Getting Lost on Bandcamp

By: Pad Chennington 

Let’s start this off with the bold and imposing The Happiness Cage.

The Mysterious Sounds of "Infinity Frequencies"

Between 2013 and 2014, a string of 3 mysterious pieces of music would be released onto the internet from an artist going by the name of Infinity Frequencies. Based out of Kyoto, Japan, the artist grouped these albums under what is now known as the “Computer Trilogy”, consisting of Computer Death, Computer Decay, and the final installation, Computer Afterlife.

This is actually the 2nd time I’ll be exploring the music of Infinity Frequencies, if you go back a little bit on Darknet you will find an article titled “Does This Room Actually Exist?”, which I recommend checking out before you read this article.. That article explores Infinity Frequencies 2018 release of Between two worlds, one of the most empty, yet thought provoking, albums I’ve ever heard.

There is obviously this crushing theme of loneliness within the music of Infinity Frequencies, and while last time we explored ideas such as liminal spaces with Between two worlds, this time we’ll be looking into these 3 albums that bring to life the death, decay and afterlife of a computer. It’s some pretty fascinating stuff, and as you’re about to see today, Infinity Frequencies’ ability to knit together this concept of us, as human beings, understanding an abandoned computer's emotion through sound, imagery and track titles is akin to something straight out of a great piece of film or a rich, thought-provoking novel.

Infinity Frequencies, and the Computer Trilogy are usually thrown under the category of “Signalwave”. Signalwave is a genre that I’ve talked about a lot on my YouTube channel. It’s pretty much summed up as a subgenre of Vaporwave that focuses on recycling old commercials, tv jingles, or any piece of music at all really, and creating a sound collage with everything gathered up. You’ll usually never find any crazy, layered production in regards to added instrumentals or stems or anything like that, but more so a focus on having the samples simply warp the listener to a dark room where they are flipping through tv channels in the middle of a night in the late 80’s, 90’s or early 2000’s.

Signalwave releases always felt like true arts & crafts projects to me, artists grabbing a bunch of source material and letting their creativity just have a go at how they want to personally glue it all together. I have always found that the fuzzy sound quality, paired with album art and imagery we’ve seen throughout the Signalwave scene in releases, have such amazing potential for story building.

Many times, Signalwave releases seem to get shit on by a lot of people, they’ll say  it contains lazy sample flips or the album art is cheap and just, you know, a screenshot from an old Japanese tv commercial or something and that’s it. I think what separates certain Signalwave releases from others are the ones that are able to connect the listener to a story or setting.

Pairing Signalwave’s common tendency of simple sample flipping with a story of a computer trying to show us emotion through lifeless tracks, gives the practice of simple sample re-working actual significance and meaning. It’s not just a collection of taking a dozen samples or so and making a dozen songs out of them under different track names you’ve come up with, although some may see it that way, to me it’s the entire packaged musical setting, direction, and artwork of the release entirely that makes it more of a cinematic experience that you want to venture through from start to finish, which I personally don’t really find to be the case in lots of other types of music I listen to.

There is this unbelievable attraction to the sound design and structure of the samples reworked in these 3 pieces, the way Infinity Frequencies builds a story with such minimalistic bones, yet there’s such a dense, heavy shroud of atmosphere to swim through. There’s a lot to unpack behind the 68 mysterious Vaporwave, or more specifically, Signalwave tracks that make up the Computer Trilogy, so I’m going to be organizing this into 3 chapters: Death, Decay & Afterlife, to properly give each album it’s deserved time and space within the timeline of the Computer Trilogy. Let’s dive in.

CHAPTER I: DEATH

Released on May 13th, 2013, the first installation of the Computer Trilogy titled Computer Death comes to us in the form of 28 tracks, the longest track list in the entire series. For those who know of Infinity Frequencies, you know that this producer brings to life settings, themes and narratives through heavy sampling. And while these tracks aren’t layered with different samples or micro-samples all over the place, there is a delicate art to what Infinity Frequencies does, taking advantage of the connection between uncanny artwork, lonesome sample loops, even the song titles, for the listener. Like I said earlier, there is something to appreciate in the entirety of how a musical project or album is presented, the beauty of an artist optimizing every single aspect of a release to detail what they want to convey to the listener.

The opening track of Computer Death is titled “Hall of The Forgotten”, a 51 second sample of tense strings and anxious piano keys, all concluding with what I can only best describe as that stereotypical “dream sequence starting” sound. We’ve entered the world of the computer, and whether we want to or not, we’re here to watch it’s demise.

Computer Death takes pretty samples, or at least they were pretty before Infinity Frequencies got a hold of them, and alters their DNA to strip away any life and color from the original source material. Tracks like “As Darkness Falls” sounds like it could be a loading screen for a tycoon game from your old PC back in the late 90’s or early 2000’s. “Group Meditation” and it’s muffled fuzz, distant percussion and synthy keys sound like a submarine exploring the depths of the sea... “Destiny” sounds like you’re planning a vacation to an exotic island and how about the track “Pulses'' as well, another sample that sounds like you’ve been on hold with your bank for about 45 minutes or so, yet we know you’re groovin to the beat so it’s all good. The track is drowned in audio fuzz and filters that the kicks and claps of the beat just completely fail to even stand themselves up throughout the 3 minute run time on this one.

While all of these descriptions sound lucrative and fun perhaps, Infinity Frequencies alters the sound of these samples to feel genuinely lonely. Songs are always hollowed out with no substance at all, low ends and high ends are never fully ventured and we’re constantly left in this dull middle ground of audio purgatory. The sound is never fierce or heavy, nor is it ever light and airy. The delicate and lifeless horns on the track “Footsteps” should, and could, sound
triumphant and royal if mixed and mastered in a more traditional sense, but we’re so submerged into the dedication of Infinity Frequencies’ remote and withdrawn texturizing that it’s void of any feeling at all.

I was able to get in contact with Infinity Frequencies, who told me the concept for the trilogy started a year earlier in 2012. Being almost a decade since beginning the project, they had a hard time remembering any specific musical influences for Computer Death; many people immediately make the connection of Infinity Frequencies’ work to the sounds and story-telling albums of The Caretaker due to their similar characteristics, but as I made note of in my first video on Infinity Frequencies, they didn’t even know who The Caretaker was while making these
albums. Even on Computer Death, we see Infinity Frequencies sample the 1980 psychological horror film The Shining in the track “Hall Of The Forgotten”, the same classic film The Caretaker got it’s very name and influence from, another subconscious connection between the energies found in both musical projects.

