporwave itself, as a thought movement and as a philosophy.

When I first discovered Vaporwave, I really felt like it was the truest expression of my self identity that I had yet to find. It was me, it was my generation, it was what I grew up with, it was my t a s t e. I loved the colors and the moods. The feeling it imbued in me. This deep longing and at the same time, a deep peace. A peace that the time and place did exist, not only in the recesses of my childhood memories but in the collective subconscious. And now, it was being expressed.

The surrealist flow of Floral Shoppe and the disjunctive attitudes of Blank Banshee. When I was a teen (sixth through eighth grades), I used to go to the Boys and Girls Club after school. It was the ‘90s. We would watch MTV in the “teenroom” where you had to be sixteen to enter.

I remember the Thong Song music video in detail. I also remember Dragon Ball Z was on at 5 PM on Toonami. I would force the other kids to watch it with me while they mocked me for liking cartoons. I played Metal Gear Solid on the PS1 with my cousins and I bought the strategy guide and delicately opened the secret section. I had a Green Day tape and black bucket hat that was my only connection to teenage life when I had to drive across the country with my mom for a summer. I spent late nights on AOL chat rooms and on AIM trying to get people to download Subseven so I could make their CD tray open. I had Beck's "Odelay" in a yellow shockproof CD player. I had JNCOs. I could go on and on.

Vaporwave hearkened to those times and made me recall a simpler life: my life as a kid growing up in the ‘90s and into the new millennium. When I first realized that this beautiful movement existed, that I was a part of it, and that there didn’t exist a centralized source to buy clothing in this style, I understood what I had to do. I realized that if I didn’t do it, then someone else would.

I realized that Vaporwave at its core, its essence, resonated deeply in our society. We missed the free, wild, early internet. We missed low resolution. We wanted to represent this identity through what we wore, naturally. I will have to admit that when I made Vapor95, I wasn’t in the best place, and looking back I’d say I was pretty depressed. I think this is another aspect of Vaporwave that attracted me. It soothed me.

Recently when I did a giveaway on Instagram, I asked people to comment what Vaporwave meant to them, and I think a majority of the answers were something akin to: It helped me with my anxiety and depression and The atmospheres and feelings it gives me make me feel better about life and my place in it.

I am also grateful for this.

The second thing that I am grateful for is all of you. Each of you reading this. I’m grateful that I was able to find my place in life. All of your support in so many different ways has made this dream possible.

I always worried that Vapor95 could be interpreted as a patronization of Vaporwave, a cheap way to profit off of the movement. I worried that the community would reject me, but the opposite has happened. The Vaporwave community as a whole has supported and loved our brand and company and allowed it to flourish and continue to grow. It's really through this growth that Vapor95 has been given the opportunity to expand and enrich the already vibrant Vaporwave community. This is really one of my main goals. To spread Vaporwave, the message of Vaporwave, the peace and unity of Vaporwave.

The amount of gushing and beautiful words I was told at both ElectroniCON festivals changed me. People cared about the company and we were like a family. I cried thinking about all the people that actually cared. Words really can't express how thankful I really am for this, for this opportunity, and responsibility.

When I made the company I really had one main goal in mind: to provide a reliable, quality, American-made and customer-oriented source for Vaporwave clothing online. Which, at the time, didn't exist. I wanted to make sure that everything Vapor95 did and made was quality and above board, nothing made overseas or cheaply. I wanted everyone that had an interaction with the company to feel positive, excited, and inspired, to be entirely satisfied with their purchase and wanting more.

Unfortunately due to the nature of reality, this has been a statistical impossibility and it pains me to think of the ways I have also made mistakes, but I know that I have learned from these mistakes and this allows me to continue to move us constantly and consistently in the right direction, and with the same aspirations I had when I first started it.

The future right now for Vapor95 is incredibly bright. Although the Coronavirus has delayed many of our ambitions plans, I know we will get through this over time.

There are so many places and directions I want to take the company and the fashion industry in general. I want to develop the future of clothing. I want to incorporate technology and the perfect aesthetic into a new form of artwork that will revolutionize what we wear as a whole.

I am so excited and honored to have you with me on this journey.

Long Live Vaporwave!

If you ever need anything at all or have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at River@Vapor95.com.

With Love,

River

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT: ALEXA

We’re super excited to feature you in the Employee Spotlight this month! What's the first thing that came to mind when you found out you were next to be featured on Vapor95's Employee Spotlight?

Thank you. Excited to be featured! When I first heard I was going to be the next Employee Spotlight I was curious about what the questions would be. They tend to be pretty creative.

First, tell us a bit about yourself and what you do at Vapor95.com. What does your day to day look like?

I live in Brooklyn and work remotely, handling marketing and PR at Vapor95, specifically working on influencer strategy and relationship building, managing brand partnerships, creator design collaborations, planning live streams, and events, and reaching out to editors for press coverage. My day to day varies a lot depending on what projects I’m working on. I can say that I do a lot of emailing, researching, and planning every day, and have to be pretty organized to stay on top of everything that I’m working on at once.

How did you find yourself working for the company?

I was friends with River (the founder of Vapor95) before working for the company. He knew that I was working really long hours at my previous job and wasn’t super happy there. He asked me to come work for Vapor95 and it was the greatest work decision I’ve made.

What did you do before Vapor95?

Before Vapor95, I was a Digital Strategist working on influencer strategy for a creative agency. I worked with a variety of lifestyle, beauty, and tourism clients as an account lead for everything influencer related.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to be a treasure hunter or an actress. I went to performing arts schools and had dreams of becoming a movie star, which is funny to me now because as I’ve gotten older I really don’t like being in the spotlight. When I initially went to college, I went thinking I wanted to pursue a career in creative writing. I later switched gears and went into marketing.

What are your passions and interests outside of work? What's your creative outlet?

Before the city shut down due to COVID-19, I would spend a lot of my time going to shows, mostly to see local Brooklyn bands, but also made sure to see larger bands I love when they made it to NYC. I like to snowboard in the winter, when I am able, but unfortunately didn’t make it out this past year. I wish I could say I have a creative outlet currently. I think I’ve had ‘start writing again’ on my to-do list since I graduated college. I have started getting into genealogy over the past few months while we’ve been stuck at home and have discovered so much about my ancestors. It might be lame, but in general I love doing research and discovering personal histories.

How do you relax when work finishes? What's your ideal weekend?

Working remotely, I sometimes have a hard time establishing a good work-life balance, partly because I’m excited about what I’m working on and also because I haven’t set up a consistent hourly routine for myself, so I often work late into the night. To relax, I like to take a bath, journal, read, light candles, and listen to music like Mazzy Star, Beach House, or J. Mascis. Pretty standard stuff I guess. 

My ideal weekend is being outside in the sun, laying and hiking around in nature. I feel so deprived of it after being stuck in a little apartment for months. I think I need to get more plants for my room!

What is your favorite part about working for Vapor95? What are you working on now?