With Computer Death, Infinity Frequencies told me that at the time of its creation, they were starting to see Vaporwave just go in one direction, finding many releases focus on bringing happy nostalgia to life through funk and disco reworks. They wanted to do something different with a whole new atmosphere, something meaningful that told a story. Infinity Frequencies remembers watching a lot of old Japanese horror and samurai films back then and you can see that film or general video-medium influence come to life in a handful of tracks throughout the Computer Trilogy. While some of them can be as simple as Japanese car
commercial samples, you’ll find some moments where Infinity Frequencies will place a short vocal sample in a track, sometimes in English but many times these will be sourced from old Japanese commercials or films. As someone who can’t understand the language, this touch only ends up further intensifying my inability to connect with the computer that is trying to show us all it has before it dries out, a theme that is ventured frequently within the Signalwave genre, but here really connecting to the larger story at hand: the unsuccessful connection and understanding between you and the computer.

Tracks like “Occasion” feel as if I’ve ventured far into the computer now as the 2nd to last track of the album, with it’s haunting vocal sample popping in and out on top of a choir. To me, these vocal samples are the computer itself, trying to speak to us on its current condition, only to finally conclude with the lines “I am made of blue skies, and golden light”, a vocal sample that repeats itself throughout the last track “Majesty” until it switches to “and I will feel this way,
forever” as that track plays out. The computer will only know the reality it can conjure up within it’s memory and graphics, and that delusion is brought to life within these 2 simple sentences at the conclusion of the Computer Death album. As human beings, we can ignore death up until even the final moments it seems, and the computer here does the same... Maybe we aren’t that different after all.

“Entrance” and it’s haunting shrieks, washing themselves within your headphones, “Winds” being one of the more harsh tracks on here, labeling it as harsh is a bit wacky but when comparing it to the rest of the tracks within the trilogy it definitely feels like a rough, windy, cloudy day. “TV People” recycling one of those tried and true Weather Channel samples we’ve seen countless times in other Vaporwave releases, except here it is used for only about 30 seconds as it emanates from a barely audible tv somewhere in the distance. Or how about “Withering”, which may be the most distant sample flip of them all on here, with what should be a powerful vocal chop soaked in more of that thick VHS fuzz and Infinity Frequencies production.

The album art for Computer Death contains two old school computer monitors with what I’m assuming can only be the computer or entity of the hardware on the screen. I’ve always felt like these albums take place in outer space, some abandoned space station or something, and the low res VHS fuzz laid over the album artwork only further intensifies the cold and isolated feelings of a computer system out in space. Something that we are viewing from another source or screen, hundreds of thousands of miles away or something.

The tracklist of Computer Death hints to us as if we’re about to go on some grand last quest, a final portrayal of what this computer can conjure up for us within it’s wires and data... but as we’ll see in the next album of the series Computer Decay, death doesn’t mean it’s over. Let’s continue.

 CHAPTER II: DECAY

Released on January 3rd, 2014, the frigid and desolate world of Computer Decay comes to us in the form of 18 tracks. Computer Decay is the shortest album in the trilogy as well, just shy of 20 minutes in total runtime. Starting off at the first track, “Forever”, Infinity Frequencies immediately begs the question of whether or not a computer ever truly dies? Maybe there comes a time where the computer could never turn on again, but the information, the virtual memories, it has built within itself for years, the files downloaded, the documents shared, codes distributed throughout it’s programs and software... Is this shell of what once was now forever stuck venturing the hallways of its data, without having the ability to turn on its screen and show others what it hides inside?

Track list titles become a bit spiritual in nature compared to the more literal and concrete display we saw in the first installation with Computer Death. With Computer Decay being the second album in the trilogy, the transitional stage release between start and end, the album takes on a very floaty and atmospheric direction with its sample choices and song titles. This installation of the Computer Trilogy embodies the idea of a changing state, despite how crushingly barren
many of these sample flips can feel.

“Fused” is as empty as they come, a track just shy of 2 minutes that suspends itself in the dead of space. “Elegance” and it’s luxurious chimes and it’s chirping piano keys are a sweet little light in the darkness of this purgatory state before we head into the track “I saw her” which pairs together a vocal sample with two echoing sounds going back and forth with one another. “Sacrifice” and it’s ancient personality reminds me of what would eventually come in Between two worlds, some sort’ve background music you’d find on an old VHS your family once bought in a museum gift shop from long ago. “Traces” feels warm, a hot audio towel with more heavenly pianos and dreamy synth keys, and we conclude the track list with “Watching”, a sad and tired barrage of more haunting shrieks and cries, the final moment of a barely operating battery to a fully corroded and abandoned piece of hardware.

“I wanted the listener to experience the emotions and thoughts that a dying or abandoned pc computer would have, in a world that had no use for PCs anymore. It’s what I felt vaporwave was trying to say at the time in my own mind.” - Infinity Frequencies

I love the blue, freezing tones of the album art in Computer Decay. I think this cover is my favorite image in the whole series as it really connects with that feeling of just entering the void and not really knowing where to go. The Computer Trilogy as a whole always reminded me of the short story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", a science-fiction tale by American writer Harlan Ellison that showcases a post-apocalyptic world with 5 people trapped inside a supercomputer named AM who tortures these 5 people as revenge for being created in the first place. I’m sure most of you have at least heard of the story before or know the basic plot about it, but if you do not, there is this great video from one of my favorite YouTubers “Wendigoon” called A Hopeful Hell: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, that all explains the story wonderfully.

With us, the listener, being trapped within the computer setting Infinity Frequencies brings to us, The Computer Trilogy and "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" both share that empty, hopeless feeling through it’s narrative skeletons. Both showcase a journey within the bones of a computer which pairs the two projects together wonderfully, and if you’re one who enjoys reading with a bit of background music, I highly recommend experiencing both at the same time.

Computer Decay is the stairway to the next stage, the vital steps towards the Computer Afterlife which would drop a couple months later in 2014. It’s hollow sound design creates quite a large soundscape, there’s an image of an endless blue void whenever you’re listening to this thing, something comparable to a blurry deep sea if you have ever opened your eyes underwater in an ocean. Infinity Frequencies ability to take what once was enjoyable, even groovy, samples and morph them into carved out shells of lonely, cold and emotionless pieces of sound is just addicting to listen to. Each track being bite sized always helps as well as I think you would genuinely feel nauseous listening to some of these tracks for more than 5 or 6 minutes, so the journey is always wonderfully crafted throughout each release in the trilogy, Computer Decay possibly being my favorite. It’s a long, dried out road to the afterlife.

The Computer Trilogy was the start of Infinity Frequencies unique and lonely sound, with their first couple of albums being more vibrant and less experimental, in terms of overall sound design. Those releases were simple eccojams and fun, smooth Vaporwave loops that are always a treat to return to, but with Computer Death and Computer Decay, we were really beginning to see the signature, lonely style brewing within the Infinity Frequencies project. A couple of months after the release of Computer Decay, Infinity Frequencies would waste no time in getting to the finale of the project: Computer Afterlife. The constant energy of wonderful
sample material becoming shrouded in dark and dismal energy always clouded the journey of the trilogy, and in Computer Afterlife we see this direction take its final state... Let us dive in.

CHAPTER III: AFTERLIFE

Before we get into the final chapter of the Computer Trilogy, I want to take a look at the physical releases that were made for the project.

On December 1st, 2019, the label “theINFINITIpool” would release custom made, limited edition cassette box sets of the trilogy. Only 100 of these box sets were made which included a custom 3D printed computer box with a removable screen that revealed the cassettes inside. The box set featured Computer Death on a gold foil shell, Computer Decay on a teal foil shell, and Computer Afterlife on a silver foil shell. These are of course, long sold out, and anyone who got
their hands on one of these is quite lucky, unique packaging always goes a long way and this was all crafted wonderfully to celebrate the trilogy. Really cool stuff!

For vinyl fans, Infinity Frequencies recently announced a Computer Trilogy 3LP pre-order which is still up to order on their Bandcamp page as of the making of this video. The 3 vinyl set is limited to 300 copies only, each album pressed on clear translucent vinyl. There aren’t any vinyl mockup photos that I know of, but the Bandcamp listing for the pre-order does include some high quality images of the Computer Death, Computer Decay, and Computer Afterlife covers as
well as 2 additional images we haven’t seen yet that I am assuming will be part of the packaging. I’m really excited for this drop and I’m eager to see these fascinating images come to life throughout the gatefold of the packaging.

On May 17th 2014, we would receive the conclusion of the Computer Trilogy. Computer Afterlife ends our journey with 22 tracks, the final goodbye from the computer we’ve watched along the way. The intro track “Lost in the abyss” is beautiful, Infinity Frequencies chooses a luscious sample that once again feels like a light begging to be seen in a sea of virtual darkness. “Eternal”, “Data entry” and “Empty” follow right after and you can already feel a departure from the more heavily compressed and muffled sound design used on the first two albums in the
trilogy, at least to the intensity of what it was in Computer Death and Computer Decay. Computer Afterlife is a bit more bright, vibrant and jolting compared to the other 2, the piano never seemed more triumphant in the trilogy than what came to be used on “Empty”. It’s powerful and stands out from the empty backdrop the trilogy constantly indulges itself in. Track 7 “A storm is coming” is a great example as well, the piano has a bit more consistency and doesn’t feel as muffled compared to anything in the first 2 albums. “Relic” is simple but sharp,
and “Portals” sounds like a murder mystery finally beginning to unravel itself to the detective who’s worked way too hard to figure it all out.

Computer Afterlife is a glowing departure for the series and allows the computer to give it’s final log of data in the best way it possibly can. The saturated image used as the cover for the album is the most vivid one yet, a rich blue that embodies the motherboards and information-filled pieces that beg to be brought into a new piece of hardware, one last cry to not be left locked away in this recently decayed computer. The computer tells us this in tracks like “Remember’ a minute and a half of weeping strings with a piano standing alongside for comfort. “Surrounding” brings the strings to life as well, a non-stop 48 second loop with more Japanese vocal bites placed on top. The final track of the entire project, “Within”, feels hopeful and adventurous, a dawn of a new day with a simple, pretty melody.

Computer Afterlife plays with strings and pianos for a big chunk of the tracks, giving it all the more of an organic touch experienced throughout its samples. It’s all a great, well-deserved farewell from the heavy journeys featured in Computer Death and Computer Decay, but still explores the lonely, isolated feelings the trilogy strives to emit. The computer is finally beginning to connect with us on a level we can understand, even if it’s only a little bit. There is more warmth and organic emotion present in how Computer Afterlife plays out. Wrapping up the
trilogy brought about a new beginning to the Infinity Frequencies project, with 2015’s Into the light bringing about many of the same feelings we were introduced to in the Computer Trilogy, a staple that would continue in future releases throughout the Infinity Frequencies discography.

I’ve talked about and explored so many different albums, specifically Vaporwave albums, and Infinity Frequencies is one of those artists who always just puts out such timeless material for me. I can return to projects like the Computer Trilogy and Between two worlds countlessly due to the simple, yet intensely rich, sample flips that give me a world to venture through no matter what I’m doing at that point in the day. Everything is always so delicate from Infinity Frequencies, and I find the sounds to always pair so well with our intense, “doing a thousand things at once” lifestyles we tend to have in this day and age.

I’m always excited to see what Infinity Frequencies does next, whether that is continuing the lonesome aura through new sample flips or trying something completely different, I’m always open for anything.

Cheers, much love always, ur boi,
Pad Chennington

These Cassettes are EXTREMELY Rare... Here's Why.

By: Pad Chennington

When it comes to my music collection, I really don’t have a lot of cassettes. Most of you know me for my vinyl record collection, but recently, I was sent a handful of cassettes from a record label known as Liminal Garden… And what they sent me, has completely blown my mind.

The micro-label is known for their “Naturewave” releases, an outgrowth of the Vaporwave genre that features an emphasis on organic sounds and ambient moods. The music coming out of this Naturewave micro-genre, if we want to call it that, as you can tell by its name, is all inspired by the sights and sounds of nature. This has translated into some beautiful album art and aesthetics that are paired with these releases, and what I’m about to show you today has just taken the design and packaging of music to a whole ‘nother level!

So get cozy and grab a nice hot drink because we’re going to be exploring some incredible music today, all concluding with what I can now easily say is the holy grail of my cassette collection. These are some of the most rare releases I am absolutely blessed to own and we’re going to be taking a look at all of the magic that went into each of these limited edition pieces.

The sound and overall idea of Naturewave can be traced back to classic releases like 猫 シ Corp.’s 地球 (translated to “Earth”) alias, the beautiful Overgrowth split, and ロストエデンへのパ ス (translated to “Path to Lost Eden”), the legendary collab between NMESH and t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者. I was able to get in touch with the owner of LIMINAL GARDEN and talk about the sound of Naturewave and how the style has influenced the creation of the label.