My favorite part about working at Vapor95 is feeling like I’m heard and respected, and that what I have to contribute is valued. I am able to be super creative and try out any ideas I have. There is an opportunity to get involved in all parts of the business that interest me, and I think that’s pretty invaluable.

Everyone at Vapor95 is super cool and easy-going. There is an immense opportunity for everyone working here to grow and learn new skills as the company grows. 

Right now I’m working on a few things: finalizing our marketing calendar for the remainder of the year, launching new influencer merchandise collections that I helped design and am really excited about, managing co-branded collection drops, launching a new women’s collection, reaching out to the magazines about Vapor95 news, and managing our influencer and creator partnerships.

What's a secret about you that your co-workers have never heard before?

This question is reminiscent of having to go around the classroom and introduce yourself with one interesting fact about yourself, but worse. Working remotely I haven’t really had the opportunity to get to know all of my co-workers on a super personal level so there is a lot they probably don’t know about me.

If you had to choose, what is your favorite design at Vapor95, why?

My favorite Vapor95 design is the Severus, a limited edition, embroidered hoodie. I love all of the details that went into the design. I’ve been trying to get River to bring it back forever. 

I’m also a big fan of the Vinne Art designs, especially CyberVision, Prototype, and Always Cute.

We ask this question to artists we interview here. Letʼs say you get full artistic freedom on a billboard on the busiest road in a huge city where millions will see your message. What would your message be? Any combo of words and images is fine.

If it’s possible, maybe a semi-translucent, holographic billboard that simultaneously casts rainbows and the shadow of the words printed on it onto the road below. The message:

Remember Magic

Or maybe just this quote by Ernest Hemingway:

Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the romance of the unusual.

If you weren't working at Vapor95, what would you be doing?

Most likely working for another lifestyle brand involved in the music or snowboard industry doing marketing, events, and influencer stuff.

Where do you see yourself in five years? Where do you see Vapor95 in five years?

In five years, I hope to still be with Vapor95. I think we’ll be doing really big things and I’m so excited to see the brand evolve and to be involved in that growth.

Which year of your life would you like to relive?

Is this a situation where you go back to change something knowing what you know now about life? I don’t know that I would want to relive one specific year in my life, but I do look back longingly at my childhood and wish I could relive portions of it. The simplicity of life, when the most important things to me were playing outside with friends, and logging into AIM as soon as I got home. Summers spent climbing trees, catching hermit crabs at the beach, and believing in magic. When days felt like they lasted as long as my weeks do now, and memories of my favorite times were easy to recall. When I would stay awake all night to devour books and write plays that I’d make my family act out. I would go back to those moments when things felt calm, simple, and happy. 

What message do you have for the vapor95 fans and customers reading this who admire the brand and want to create something or do something similar?

First and foremost, thank you! Thank you for being excited about the brand and a part of our community. The customers and fans of Vapor95 are the most amazing, kind, and creative people I’ve encountered. Working for a brand that you feel good about and connect with is so rewarding. 

As cliche as it sounds, just go for it. Put aside any fear of failure and know that there will always be people out there who relate to and connect with what you’re doing. It may take time, and a lot of hard work, but you will find your audience or community. 

VAPOR95 LIVE STREAM 2.0 REPLAY

In case anyone missed the star studded second Vapor95 Live Stream...

Sophomore Year Slideshow

Vapor95 and Darknet Recordings present Sophomore Year Slideshow! 🎞📺📼 An 11 track compilation encompassing the sensations of finding yourself and your place in the world. ✨Featuring some of the most talented producers on the planet and specifically curated for maximum emotional impact, this new compilation by Vapor95 and Darknet Recordings is a hallmark in the realm of nostalgic aesthetics. Come with us on our journey to Sophomore Year Slideshow. 📽

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Project Blue

a NEW title for the NES.

This interview is a result of a chance meeting at 100% ELECTRONICON, the world’s first Vaporwave music festival hosted by 100% ELECTRONICA last year in Brooklyn, NY. The festival was a blast. Vapor95 Inc. set up shop by the rooftop stage and spent the day listening to amazing music by some of our favorite artists and making new friends. 

One such friend was Donny Phillips who mentioned that he was in the process of finishing a brand new game to be released as a physical cartridge for the NES. The game, Project Blue, was conceived by Donny, and developed in collaboration with Ellen Larsson. Per Project Blue’s Kickstarter page, “Donny did all of the codings, wrote the music, worked on level design, and came up with the initial idea for the game.” And Ellen, “did all of the pixel art, worked on level design, and helped shape Project Blue from a vague idea into a more fully fleshed out world.” While the two have never met in person (Ellen lives in Sweden and Donny in the USA) they have managed to share the effort and make an exceptional game.

In Project Blue, you play as Blue, an orphan who fights to escape imprisonment and mistreatment at the hands of an evil mega-corporation in Neo Hong kong. While Mega Man and Super Mario Bros. are listed as important influences Project Blue is, in fact, not a side-scrolling platformer. Rather, the game moves through 256 fixed screens, each richly drawn in a distinctive dystopian/cyberpunk style by Ellen. Acting as the connective tissue between each screen is Donny’s music, which strafes seamlessly between retro and (perhaps) more contemporary musical gestures while using the expected 8bit range of the NES hardware.

A few months after 100% ELECTRONICON Donny and Ellen generously agreed to answer some questions about their work via email. I wanted to know what inspired Project Blue, what it was like to work on, and hear their thoughts on retro gaming today. 

The KS campaign page lists Mega Man and Super Mario Bros as influences with regards to the physics and gameplay of Project Blue. How do you see those influences showing up most clearly in the game you’ve made? Are there specific examples you point to?

DONNY:

Absolutely—the physics engine is inspired by Super Mario Bros., probably the most influential platformer of all time. The way that Mario moves is very intuitive, so much so that most people have never bothered to really analyze it—it just ‘feels right.’

For example, Mario has acceleration and deceleration, which means it takes a moment to reach full speed when running, and it takes a moment to come to a complete stop. When Mario is running faster, he can jump higher. Mario can also control the height and length of his jumps with careful use of the jump button—when the jump button is pressed, Mario is not affected by gravity as much as he usually is, which gives the jump a 'floaty' feel, allowing the player to carefully plan the landing position. When the jump button is released, normal gravity returns.

These are all examples of where we've taken strong inspiration from Super Mario Bros.—the physics engine of Project Blue has all of these characteristics as well. Many early games do not have these features, and the controls can often feel a bit clunky by comparison—examples include Castlevania, or even earlier Mario games such as Donkey Kong. 

As for Mega Man, the inspiration is more from a design perspective. Our hero, Blue, is in many ways a combination of Mario and Mega Man—you move like Mario, you shoot like Mega Man. You also collect health like Mega Man, so you can take more damage, unlike Mario who dies quite easily by comparison. So you get some of the best elements of both characters.

ELLEN:

What I think is fresh and new with Project Blue, on the other hand, is that the Super Mario Bros.-esq physics are applied to a very different set of features than you see in the classic library of NES games. In Project Blue, you go from fixed screen to fixed screen, rather than scroll—a bit like Solomon's Key, but more fluid, fast moving and not nearly as puzzle-like. The scale of open spaces, platforms and obstacles is, as a result, more zoomed out and more detailed, compared to both Super Mario Bros. and Mega Man games. There's definitely an element of problem solving in there too, and many rooms have several working "solutions" to each platforming problem. This allows for a game experience which I feel—and I hope others will feel, too—is different from both Super Mario Bros. and Mega Man.

About Castlevania, the more stiff controls have their beauty too. The focus, however, is a lot more on timing, rather than fluid jumps. There's a deliberate delay between pushing the attack button and seeing the whiplash out at full length. If you jump to a platform that’s lower than the one you started on, you will be forced to recover for a short while before taking further action, but the character is also kneeling which minimizes its vulnerability during this period. It's all very well thought out. Castlevania rewards tactics and timing, whereas Super Mario Bros. rewards agility and reflex. There is often talk about Castlevania being clunky, but it is exactly that which makes the game great feeling. I think the takeaway here is that each game needs [to operate within] its own logic to be at its best, and there's no single recipe for a good platforming experience. 

Would you mind describing a bit of your own professional backgrounds in video games, and how your own background has informed your work on Project Blue?

DONNY:

Although I've occasionally been an audio programmer, I've never worked in the video game industry. Actually my main inspiration for making a video game was to write music using the NES.

For me, Project Blue is an art project as much as it is a video game. The technical side of programming everything is honestly not something I enjoy a whole lot—it is an interesting exercise, but it can be frustrating to program in a language that's older than you are. The artistic component of envisioning a world, and characters, then trying to bring them to life within a given medium, is what appeals most to me.

ELLEN:

I just enjoy game design as a hobby (system and level design in particular) and have never worked in "the industry" in any capacity. The closest I’ve come, commercially speaking, is that I've designed user interfaces and mini games for museums, exhibitions and the like, which requires a skill set that overlaps with game production, or product development in general for that matter. 

What was it like to work together for so long without ever meeting in person? 

DONNY:

I think it's really been great—it definitely required patience on both of our parts, as we both have real lives to tend to and have to duck out for weeks or even months at a time. And it required a lot of trust as well, that the other person is going to follow through on their responsibilities. It's the sort of thing that's hard to trust even when you know somebody really well!

That said, I think it went about as well as it could have, we have similar attitudes on a wide array of subjects, and get along quite well. And I feel really lucky to have found somebody as talented as Ellen willing to work on my game!

ELLEN:

It's been great. One of the advantages of finding someone like Donny, who I share a lot of ideas with and whose skill set is complementary to mine has been that it’s been easier to work together than working with someone else locally. We might not have had the same frequency of sprints than if we’d shared an office or met every week, but it has been good! Donny's been great to work with.

[Project Blue] is also moving a lot faster than my own personal little NES projects, since a team requires accountability. When I'm doodling graphics or writing code on my own, there's no one expecting a finalization, since it's more-or-less a hobby. 

Why make a cartridge game for the NES today? What is it about the retro hardware that appeals to you?  

DONNY:

One thing about retro—it never goes out of style! I think what really appeals most to me about the NES is that a small dedicated team can make a game that competes with many commercial titles from the console's heyday.

Something about modern video games leaves me flat. Ten minutes into the mandatory tutorial explaining how to use the 32 buttons on the controller, I start to tune out. The flashing icons on the screen telling you what to do all the time makes it feel like a choreographed Guitar Hero segment, grinding for cut scenes. I just long for the days of being able to pick up a controller and figuring out how the game works organically instead of being told what to do.

With that in mind, I did my best to design the first section of Project Blue to teach you all about how the game works without ever telling you how the game works. In this, I was particularly inspired by a talk by Shigeru Miyamoto about the level design of World 1-1 in Super Mario Bros.—the level is designed so that a new player will organically figure out how to play without ever being told what to do. The beginning of Project Blue was made to do the same.

ELLEN:

You get to interface with the hardware directly. Everything, from programming to even graphics and sound design, is intimately related to various hardware registers, what they can do, and what they can't. 

The processor, and various external circuitry, provides a frame. It's then up to you to negotiate that framework. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you might even exceed expectations. There's a thrill in seeking that out. And all the while it helps you keep the project focused. 

Then there's also the cultural and social aspect. We get to change what something as (still) culturally important to the gaming scene as the NES means. The NES was my first console and it shaped part of my childhood. Decades later I get to shape its meaning in turn. Lastly, there's something thrilling about making content for a platform that never was intended to be open to any except a few, select developers. In fact, [Nintendo] took serious measures to make it difficult to make something for the NES.

There are also a lot of holes in the NES library to cover. Both in terms of game titles and designs. But there is now an exciting field where you can let modern design sensibilities and historical hindsight meet within the exact same limitations developers like Capcom and Konami faced back in the 80s and 90s. They might have had the market window, but we have access to more examples, design references, and experiences. Even the system documentation is better today. 

On your KS page it mentions that after the initial idea for the game had been hatched by Donny you both worked together to flesh out the concept and story. How did you tackle that work together? And, did the game undergo any radical changes with regards to story and concept in its journey from initial idea to the final form? 

DONNY:

The initial pitch I sent to Ellen changed substantially over time. Originally, the game had a much brighter aesthetic and story—about a young boy in Pixel City who saved the city from a mostly undefined evil named Omnicorp. It was a paper thin concept, and pretty much the only thing it had in common with the final product is the names of the protagonist and antagonist.

In its final form, Project Blue is a fairly dark story about an orphan in war-ravaged Neo Hong Kong, who is kidnapped by an immoral group of scientists working for an unethical corporation, and subjected to horrific experiments as part of a military research project. He breaks free, and exacts revenge. This is a fairly gritty cyberpunk setting, with the standard anti-capitalist themes, and the lore hits many other popular cyberpunk tropes as well, while the initial concept was much glossier and had a more cartoon-ish quality to the story and themes (borrowing heavily from Mega Man in particular, but also bearing resemblance to the homebrew classic Battle Kid).

It was Ellen who originally suggested a more realistic tone to the game, which placed it in the real world and made it darker almost by default (as the real world doesn't have fanciful places called 'Pixel City'). From here, the story changed in order to fit the visuals we wanted to create and the enemies and objects we wanted Blue to interact with. For example, we wanted to show the contrast between the squalid ruins where the poor lived (the Dezone, level 2) and the sparkling downtown of Neo Hong Kong (level 4), walled off from the outside world. So those both became levels. And we needed a way for Blue to get from level 2 to level 4, so we created an underground passageway for him through the tunnels beneath the city.