They found that while other genres stemming from Vaporwave may be looking critically at themes of overly romanticized nostalgia, consumerism, urbanism or futurism, Naturewave tends to find it’s outlook through spirituality and a close relationship with nature.

“When I created the label I was looking for a way to make it distinct from its contemporaries. And also a way to easily communicate to artists what kind of music I’m looking for. So in that way it’s also just a nifty catchphrase to make LIMINAL GARDEN stand apart from the rest a bit." - Liminal Garden

存在 ／ 瞑想 by 夢のチャンネル

I really want to waste no time today getting into these cassettes, there is so much to talk about and each album sent to me is just so special in their own right. I received 5 cassettes in total, and the first one I want to talk about today is 存在 ／ 瞑想 by 夢のチャンネル (translated to Existence / Meditation by Dream Channel).

Making its way onto a limited edition clear shell cassette with incredible on-body printing on both sides, this thing just feels so special holding it in my hands, it’s kind’ve hard to put into words how gorgeous this cassette looks and hopefully the camera did it justice here!

This was the first in the label’s series of physical releases, which included an exclusive, newly-composed track for the B side from 夢のチャンネル for the release. Each side is 35 minutes long and takes it’s time with a beautiful, entrancing build up. The label puts it pretty perfectly, describing it as a “hyper-emotional slushwave lullaby”.

That matte gloss finish on the on-body printing gives this design depth and emphasis on top of that translucent cassette and allows the shell to shine when placing it in front of a window. A beautiful, simple green obi-strip as the cherry on top all ties the packaging of this release together wonderfully. I love physical releases that feel layered or ones that want to be explored, and as you're about to see, Liminal Garden just knocks it out of the park with how these cassettes are designed.

“Some might look at a cassette tape as a mere medium for storing music in an inferior quality. I see it as a way to hold a tiny part of that artistic creation in your hands and call it your own.” - Liminal Garden

冥想嘅時刻 by binary deconstructed
Next up is the 4-track release from the artist binary deconstructed: 冥想嘅時刻 (translated to “Meditation time”)

Bursting to life with special spot gloss UV-LED printing on both sides of the cassette, as well as an expansive 4-panel full color j-card that also includes a short story, 冥想嘅時刻 feels like something straight out of a shrine from Breath of the Wild!

The album plays through like an expedition into a mysterious jungle. Swirling winds, ancient strings and other exhilarating sounds found throughout nature all brought to life through the cuts, lines and detail present on the 冥想嘅時刻 cassette.

“I’m mostly influenced by other labels, first and foremost Underwater Computing and Global Pattern, but also VILL4IN and No Problema. The beauty of their releases, the finesse and ingenuity that goes into making the physical representation of an album be something unique and special, is what made me want to take part in creating some as well. Some might look at a cassette tape as a mere medium for storing music in an inferior quality. I see it as a way to hold a tiny part of that artistic creation in your hands and call it your own. Physicals are what give the magical quantities of music a corporeal representation in the real world.” - Liminal Garden

Bloom by ARBRVTÆ

The next cassette we are going to be looking at is actually, as of this article, unreleased and will be coming soon to the Liminal Garden label.

This is Bloom, a 9-track concoction of field recordings, percussion and synthesizers. Bloom is given the full-body print treatment, but unlike the 夢のチャンネル cassette, this art takes up the entirety of the cassette. The full print lays over a transparent shell, so any of the areas that don’t have trees all just add this fogginess to the cassette, perfectly playing into the background behind the forest. All of the art is slightly raised up a bit which helps it pop even more.

The tape was inspired by the artist’s own photography. Liminal Garden told me that the idea of the cassette design was quite risky actually. Having daylight shining through the frosted white tape working out not only on just the mockups for the cassettes during the design phase, but on the printed tapes as well, was a complete stroke of luck.

“What I’m looking for in the artwork for a LIMINAL GARDEN release is that it’s eye-catching, tells a story and generally fires the imagination of those looking at it. Often it’s what gives an album or even an artist their identity.” - Liminal Garden

Ikebana Online by Bubble Keiki

Ikebana Online by Bubble Keiki is a special, beautiful album with a bittersweet story at its heart.

In 2019, the artist was struck down by severe illness. In this time of uncertainty and pain, Bubble Keiki discovered a strange attraction for Ikebana tutorial videos on youtube (or, the Japanese art of flower arrangements) . Those videos, albeit being often low quality, had a strange soothing effect on the troubled mind and body of the sickened artist.

This album is inspired by that cumbersome journey. Agitated lo-fi noises meet soothing melody lines and ethereal pads mimicking the ups and downs, hopes and troubles, that come with long lasting illness and slow recovery.

Ikebana Online is a symbol of hope… A promise, that relief can be found even during the darkest hours of existence in the most unusual places.

The cassette pays tribute to the Ikebana artwork with subtle pink flower petals sprinkled over the transparent cassette shell. A colorful obi-strip paired with the case also looks great as well.

“Much like with the tapes, each album deserves a tailor-made approach to its packaging. Some albums just scream for a nice obi-strip! Others need an expansive j-card with additional artwork on multiple panels. And some might have a printed shell and no j-card at all. - Liminal Garden

雨林神靈 by クリチバの地下鉄

And last, but definitely not least, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The cassette I can confidently say is the “Holy Grail” of my cassette collection: 雨林神靈 by クリチバの地下鉄 (translated to Rainforest Deity by Chikatetsu).

Where do I even begin with this one… First of all, this was the cassette that helped me even discover Liminal Garden in the first place. I woke up one day, pulled up Twitter and saw a retweet showcasing the upcoming cassette drop for 雨林神靈 , and I was immediately blown away. I’ve never seen anything like this before on a cassette; full-color on-body printing on both sides of a transparent dark blue shell.

Whether you're holding it in a room with no windows or directly into the sunlight, this cassette seems to just emit this unbelievable shine and energy no matter which way you look at it, the neon light blue in the buddha and other elements of the cassette just glow in any setting.

For this masterpiece, Liminal Garden looked at the original cover that came with the album, listened to the music, read the liner notes and then tried to envision how the tape for all of that should look. They were fascinated by the partial UV print techniques that are available, so using them for 雨林神靈 was inevitable.