ELLEN:

If I never told anyone probably no one would notice, but the first area I drew graphics for was under the influence of reading The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, and maybe in particular the description of the "red coast base," which is a secret computer/radar lab in rural china at the center of the story. When this area was designed, we had our sights on participating in the NESDev competition. I think Donny had originally proposed that Blue would infiltrate this base and stop some madman down in a control center. Gradually during the graphics and level design process, it became more of a story about escaping, instead. It just sort of happened. Part of it is also that we couldn't really afford any outdoor scenes within the limitations of the competition rules since I had spent most of my graphics memory on interior details already. An initial idea about forest hillsides was scrapped and eventually forgotten. After the competition, it became clear to us that we wanted to keep working on it, and so the other bits fell in place by necessity. The starting location moved from mainland China to a factory complex just outside a place we call Neo Hong Kong. 

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

Nick Kempton

1. Nick Kempton aka Nickjaykdesign, one of the most aesthetic visual artists in the world. We're super excited to have you featured on our blog DARKNET and be able to share your incredible work! Can we go back to when you first decided you wanted to make art? Tell us your story! 

So basically, I have been around computers since I was very young, maybe 6 or 7, and I have always played around with graphic tools like Paint.NET, GIMP & Photoshop. I can remember making wallpapers when I was about 12 that I would post on DeviantArt. I have a lot of passion for graphic design and just being creative in general. I started the 'Nickjaykdesign' project back in 2017 to try to learn more tools and get back to creating.

2. The world in your art is very aesthetic and dreamy through sets, environments, and color schemes. Tell us about what goes into the process of creating your art? Tell us where the inspiration for your characters, textures and the world come from?

I am heavily inspired by movies, music, and the world around me. Often times, I will start a project just by looking around for inspiration on Pinterest while listening to some music. A lot of my art is also inspired by photographs of neon cityscapes. They are just something so beautiful that I cannot get over them no matter how much or how often I look at them.

3. How long did it take you to achieve your very distinct style? And what kind of softwares do you use to achieve the final version of your work?

I would say it took about a year and a half to achieve the capabilities to be able to create my own distinct style, but I feel it also took a lifetime of being inspired to achieve it. I use Cinema4D, Octane Render, Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects most often to create my work.

4. Do you listen to music while you create? If so, what kind and how do you see it affecting your final product?

I absolutely listen to music while I create. Music is a part of who I am. I think I pretty much always have music playing around me at some capacity. I listen to a lot of different kinds of music but most often it is probably EDM. Music is a beautiful thing because it can make you feel anything. It can make you feel happy or sad at any moment. I think that's why it's special to me. It affects my work as often times emotion can be seen shining through the art and those feelings are generated depending on what I'm listening to.

5. Your work and name spread fast in the music scene through the artworks you made for certain artists. Is there any upcoming collab you would like to tell us about? and also, how often do you collaborate with a visual artist?

I have so many projects that I will be showing soon but none that I can currently say :( I don't typically collaborate with other visual artists. Maybe I should do that more often :P

6. How do you see yourself at the highest point of your career? What would be your ultimate dream to accomplish with your work and when do you see that happening?

Honestly, I think working with some of my favorite music artists is all I want. I love seeing my work shared with a big platform and seeing reactions and emotions from viewers. Also, a big motivation for me is inspiring others to create. When someone tells me that my work inspired them, it's really a big deal to me.

7. Do you work on other projects besides Nickjaykdesign?

I don’t really work on other projects, I try to focus my time on my Nickjaykdesign project to really perfect my craft

9) Finally, we would love to ask - What would you say to up and coming artists who want to pursue their passion?

Be inspired. Look at everything you can. Read books, watch movies, look at photographs. Go out and explore. Let the things you see be your motivation. Always listen to your heart and don't let anyone tell you what you can or cannot do...

✨Follow Nickjaykdesign's Instagram ✨

or

✨Visit nickjaykdesign.com for more! ✨

The Abandoned Genre of

"Ocean Grunge"

Thalassophobia: a persistent and intense fear of deep bodies of water. While many quickly resort to feelings of fear when envisioning the dark void of the deep sea, there once existed a small selection of artists who, around 2014, tried to bottle that eerie, boundless energy of the ocean into a musical form. Today, we are going to explore that genre, a now-abandoned genre once known as “Ocean Grunge”, what it was and some of the notable releases from this aquatically angsty genre found within the depths of the internet. I invite you to take my hand and make sure you bring some solid scuba equipment as we embark through dark granite colored water and never-ending cloudy skies above us, all while reflecting a hopeless attitude on contemporary western society because you know, all internet genres are deep. No pun intended.

Welcome my friends to the abandoned genre known as “Ocean Grunge”

Ocean Grunge is an interesting topic to make a video on because, well, there really isn’t that much to talk about nor a dense history to go off of. On the surface, Ocean Grunge pretty much practiced a lot of the same tendencies other quirky electronic genres emerging from the internet around that time did as well, but did it with such a specific narrative in mind that it created this interesting little bubble of a vibe, which also caused its inevitable downfall due to its narrow flexibility. To save you time and to get us to actual examples of Ocean Grunge, I highly recommend checking out FrankJavCee’s famous video on how to make Ocean Grunge whenever you get the chance. While his videos were mostly parody-based, frank is a smart fella and is really good at wording things in a comedic, yet informative way. He does a great job explaining the construction of the sound for what it is, but to knock out what Ocean Grunge literally was for this article and to get us to the good stuff, it was an electronic music genre heavily influenced by early Vaporwave, drone, and grunge with an aesthetic of dark, cloudy, endless waters. You will also find a lot of sources saying its influenced by Nu metal, but I really do not see that at all

There were not really too many ocean grunge releases, the genre pretty much came and went because the narrative was so specific. How many songs could have possibly be made about the same thing? How many times can we take pictures of a gloomy ocean and say to ourselves “what would this sound like in musical form?” To be honest, I have never really listened to this little nook of a genre before exploring it for this topic, so I searched up the “Ocean Grunge Essentials” list and picked 5 of these that I thought the album cover was cool on and give them a chance. One of these albums I actually enjoyed very much, was pretty surprised actually so make sure you stick around for all of these picks I'm about to present to you today. Get cozy my friend because you and I are going to be exploring what Ocean Grunge has for us beneath the surface.

5) gorgeous☵gorgias - oceanographer #15

At #5 to start off the list, we are going to take a look at “oceanographer #15” by gorgeous☵gorgias. This was the first album art that popped to me from the list so I said let’s give it a shot.

Taking a look at the album art, it seems some helicopter expedition group just made a discovery that pretty much makes no sense, because it seems like they're in the middle of the ocean and there is no way that that thing floats so either this statue extends hundreds and hundreds of feet below what we’re seeing or the density of this water is so thick that this statue is just plopped at the top. I mean, now to think of it, it also kinda looks like snow so maybe this is Snow Grunge :^)

“oceanographer #15”, after listening to it, is pretty simple and vacant of any intensity. The Bandcamp description has it as “The story of a woman who ran away from Life to find Death in a submarine.” … very chilling 

The album contains 6 tracks with some classic Ocean Grunge treatment, slowing down them samples with a multitude of textures to make this thing sound crunchy, yet underwater. It seems the album’s main weapon to ”woo” you is its constant panning, but I just think that method gets kinda annoying and overdone throughout the entirety of the album. Certain sections of songs will be situated completely on one side of your headphones, or it'll just be constantly waving back and forth between your ears… I mean hey, waving, waves, like the ocean,...right?

Nonetheless, some pretty chill background music and definitely sounds like you have signed your life away to live in a submarine, constantly descending deeper and deeper with each track.

4) Pacific Despair - ~~~Devour~~~

Oooh, this one looks a little spooky baby I don't think I wanna be treading at #4 here with “~~~Devour~~~” by Pacific Despair. A dark, brooding album cover of what seems to be a world with an ocean below us and an ocean above, or maybe this is the perspective of swimming deep within the depths of an underwater trench, getting closer and more claustrophobic with every push towards the bottom of the sea. “~~~Devour~~~” comes at us with 6 tracks, a very similar format and track length list almost completely identical to “oceanographer #15”. If you check out a couple of this Ocean Grunge releases you can easily see why this genre kinda went under. A lot of it just seemed to be the same thing release to release, just some gloomy Mallsoft if anything, so I think it's just more of the name of the genre that dispersed or labeling this sound as “Ocean Grunge” than the actual sound itself disappearing. Ocean Grunge is just another case of the always-sprouting niche genres the internet belches up for us that find its eventual doom due to the limitations conjured up by its own narrative.

Nothing too dynamic or ear-catching on “~~~Devour~~~” as well, just some more faint background noise to accompany you if you’re studying, cleaning the house, or whatever you like to do. The is pumped with reverb, echoing samples, droned out and constantly retexturized metallic sound effects… you know the deal. I mean, it definitely does sound a bit distant, like you’re under the sea while there is a ton of activity going on above the surface but being so deep underneath, the sound just can't quite get past the ocean water into your ears. “~~~Devour~~~” a good example of what ocean grunge wants to be, another product off the ocean grunge conveyor belt and we can leave it at that. Every track pretty much sounds the same, all leading up to the final track “no signal” which just sounds like one 10 second sound stretched out by like 2000%, it does the notion of an “aquatic void” justice I guess.

3) POSEIDON IN CHAINS - Beneath the burning hands of God

Next up, I decided to choose an Ocean Grunge album from the Ocean Grunge Essentials list that did not actually have an ocean in the picture… crazy right?

Let us take a look at “Beneath the burning hands of God” by POSEIDON IN CHAINS, 5 tracks all with a decent amount of length to them ranging between 6 and 8 minutes long each. The album describes itself on Bandcamp as “From the last remnants of the planet, around the year 2500”, and it definitely does give you an abandoned, apocalyptic feeling. The constant sound of ocean waves crashing upon the shore are remnants of a once flourishing coastal town, flocks of seagulls searching for a bite to eat, bellowing vocal samples poking out between the more quaint parts of the track where a lot of the sounds seem to mellow out... You’ll hear some stretched wind chimes, or what seems to be some glass or metallic noise-making objects. Very vast, enormous feeling, and an album that really scopes how big and empty the world would be if nothing existed but oceans and remnants of what used to be a society. Beneath the burning hands of God is very spa-like, yet definitely ominous; it is like the Tripods from War of the Worlds about to come out the damn ocean and vaporize you at any possible second.

I think this album is definitely better than the first two we took a look at, there actually is some effort in regards to creating a layered, structured song. POSEIDON IN CHAINS does a solid job with synths, sounds, and sights to really give each little instrument or hum it’s respected space, definitely sticks out as one of the more prominent, talented artists from such a specific corner of music. “Beneath the burning hands of God” paints a picture of this hopeless wasteland we find ourselves in quite well, a cinematic experience for something that can only be heard through 5 tracks. Good job with this one.

2) metsu - as the earth drinks

Next up we got “as the earth drinks” by metsu, another 5 track release coming out all the way back in June of 2011. Recorded in December of 2010, “as the earth drinks” is an ambient and textural five-song album with bit crushed and compressed drums, fingered guitar strumming and some moments of breakdowns believe it or not (track 2 titled “imber” goes hard at the end, out of nowhere). This album is definitely not Vaporwave, some of these Ocean Grunge albums really flow towards the “grunge” side, and this album is definitely one of them. As I was mentioning earlier, I think a lot of Ocean Grunge is basically just some gloomy mallsoft with a narrative based on the ocean, I guess the other half is just ambient sounding grunge.

“as the earth drinks” is a cool listen, very raw and seems super unpolished which, we all know, can sound really great if it is done right. The album really feels like it was recorded in one go by some friends in a garage on a rainy afternoon, tracks like “rust/gasping for air” sound like a chillaxed jam session with your best buds and a 12-pack. Some tracks just sound like your standard “grunge” song, I do not really see the relationship to the ocean in track #4 titled “to keep from drowning (your feet must touch the ground)”, but hey, not everything needs to be a e s t h e t i c.
This album has a physical release, which is also surprisingly still available for being out since 2011. The CD comes in a shrink-wrapped, high-quality printed board case with a really nice 5-panel pop-out accordion artbook. I really adore the packaging here, Ocean Grunge definitely has some strong and mesmerizing colors in its palette and the CD packaging here takes advantage of that quite well. Only 100 of these exist, and hey, why not support these fellas and grab something that somehow still exists for sale that is almost 10 years old. Pretty cool indeed.

1. --§E▲ ▓F D▓G§ - THROUGH THE FOG AND THE DRIFTWOOD
   

Alrighty, last but definitely not least, I want to share with you an album that I actually find to be quite amazing and I am really happy to have discovered it by checking out this Ocean Grunge Essentials list. For the final pick of this countdown, we are going with one of the OG players of the Ocean Grunge sound --§E▲ ▓F D▓G§ and their release of “THROUGH THE FOG AND THE DRIFTWOOD”.

Coming in at 10 tracks, August of 2014’s “THROUGH THE FOG AND THE DRIFTWOOD” by --§E▲ ▓F D▓G§ is everything an Ocean Grunge album should, and can, be. The album is way more dynamic in sound range compared to everything else I pretty much took a listen to here, you got a ton of instruments and sampling techniques going at it with one another and a whole bunch of energy to really replicate an ocean of waves at war with one another, constantly crashing and colliding in a world where no land exists at all. The opening track “Slain” does a fascinating job at welcoming you to this world, a wrecking ball of an atmosphere as the song hits you with every component the Ocean Grunge toolbox can possibly throw at you.

What really does it for me with this album in its a range, every track has a personality of its own. While track #1 “Slain” is an orchestra of Ocean Grunge attributes, track #3 “It’s Over” is sampled and produced to sound almost sound like a George Clanton track if it were to be dropped down in pitch. Track #6 “Blu like the Ocean” has some classic eccojams vibes to it while the final track “Once Again, Left With Tears” sounds like what a Death Grips instrumental would be in the Ocean Grunge genre.