“The cover has a very cool color scheme going on; it’s almost looking like it has a glowing, fluorescent effect. That’s what I wanted with the tape as well. So it’s a case of looking what tape colors are available and coming up with a corresponding color scheme for the print. 

I first created only the A-side and mocked that up for Chikatetsu to get some feedback. Luckily she really liked the concept, so I could also create the B-side. Then it’s a matter of preparing the files for printing, sending them off and hoping for the best. Every graphic designer will know what I’m talking about: You can plan a design as much as you want, you never know exactly how it will come out in the printing. Fortunately they turned out really nice, yeah!

The final step – but not the least important one – is to make decent photos of the tape. I’m not a fan of presenting my releases as mockups, so creating good photos that sell the look of the cassette is essential.” - Liminal Garden

Liminal Garden is simply blown away by all the reception the label has been getting as of recent, and it’s no surprise to see why. They are currently working on a backlog of albums right now to turn into tape releases, as well as future new ones, so like I said earlier, make sure you are following them to stay up to date with what’s on the horizon. Each of these individually numbered rare cassettes are printed at runs of only 25 copies each, hence leading to these selling out extremely quickly when they drop.

“My main goal with the packaging is that the people who get a tape feel like they own something special and unique in the world. To that end I’m hand-numbering all tapes and everyone gets a personalized message on a handmade card. Looking into the future I definitely want to do even more special goodies for each package. I already have a couple of ideas planned, so they hopefully will show up soon.” -Liminal Garden

"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."

Does This Room Actually Exist?

A Deep Dive into Infinity Frequencies' "Between two worlds"

By: Pad Chennington 

Infinity Frequencies is no stranger to the Vaporwave scene, 2012’s Euphoria is one of the earliest Vaporwave classics I can remember and ever since then, they have been putting out fascinating material that ties together themes of life and death, unfulfilled romances, loneliness, you name it. The Computer Trilogy consisting of Computer Death, Computer Decay, and the finale release Computer Afterlife are a string of Infinity Frequencies albums that I wish I could go back and experience again for the first time.

Despite a legendary back catalogue of releases, it is Infinity Frequencies’ latest full length album, Between two worlds, that I find to be their most important and significant release yet. 24 short and brittle tracks that tell a story portraying the bottom of your descent into this mysterious room. Two massive lights above you illuminating the strangely empty space you find yourself in, two small columns accompanying two statues frozen in time that seem to be discussing what their next move should be. Do they stay here and wait to see what happens, or do they venture into the next room, a vacuum of darkness that doesn’t want to catch any of the bright and powerful lights from the room right next to it.

“The cover art depicts the world you end up in at the bottom of your descent. The statues and lights all feel familiar. The statues have something to tell you. Maybe a warning of what lies ahead in the dark room behind them. Maybe a useful tip for your journey ahead. I really like to leave these questions to be answered by each individual listener because the experience is different for everyone.” - Infinity Frequencies

Many albums and projects out there attempt to create a lonesome and eerie feeling through minimalistic sample usage, yet many times I tend to get bored halfway through them. Between two worlds ability to keep us hooked lies in the album’s never ending pendulum of reality and imagination, the room you can see and the room that you have to decide if you want to venture into, a plane in which you must cross or not cross. This blend keeps the tracklist meaningful and refreshing throughout it’s runtime, and I haven’t felt this invested in a project that blends moods through sample manipulation since the first time I listened to Everywhere at the End of Time honestly. While both projects clearly have different themes, they both are able to capture our imagination and attention due to the intense shift of attitudes and feelings throughout the project, its gripping and you just can’t turn away from what’s unfolding in front of you. While Everywhere at the End of Time has this happening gradually throughout a span of over 6 hours, the evolution of happy and romanticized memories to the darkest depths of a decayed mind, Between two worlds seems to switch over from classical and concrete to ethereal and translucent every couple of tracks, sometimes every other track. “Synthetic remains” and it’s minute and a half of ghostly piano keys ascending a flight of stairs in the middle of the night transitions into the track “A similar thought”, which can only be pictured as just 43-seconds of hazy, sparkling balls of sound. And after this, we go into the track “Deleted space”, a return to the piano.

"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 Coldest Music You’ll Ever Hear

The Fascinating World of GBA Music Albums

BY PAD CHENNINGTON

Be Careful’s Liminal Cove is another stellar release you can find on the OasisLtd. Catalogue, more atmospheric trap percussion and mellow moods spawning images of endless virtual jungles and rainy seashores in your head, a really nice 1-2 combo to go with holographic. With a handful of collaborative efforts on the album as well, the tracks feature a wide range of styles and attitudes that perfectly coincides with the imagery on the album cover. What setting will you want to conjure up next?

"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."

10 Tragically Lost and Unreleased Music Albums

BY PAD CHENNINGTON

10) Skrillex - Voltage (2012) 

9) Seal - Togetherland (2001)

8) Kanye West - Yahndi (2018)

7) Madeon - Celine (2017)

6) The Beach Boys - Merry Christmas from the Beach Boys (1970 - 1977)

5) Pink Floyd - Household Objects (1973 - 197?)

4) The Unreleased J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar Album (2010 - Present)

3)  Jean-Michel Jarre - Music for Supermarkets (1983)

2)  The Revolution - Dream Factory (1982)

1) MF DOOM & Ghostface Killah - Swift & Changeable (2006)

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BEGOTTEN: A DISTURBING ONLINE MUSIC MYSTERY PART III

Before we go forward today, make sure you’ve already checked out Part 1 and Part 2 of this story so you’re all caught up. With that being said, let’s begin the end, a conclusion to all the madness.

In 2017, a series of limited conversations between an unknown music producer and a record label owner would lead to the upload of six disturbing albums, each including their own unique set of tragic poems, blocks of confusing Chinese texts, mysterious music videos and paragraphs that recite the label owners experience with this unknown music producer, a producer with a worrisome story that seemed to get all the more real as time went by.

This notorious producer is known as b e g o t t e n 自杀, and as we’ve learned in Part 1 and Part 2, the first four releases from b e g o t t e n 自杀, and the mysterious events between them and the label owner who gave their releases a home, Dennis of Geometric Lullaby, are...pretty interesting…to put it lightly.

In a span of seven months, Dennis released the first four albums b e g o t t e n 自杀 sent to him on Geometric Lullaby. With each upload onto Bandcamp, Dennis would go into detail about his experiences and communications between himself and the unidentifiable producer at that time. I expect you’ve already checked out the first two parts of this series, so I don’t find it necessary to go over everything again, plus I know you want to get right to the big question: who is b e g o t t e n 自杀?