I also love the album artwork on here, those light grays to dark granite colors are so pretty to me and the artwork here helps you visualize an endless, hopeless sea quite well. I was picturing that ocean world from “Interstellar” while listening to this thing, all of it is very grand, overwhelming, and aggressive. The album has also dropped on cassette twice, unsurprisingly both sold out, the limited edition cassette and limited edition black tape anniversary cassette both looking really nice and for any of you who were able to pick this up over at Bedlam Tapes, be proud as this is a very solid piece to own. Hey, maybe this will gain some new attention for the album from people who have never heard it and we can somehow get a physical release of this again one day. Imagine this on a super dark forest green / light black swirl vinyl pressing? Absolutely gorgeous.

Ocean Grunge, for what it was, provided a unique aesthetic for an ambient, grungy sound. It’s downfall and short-run history is unsurprising though because, as I said, the narrative is so specific it creates a ceiling for how high the artists can go in regards go creativity, inspiration, and community. And, if they did want to experiment beyond what Ocean Grunge could be, it just places their sound in another genre. But, as always, who cares because at the end of the day, placing a genre on a sound is just a way to put faith into labeling something. I find some of these releases to be pretty good, definitely the last one we talked about, while others just seem like regurgitated background noise we hear time and time again from the internet. I don’t see the genre ever making a true comeback, but it is definitely fun to return to the idea of it nonetheless… setting sail in cold, cloudy waters where you are one wave away from being swept into the dark black void of the ocean. 

Safe travels my friend.

Much love, ur boi,

Pad Chennington.

"Also known as "Youtube's Vaporwave Valedictorian", Pad Chennington is a content creator who has created a substantial following on YouTube for his videos discussing all things Vaporwave. Starting in the Fall of 2017, Pad's videos range from reviews to breakdowns, interviews to unboxings, and much more, always revolving around odd and interesting music genres found throughout the internet. Pad has also recently released an album in February titled "CONTRAST" that is available as a free download via the My Pet Flamingo label."

The Story of Vaporwave's Most Iconic Label: DMT Tapes FL

by Pad Chennington

What’s cookin’, what’s poppin’, it is your boi Pad Chennington and today, I want to tell you the fascinating story of one of Vaporwave’s most beloved, important and iconic labels: DMT Tapes FL. We are going to be looking at the history of this label, it’s inspirations for creating it, as well as 5 releases from the label’s incredible arsenal of albums that will be the perfect starting pack for your dive into everything they have to offer. I was able to hear the story first hand from the creator himself, Vito James, and I am absolutely honored to share the incredible story of how it all came to be. Folks, get cozy, because we’re talking some Vaporwave history.

After spending much of the year as a recreational listener and lover of Vaporwave, Vito created DMT Tapes FL in the middle of November 2014. Vito’s first encounter with Vaporwave was James Ferraro’s sample-free work in mid-2012, the first traditional vaporwave he heard came in a back-to-back (YouTube autoplay suggested) viewing of popular video clips for “Cherry Pepsi” by Saint Pepsi, followed by “daphne” by Luxury Elite. Something hit his interest immediately, and he told me he remembers having this feeling of, “what is it about this that sounds so…special?” His ear was picking up on the sample usage, yet his brain wasn’t connecting the dots yet on how this stood out to him so much.

*Far Side Virtual by James Ferraro

Vito eventually figured out how vaporwave was made in the springtime of 2014 when picking up two major influential recordings: Riviera by Kodak Cameo, and Rose Quartz by Luxury Elite. The concept of turning old songs into new songs was always a subject of interest when exploring genre movements such as plunderphonics, mashup, and others. Vaporwave however? It felt like the complete next level for him in regards to potential.

“My obsession began roughly here, as the middle of 2014 was budding and I started discovering the amazing label scene in the form of four biggies: Fortune 500, Business Casual, Dream Catalogue, and Ailanthus Recordings. Almost all of my listening from April 2014 to starting the label in November 2014 was spent browsing these amazing collections. I was captivated just as much by how the labels presented the artists/albums as I loved the music involved.” - Vito

As he was finishing listening to the complete collections of aforementioned labels, while also delving into the wealth of ‘no label’ releases on various artist Bandcamp pages, he was starting to wish that there were more… a lot more (not that there weren’t already hundreds of albums out there in vaporwave scene already!). Vito notes that what scene had at the time was great but he always wanted more. Vito would often compare vaporwave to his love for chillwave, which was strongest to him in 2010-2013. That genre had mostly died out by the middle of the decade, and Vito had a sadness in realizing that vaporwave might be able to follow suit.

After seeing his first “Vaporwave is dead” declaration on the subreddit, the sadness drove him to one simple action: the making of a Bandcamp account. He had no idea what he had in store except he knew he wanted to use it to increase the amount of vaporwave that was on the website. If this really was a dying genre, on its way out the door, he thought to himself “I really better do this promptly.”

Right off the bat, Vito decided to adopt a rapid pace of new album releases from the very first months of the label's existence: He recalls being in that mindset of, “Live today like it’s your last,” but instead of it being him that was out-the-door, it was vaporwave. Or so he had feared.

Luckily, Vito slowly realized just how often people were willing to declare the genre as ‘dead’. Still, he was not taking any chances by slowing things down. He devised an idea from the late months of 2014 that, until he met artists who were interested and willing to release on this new label, he would produce the music himself. Vito had a background of making ambient music for 5+ years by this point, and while he states he was not super confident in what he was making, the experimental part of him did not mind. He was excited at the possibility to do audio presentations in a unique way.

*Where You're Going by Calusa Eisenhower

“The first tags I put on DMT-FL were “educational ambient” and “Florida Ambient”, not intending to make a new genre, but because I was specifically using field recordings and media clips that were A) about the state of Florida (in theme to the FL theme I’d gone with), and B) general educational material. I always liked the idea of blurring the lines between information and entertainment, and so many of the early DMT-FL albums are made in this way: plundered ambient made from traditional Vaporwave sample sources, while including spoken word bits under distortion. I decided to create many artist names and use them for different themes; for example, to cite my first three artist aliases of DMT Tapes FL: Calusa Eisenhower always focused on the teachings of Alan Watts; Orlando Turnpike always featured dystopia and feelings of an uncertain future; Ed Asner, Secretary of Defense was a faux-documentary series (derived from a real documentary about Florida) in an alternate timeline where Florida is a country instead of a state.” - Vito

*Florida, #3 by Orlando Turnpike 

For the first half-year of the label (11/2014 - 05/2015), Vito was the person making the majority of the music. By the time he had reached 100 releases on the label, he had made close to 80 of them, and if we compare that to today in 2019, Vito’s music makes up about only 25% of the entire label instead of 80%! As he continued to make albums on DMT-FL, Vito would post them onto /r/vaporwave and then browse the place for other independent artists. He would send private messages to those he adored or appreciated most, or if he discovered somebody who looked like they had a unique sound but no representation, he would contact them too. All of the artists who made it into the first one-hundred came from Reddit. Inquiries included: Dan Mason, La Trace, waterfront dining, Nanoshrine, Cobalt Road, Shima33, American Online, and many others that comprise the 2015-16 label digital discography.