I’ve been along this journey with you as well as I’ve made sure to keep myself from reading the full story until I fully finished creating Parts 1 through 3. I thought doing so would be more of a genuine way to go about documenting the story of b e g o t t e n 自杀 over time, plus it would be more fun for me as well. It’s been giving me something to look forward to with each installment, so trust me...I am so beyond excited to finally crack this case and hopefully get to the bottom of it all as well.

The b e g o t t e n 自杀 Halloween Mixtape [October 14th, 2019 / GEO - SP10]

So before we get into the 5th and 6th albums, the two final releases from the b e g o t t e n 自杀 series and what ended up happening in the saga of events between b e g o t t e n 自杀 and Dennis, I think it would be really fun to talk about this thing: the b e g o t t e n 自杀 - (Halloween Mixtape)

Not only would it be fun to talk about, but it’s also pretty important. b e g o t t e n 自杀 , and the story of b e g o t t e n 自杀 , has become sort of legend in the Vaporwave scene...there is no doubt about that. With all of the mysterious uploads Bandcamp has for us waiting to discover, the b e g o t t e n 自杀 releases are easily some of the most interesting and darkest material to dive into and the b e g o t t e n 自杀 - (Halloween Mixtape) showcases the fascination not only from the fans, but from fellow artists and producers as well.

This thing is massive...20 tracks from some serious heavy hitters: Hantasi, 猫 シ Corp., MindSpring Memories, desert sand feels warm at night, just to name a small handful. And some of these tracks are hella long, MindSpring Memories remix of (invisible) - 无形 clocking in at over 10 minutes and 異星人’s remix of (love) - 真愛 hits the 12 minute mark.

What also makes this mixtape so much fun and such an incredible service to b e g o t t e n 自杀 is that each artist brings their own flair and signature sound to the table, but at the same time they still pay respects to that b e g o t t e n 自杀 mood. Signalwave legend S p o r t 3 0 0 0 and his jolting take on (longing) - 渴望 brings in an element of experimental and space-exploration-esque synth work, all while still laying it on top of that classic, ominous b e g o t t e n 自杀 drone. We even have the thunder from down under, A Future Funk titan: TUPPERWAVE is even on this thing, giving (aquamarine) - 蓝晶 a sort  lo-fi hip hop treatment. He keeps the entire track feeling like it’s submerged in this sink full of ice cold water, a well done little tune and gives a great take on the  b e g o t t e n 自杀 sound in just over a minutes worth of your time. And w i n t e r q u i l t 愛が止ま’s remix of (ghost) - 鬼白 ?! I ain’t even gonna say anything…I’ll just let you listen to that one for yourself.

Dennis also got in on the fun as well, providing mastering for a handful of the tracks on here. The mixtape dropped seven months after the final release in the b e g o t t e n 自杀 series (new aura) - 新时代 (which we will obviously get to in just a bit, get ya seatbelts on!) and this mixtape was the perfect treat for the Halloween season in October of 2019. The album dropped alongside that mouthwatering Ghoul and Ghost box set, a limited collector's edition release dropped by Geometric Lullaby that contains every b e g o t t e n 自杀 album, including the Halloween mixtape, and was such a delightful way to pay homage to the entirety of the b e g o t t e n 自杀 story.

But now, it’s finally time to return back to where we left off. Let’s rewind it back a year earlier: October of 2018. b e g o t t e n 自杀’s 4th album, (happy anniversary) - 周年快乐, had just made its way onto the Geometric Lullaby catalogue, and around this time, the relationship between b e g o t t e n 自杀 and Dennis almost seemed sort of finalized… but was it really though?

Before that 4th release, just to quickly recap, Dennis had finally received an email from b e g o t t e n 自杀 after such a long time of hearing nothing back from them at all. Dennis wondered if they were seeing the albums on Geometric Lullaby, the reception and how the albums quickly formed a cult following. Dennis had no feedback from b e g o t t e n 自杀, which was unfortunate to him because all he wanted to know was what they thought of the releases.

The email Dennis received at the time of the 4th upload was short and simple:

"Thank you. I am still alive. I am okay for now."

Short, simple, sweet, and just enough to crack a smile on Dennis’ face. Despite its seemingly conclusive nature, Dennis wanted to take a couple of weeks to figure out how he wanted to respond and how he wanted to say it. He promised those who visited the Bandcamp page for (happy anniversary) - 周年快乐 that he would keep them updated on the situation.

b e g o t t e n 自杀’s 5th album: (forgive and forget) - 原谅和忘记 [December 24th, 2018 / GEO - 025]

Forgive and forget stands out to me for many reasons. I would say that this is the most melodic and romantic sounding of the begotten series. It uses mostly a different language so the words themselves are impossible for me to understand, but the sound of the music does all of the work with this one. Somehow, Begotten still manages that eerie feeling, a pit in your stomach, just a seed of something...off as you listen to this record. 

Dennis of Geometric Lullaby

After b e g o t t e n 自杀 had thanked Dennis in his quick email, Dennis was very grateful to at least hear anything at all. After a couple of weeks, Dennis emailed b e g o t t e n 自杀 back and thanked them for the submission and their music. He explained that people were enjoying the releases and that they, b e g o t t e n 自杀, should be proud.

The email back would spring up a conversation. While Dennis was not given any details about this person's whereabouts or who they actually were, they began describing to him the intense mental illness that they lived with. Dennis notes on his Bandcamp that he actually holds a degree in psychology, so he understood plenty of what they explained.

But something (like most things involving this artist) seemed odd. As Dennis would receive more emails, he was starting to get a feeling that he was not actually speaking with b e g o t t e n 自杀 directly. It seemed as if he was messaging someone who spoke for them. A caretaker perhaps? They spoke as though they'd studied the human psyche in depth and really knew the deepest feelings of b e g o t t e n 自杀…but it just wasn't them.

All of this was happening after the 4th release obviously and before the 5th release was put out on Geometric Lullaby. Dennis was in Europe at the time with his band on tour through Germany, admitting he was a bit distracted at the time due to the shows. A bit of time would pass without Dennis answering b e g o t t e n 自杀 (due to lack of WIFI and general busy-ness) and when he figured out how he would ask if it was someone speaking on b e g o t t e n 自杀’s behalf... 

He received one of the most disturbing emails yet.