John Zobele (from Business Casual) created and publicly gifted DMT-FL our famous rainbow FL logo (based on my own artist's conception made in MS Paint), in May 2015. It remains our logo for 4+ years and I have no plans to ever swap it out” - Vito

As time went by, attention started coming towards the way of DMT-Tapes FL. (Thanks to an idea Vito had one day to make music videos for choice label songs that he was listening to most.)

”I found various YouTube channels that were dedicated to ripping old VHS tapes wholesale for their advertisements and commercials, and I made quick-edit promotional clips of my own featuring the music of DMT Tapes FL. Plugging the URL of an album while mentioning in the description that our music is free / Name Your Own Price, this ended up being the best form of exposure that I could have selected. To this day, I maintain two channels for the label (DMT TV and LSTHETIC; the former contains only on-label music while the latter allows me to make videos for other artists/albums I am a fan of, but may not represent).” - Vito

*Vision by Plastique

A large portion of DMT-FL’s success comes from offering their artists maximum freedom when it comes to bringing their digital music to other platforms, including other labels, their own personal Bandcamps, streaming services via distributors, and syndication onto physical formats.

“Many labels tend to require an artist to only have their album available through their label page; usually, I find other label owners become upset if they find out an album they released was featured on another label, and/or is available on a personal artist profile of the person they’ve just worked with. I do not adhere to these policies for DMT Tapes FL, as I believe this label is a conduit for helping connect interested listeners to exciting new releases. Limiting an artist’s ability to rehost, re-release, or procure physical copies of an album has never been my interest!” - Vito

*Land of Sunshine ☁ State of Dreams ☀ by Ed Asner, Secretary of Defense

Vito adopted a model of breaking each year of the label into seasons, largely in part due to the decision of major artist waterfront dining, who has been the single greatest inspiration to Vito both as an artist and as a friend. waterfront dining approached Vito in the summer of 2015, when Vito was, at the time, considering closing the label after around 150+ releases due to excessive hostility and toxicity he was encountering from other rival figures in the Vaporwave scene. waterfront dining convinced Vito that he should keep up what he has been doing and that they should start a new chapter together. To this day, the only other person to run DMT Tapes FL with Vito was waterfront dining himself, in the form of what they called “DMT-FL, season 2: DMT[REC]”. This concept of naming and modeling seasons for listener historical perspective was kept and upheld (often with a logo update or add-on to keep the design fresh). It was during this period that, thanks to the amazing friendship and encouragement of waterfront dining, Vito started to emerge from his shell more and more.

He helped coordinate major events for the label at this time; Vito and waterfront dining appeared together on a Minnesota radio show via Skype call to promote the label, leading him to understand that there may be a huge opportunity in spoken word appearance.

DMT-FL and waterfront dining remained immensely close in the years that followed the 2015-2016 run of waterfront dining acting as co-owner and co-administrator of DMT Tapes FL. While the duties have returned to Vito himself for the remainder of 2016 and into 2019, Vito states that the history between waterfront dining and himself will always be of the most highly-regarded and respected. The label even almost ended after 8 short months without the influence of waterfront dining.

“My model has remained largely unbroken for nearly five years now: all DMT-FL albums are available on our page without exception. The only requirement I have is that artists allow us to continue hosting these albums digitally and free, for the sake of retaining listener

excitement and exploratory prowess from future generations who find the label. The worst thing I could imagine is having the label become an incomplete unit, as this could harm the enthusiasm of those who enjoy our material.” - Vito

*Ursa Minor by Your Dark Nate

DMT Tapes FL is most enjoyed when people know the entire collection is available to them at all times, and without a rationing hierarchy that other traditional labels like to employ when including a paywall. As vaporwave is made almost entirely from unauthorized royalty-free sample-usage, Vito believes it would be unethical to start charging admission when the majority of content is created for absolutely free as-is.

Vito tries to do a major event each year for the label, usually in the form of a massive album dump that greatly increases the amount of new music for listeners, but in a short-term and exciting digital festival. The mainstay he has done twice now is “Vaporwave is Alive”, first in January 2016 and the second in July 2018. The goal in both cases was to have a new album every day all month long (which was met successfully both times). Vito also did a version of this event where Vito himself was the sole artist, called DreamVerb (which ended up being the caption name of DMT-FL: Season 5 [2018-19]).

*You and No One Else by Late Night Simulator

These events have become one of Vito’s favorite aspects of running an outfit like DMT Tapes FL with such digital freedom abiding. The music of the first “Vaporwave is Alive” actually received attention from #1 subscriber-count holder on YouTube, PewDiePie, who plugged various DMT-FL artists in several consecutive videos throughout November 2016. Vito states the label still receives a healthy amount of new listeners from this plug, albeit three years after it happened.

“The best tool I have to help the artists who release for us is to use my ability to write in any way I can. I do album reviews for artists whenever I can, although my dream of having a review for every DMT-FL album has not yet been achieved. It is one of my goals for the 2020s.” - Vito

*Instructions for Household Retention by Aerobic

Vito has made many promotional tools for vaporwave as a whole that do not just help the works of DMT-FL released albums, such as “1001 Vaporwave Albums You Must Hear Before It Dies” (a review project of Vito’s favorite albums, which is, as of right now, halfway complete). Vito also created mixtape presentations in the form of a series called simply “100 Hours of Vaporwave”. Combined, these various writing projects and audiovisual plugs come together to form his daily life of trying to get as many people as possible onto the DMT Tapes FL wavelength. Vito always wants people to know that this collection is for everybody, constantly growing, and meant to be a staple of the scene and genre he loves so dearly.

“I can only hope that every recording we’ve ever featured is cherished by someone, archived for the future, and is never ever forgotten.” - Vito

Now that you know the story, you understand why they have a whooooole dang lot of releases! Luckily for you, Vito and I want to help you out—here are five historic DMT-FL albums to help you dive in.

1. Dan Mason ダン·メイソン - Miami Virtual (02/02/2015)

The first album to ever really get big on the label, to this day it is DMT Tapes FL’s biggest puller and it gets dozens of downloads per month.

2. waterfront dining - Pages EP (01/01/2016) 

This is Vito’s personal favorite set of songs from the many that waterfront dining contributed to the label; to him, it felt like the harbinger to the amazing year of Vaporwave that 2016 was. The last song on here ended up being plugged in a Pewdiepie video, which gave DMT Tapes FL huge exposure in late 2016/early 2017.

3. Nanoshrine - SEGAS

The entire SEGAS trilogy is on DMT, but the first one is Vito’s choice if he had to choose one!

4. haircuts for men - 地下カラオケ ep (11/16/2015)

This is one of Vito’s most played albums personally on-label. The mood here is exquisite and every HFM release has this special tone to it, this one is absolutely no exception.