For the sake of discretion, I am leaving it up to you if you would like to see the text of that email. On the Bandcamp page for (forgive and forget) - 原谅和忘记, that email is there, just be advised it is pretty morbid.

Along with this email, however, there was also an attachment labeled "me"

It was a video.

Dennis has yet to figure out what the video means, who it is, or what is going on in it. He uploaded the video to YouTube as an unlisted link through his Bandcamp page. If you click the link there, you will be able to check it out.

Dennis wasn’t sure if what was attached was some staged, fake video. Was it taken from a movie or tv show or even another YouTube video? He asks that if anyone recognizes it, let him know. The sound is unrecognizable, as is the individual in the video.

With this latest, intense email from b e g o t t e n 自杀, Dennis was once again going to take some time to figure out his next move. As time had past since (happy anniversary) - 周年快乐, Dennis thought now would be a good time to release the next album in the lineup given to him from the original b e g o t t e n 自杀 email as he once again found himself in a situation of email chess.

Released on Christmas Eve, (forgive and forget) - 原谅和忘记 would be Geometric Lullaby’s last gift for 2018. The release would contain nine tracks that all begin with “un” (except the bonus track).

1. (unprepared) - 措手不及

2. (unraveling) - 解开

3. (understanding) - 理解

4. (unfortunate) - 不幸的 

5. (unending) - 无止境

6. (unconditional) - 无条件的

7. (undeserving) - 不值得

8. (unless...) - 除非…

9. (bonus track) - 同情

This is one of my favorite b e g o t t e n 自杀 releases, an extremely emotional blend of wonderful vocal sample selections melted with a heavy pouring of warm production on top. That smoky b e g o t t e n 自杀 texture is at an all time high on here, the reverb and fogginess that lays over track 3, (understanding) - 理解, is like hot fudge melting through sweet vanilla ice cream. Track number seven, (undeserving) - 不值得, features the pendulum of a beautifully tragic crying vocal loop on one side with a lonely and distant horn sample on the other. And in the middle? An ice cold blast of trap percussion, that heavy hitting hi hat frenzy is a brilliant surprise and provides some stellar contrast to the lost mood in the majority of the track.

I think “lost” is a good word to describe this album, it feels as if you’re in a virtual world of wireframe-filled hallways. Everything is black besides the thin purple lines that make up all of the wireframes. Track number five is a great example of this, (unending) - 无止境, that constant echo effect used on the claps and other instrumentals really feel as if this thing is large and, like the name of the track, never ending. 

Unlike most releases that b e g o t t e n 自杀 sent over in that original email, (forgive and forget) - 原谅和忘记 would only feature one music video instead of the usual two. This music video came with track six, (unconditional) - 无条件的. And, who would’ve guessed it, more skeletons. This time though, maybe the cruddiest quality footage yet, the barely visible and barely working video is more like a collection of photos instead of a smooth flowing video. We’re simply given a skeleton dancing around, breaking down and building itself back up, all before breaking down one last time before the video ends.

Here was the poem given with this release:

Can I recognize feelings?

Can I sense that they're there?

Has all gone to numbness?

In place of despair?

 

I can ask for forgiveness

But I know it will never come

I can wait until you forget

But there's no ridding of what's been done

A quote was also given along with the poem that read:

Tell me why...

As with all of the other albums, a series of Chinese text was also sent along with (forgive and forget) - 原谅和忘记.

The album’s sound is in pretty heavy contrast compared to the vibes of the track list, poems, Chinese texts, and messages at the time from b e g o t t e n 自杀 (or as Dennis believed, a person talking on their behalf). I kind of see the whole thing as putting on a face, while on the inside you can feel completely different. It’s something we’ve seen come up time and time again with cases of severe mental illness, a person seeming happy and friendly on the outside while something is eating away at them on the inside.

The album hides away it’s thoughts and feelings through sound. The music given to us from b e g o t t e n 自杀 is a mask.

b e g o t t e n 自杀’s final album: (new aura) - 新时代 [March 25th, 2019 / GEO - 030]

A void is all that's left

No sanity to be found

I've lost my mind in the process

I can't distinguish any sounds

 

When there's nothing to live for

And you truly are at your last

You hate yourself thoroughly

Solely dwell on the past

 

A new you starts emerging

Something different, something clean

Something desperate for anything

Other than a dream

 

But dreams are what I have

They beckon me with demand

Let's hope my dreams never come true

For if they do, you'll know exactly who I am."

This was the last and final poem sent to Dennis from b e g o t t e n 自杀, this of course coming along with the 6th album: (new aura) - 新时代.

I knew this time would come. I had been waiting for it ever since releasing the very first begotten cassette, and I must say, it is bittersweet. I am honored be have been chosen by this artist to present their work to the world. I am glad that so many have listened and enjoyed what they've created. While I know it is not for everyone, I personally find each album as something special. But you probably already know that by now.

Dennis of Geometric Lullaby

(new aura) - 新时代 may be the most experimental release of the saga, and it seems fitting as this chaotic journey only seemed to get more and more bizarre along the way. It’s as if the mask from the fifth album was ripped off and b e g o t t e n 自杀’s thoughts, feelings and emotions scattered into a thousand different directions, with no destination in sight.

The album pushes far the abstract and spacious sounds of darkness. (new aura) - 新时代 plays with texture even more than the others, tracks like (distill) - 蒸馏 are straight up broken. Take the echo effects of the track we mentioned in the previous album, (unending) - 无止境, and turn it up to a hundred. Everything is crumbling...instrumentals stepping on top of one another...a stampede of muddy sounds. However, towards the end, the only thing we are left with that is tangible is that eerie, unsettling howling that’s laid over the congested mess of sounds. We see the same thing with track number ten, (connectivity) - 连接, which all feels like a Missingno. Version of a Mallsoft track, but once again that horrifying vocal comes back in to remind us of b e g o t t e n 自杀’s world.

It’s kind of like the same thing that happened in The Caretaker’s Everywhere at the End of Time, the final album in that series being the most broken and decayed release yet. Also, both projects have six releases in them…Kind of interesting to note.

To Dennis, (new aura) - 新时代 gives him feelings of other-worldliness, caverns, alien-like vibes, and pure insanity. The album feels like an emotion we can’t fathom, only something that the set, specific person it’s coming from, would understand.

The album is one of the longer releases in the b e g o t t e n 自杀 catalogue, 14 tracks which clock in at just under a half an hour.