5. 猫 シ Corp. - ショップ @ ヘルシンキ (03/01/2016)

Ah, Mallsoft made by authentic mall recordings as made by the artist. Cat Corp walked around a mall while on vacation and recorded the raw field recordings himself, then made a

vaporwave album using the genuine crowd audio. Highly evocative and one of the most fun albums to give the lore of mallsoft for new listeners!

Simply put, DMT Tapes FL is an incredible label and represents the wonderful potential of the Vaporwave scene, a scene fueled by community and a constant passion to keep on growing and archiving. Vito has created a hub world for many fans and artists alike, and I know DMT Tapes FL will continue on as an iconic, legendary label for years and years to come.

Much love, ur boi, Pad Chennington.

"Also known as "Youtube's Vaporwave Valedictorian", Pad Chennington is a content creator who has created a substantial following on YouTube for his videos discussing all things Vaporwave. Starting in the Fall of 2017, Pad's videos range from reviews to breakdowns, interviews to unboxings, and much more, always revolving around odd and interesting music genres found throughout the internet. Pad has also recently released an album in February titled "CONTRAST" that is available as a free download via the My Pet Flamingo label."

Top 10 Vaporwave Albums

Vaporwave music is a unique form of art known as appropriation art. This style of music often contains jazz and Muzak samples that have been shifted and/or stretched. The style came to life in reaction to economic and social powers that are still a part of our lives: globalization, nostalgia, and depression. There isn’t any other kind of music which concerns itself with these aspects of modern life and that’s what makes it so unique. Let’s take a look at the top 10 albums that cemented vaporwave music’s place amongst the other great genres.  

10) Vanishing Vision - Internet Club (2012)

In an interview, Will Burnett a.k.a Internet Club said he was going for “something very Debordian, about how this capitalistic society has generated dehumanizing hyperreality by focusing on infinite generation of ideals as shown through commodities.”

By taking stock music and overlaying glitchy effects, Internet Club has created a calming overall effect and takes the listener on a foray into hyperreality.

Listen 

9) Mute Channel - 平白氣形 (2014)

The album was released in 2014 by the label Childodisc. The tracks are an absolutely intoxicating collection of sounds and you could say that each track is more of a sketch than a song. The essential components in the album are obscure slow-motion sampling and decaying sound quality. This album comes recommended for anyone who isn’t afraid to remove beats from the equation.

8) Eyeliner – LARP of Luxury (2012)

This album is by the so-called Distaderio a.k.a Eyeliner, New Zealand artist Luke Rowell. The release is a key example of skillfully new-composed vaporwave, which sounds like '90s synth pop. The tracks take a neo-futuristic turn on vaporwave. Eyeliner did a fantastic job of incorporating catchy melodies in unusual ways.

Listen

7) Televape – 超越愛 (translated: Beyond Love (2015))

The album is a collaboration between Vaperror and t e l e p a t h, one of the members of UK duo, 2814. What is most interesting about this album is that it was sold in a red or blue cassette version for a limited amount of time. The tracks are most definitely easing into the softer side of the Vaporwave scene and both of the artists bring their own specific beauty to the songs. You can sense the trap side from Vaperror and the catchy side from Telepath. It’s one unique interpretation of ambient funk, jazz, and synth.

6) Vaperror – Mana Pool (2014)

Back again for a second time on our list is Vaperror a.k.a Jeff Cardinal. “Mana Pool” was released back in 2014 by British Dream Catalogue, one of the biggest vaporwave labels. This particular album was so popular that it was re-released by BDC in 2016, this time on vinyl.

The sounds on “Mana Pool” reflect a vaporwave/trap meltdown and creates an atmosphere that is dreamy yet danceable.

Listen 

5)  2814 - 新しい日の誕生 (translated: Birth of a New Day) (2015)

The actual title of this album is 新しい日の誕生 (read as Atarashii Hi No Tanjou in Japanese). Released in 2015 by Britain’s Dream Catalogue, the iconic UK duo created an immersive experience for the listener. You can hear wind and rain sounds throughout the tracks and other various echoes of nature. This album is one of the most accessible vaporwave albums and straddles the realms of vaporwave and classical. Immersive, soulful, and atmospheric, 2814’s 2015 release is a perfect way to start your new day.

4) Death’s Dynamic Shroud.wmv - I’ll Try Living Like This (2015)

One of the most game-changing vaporwave albums was released by the trio DDS.wmv which includes Giant Claw, Peach, and Plum.  This is the most overlooked album from 2015 as it's genuinely intriguing to listen to the samples of old video games and k-pop intermingled with sounds that mirror the top tracks of the '90s. This trio isn’t afraid to pay subtle homage to ambient techno while still maintaining a digitally slick sound.

3) Saint Pepsi – Hit Vibes (2013)

The bronze goes to American musician and singer, Ryan DeRobertis a.k.a Skylar Spence or Saint Pepsi for his future-funk album, “Hit Vibes.” It’s one of the essential vaporwave albums every enthusiast must listen to and it’s also unapologetically fun and creative. The album itself possesses a very compelling plunderphonic sound, reaching into the archives of '70s and '80s R&B, funk, and disco music. Overall, it’s an exciting addition to the vaporwave canon.

2) Blank Banshee – Blank Banshee 0 (2012)

Next up is the Canadian artist and musician, Blank Banshee, and his pioneering album of the vaporwave genre, “Blank Banshee 0.” The album is considered vaportrap, as it introduced trap style beats and elements to the vaporwave genre and consists largely of '80s and '90s sourced samples layered over original beats, instrumentals, and vocals. A limited amount of physical CDs were released in 2014 and the eye-catching aesthetic cover is designed by the Blank Banshee himself. His use of the head of video game character, Lara Croft, can often be seen as a meme on Facebook, Reddit, and 4chan. An additional honorable mention goes out to this artist for his subsequent 2013 album, “Blank Banshee 1.”

1) Vektroid – Floral Shoppe (2011)

Well, it wouldn’t be vaporwave without the one and only Floral Shoppe--the album that defines the genre and placed vaporwave on the map. Vektroid or Macintosh Plus a.k.a Ramona Xavier, previously produced other chillwave and vaporwave releases under multiple pseudonyms. “Floral Shoppe” incorporates slowed and edited samples from many songs, notably funk and R&B spanning from the '70s to '90s. One of the songs in the album, リサフランク420 (translated: Lisa Frank 420), has 30 million views on YouTube as of August 2017. Similarly to the “Blank Banshee 0,” the cover art is frequently used on clothing, in Facebook Photoshop battles in vaporwave groups, and various memes.

Listen

You see, vaporwave isn’t dead as long as we are still dealing with globalization, nostalgia, and depression. While the vaporwave genre is evolving all the time, this list of Top Ten Classics is a sure ride on an aesthetic soundwave.

Be sure to check the blog for new music releases brought to you by Vapor95's very own record label DARKNET Recordings.

Feeling inspired to deck your aesthetic wardrobe with more vaporwave? Head to the Vapor95 virtual shopping mall here.