Here was the Chinese text that was provided by b e g o t t e n 自杀 for this release:

“如果没有不死技术，我将在未来35年内死亡，”他感叹。死亡是不可避免的 - 目前至少是因为随着年龄的增长，构成我们身体的细胞失去了自我修复的能力，使我们容易受到心血管疾病和其他与年龄相关的大约三分之二的病症的伤害。

“我的计划的最终目标是将某人的个性转变成一个全新的机构，”

“那么那么你可以说这样的人是有远见的，但不是生气，因为这意味着你想到的东西是不可能的，事实并非如此."

When translated, we find a detailed discussion on death, which leads into human transformation. It is also a bit confusing towards the end, which I’m sure is just Google Translate being Google Translate.

This time however, no music videos were given at all. When I saw that there was none for the first time, I was a bit surprised. With a handful of videos in previous album releases, I was pretty sure there would be at least one that may answer some questions or give some closure to everything we’ve been through with b e g o t t e n 自杀. But nope, just 14 tracks.

I think this was a good move though and kind of wraps up with the ending of the whole Dennis / b e g o t t e n 自杀 saga quite well…

Upon the release of (new aura) - 新时代, Dennis was saddened that this would be the final piece. He knew not whether the world would ever see another album from begotten, but he did not want to dwell on it being over. Dennis would’ve rather dwelled on the emotion and satisfaction that this music would provide.

If you remember when Dennis released the 4th album, he stated that he had actually received another email from b e g o t t e n 自杀 thanking him for doing their releases. At the time, he couldn't think of what he wanted to say in return, and Dennis admits on the Bandcamp page for (new aura) - 新时代 that he kind of just rushed a reply in the end asking who they were and some other personal questions. It wasn't until several weeks later after all of the emails that he received an answer to his questions. It read:

"Do you really want to know who I am?"

At first, Dennis was a little mad at this response:

Why would I ask if I wasn't sure that I wanted to know who they were? But when I opened a reply email and began to type, I stopped myself. Did I really want to know? Would I be able to appreciate the music all the same if I knew the name of the person behind it all? Would it change anything?

Dennis of Geometric Lullaby

Dennis would take a few days to consider this, he knew he did not want to rush it. Whoever b e g o t t e n 自杀 was, they had trusted him with their expression. They had trusted him with their art. Dennis recalls saying:

Would it be disrespectful to say that, yes, in fact, I really wanted to know who they were? These things weighed heavily on my mind and I started to feel anxious about the entire situation. I stopped eating. I started sleeping longer each day and I began to have vivid dreams. It was impossible to tell how connected (or not) that all of this was to b e g o t t e n 自杀.

Dennis of Geometric Lullaby

In the end, after countless hours of balancing options in his head like placing coins on the plates of a scale, Dennis had finally come to a decision. He opened up an email with confidence and hit reply. In the body of the email, he simply wrote:

"You are begotten and that is all that matters to me. Thank you for trusting me."

He hit send and smiled. He then played the entire discography from beginning to end, closing his eyes and allowing it all to take him away.

Dennis no longer checked his email, constantly refreshing in hopes of a message. He had finally found the closure he had been looking for. It was never about the person behind the music, but the feeling, emotion, and atmosphere. It was about the realms to which it brought him, allowing Dennis to escape his own life, if even for a moment. he could finally fully enjoy what he had been given.

Dennis was finally at peace.

The tale of b e g o t t e n 自杀, and Dennis’ experience with the producer, is a tale we all go through in this day and age with music. I know for myself and many others who are heavily involved in the Vaporwave scene and community, there is a lot of music we love and adore from people we simply do not know. As our scene in particular has gotten closer in these past couple of years, with live shows and online shows and what not, there was a time when everything was a bit more unknown. Artists’ and aliases being able to paint even more vivid imaginations in your head of who they were and what they were all about. It’s easy to fall in love with narratives given with albums, artwork that helps you get to that set place and time the album seems like it would be in. But beyond the stories, beyond the settings, the most important thing will always be the music, the sounds, which can always be experienced bare of any context.

Nothing crazy happened in the end between Dennis and b e g o t t e n 自杀, Dennis was given this package of digital albums and just did what he thought was best with them. He never was able to find out if everything was a hoax or if this person was who they seemed to be. And in the end, he had the option to potentially figure it all out, but to Dennis, the music just seemed to be more important. Plain and simple.

Today, b e g o t t e n 自杀 is still listened to by many throughout the internet, some claiming the mysterious producer to be their favorite Vaporwave artist of all time.

But, what about our question: is b e g o t t e n 自杀 real? Fake? Is Dennis b e g o t t e n 自杀?

You know what, I’ll let you do your own digging on that one. Sometimes a mystery is best kept a mystery, but as always, it’s always up to you, my friend.

Although I really do wonder…who was in that car in the graveyard?

If you haven’t listened to the b e g o t t e n 自杀 releases yet, I highly recommend doing so, the music is so rich with or without the pairing of the b e g o t t e n 自杀 story. Thank you for joining me on this wild ride, and 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.

BEGOTTEN:
A Disturbing Online Music Mystery Part II

If you haven’t checked out Part I of this story yet, please make sure you do so before reading this article. For those who are ready to continue, sit tight and get cozy because this is where the story of b e g o t t e n 自杀 really begins to fall off the rails.

In 2017, a series of limited conversations between an unknown music producer and a record label owner would lead to the upload of six disturbing albums, each including their own unique set of tragic poems, blocks of confusing Chinese texts, mysterious music videos and paragraphs that recite the label owner's experience with this unknown music producer, a producer with a worrisome story that seemed to get all the more real as time went by.

The producer in question here is known as b e g o t t e n 自杀, and as you’ve learned in my previous video, their infamous musical work and strange relationship with the label owner of Geometric Lullaby, Dennis, has piqued the minds of thousands to this very day. From the moment b e g o t t e n 自杀’s work went live on Geometric Lullaby’s page, it was easy to see how this artist was going to strike a chord in music goers who crave the stranger side of things. A cryptic story? Check. An unknown origin and inconceivable reasoning behind it all? Check. Good music? Check as well.

b e g o t t e n 自杀’s entire vibe, this blend of uncanniness, romance, horror, and undeniable tragedy all tied in a pretty bow with this low-res and distorted aesthetic is the perfect dose for the dark side of the music world.

In Part I of this series, we dove into b e g o t t e n 自杀’s first two albums and the events that happened between the strange producer and Dennis. To save time, I’m going to assume you’ve already checked out Part I. With that being said, I just want to get right into it all today. There is a lot to unpack with the story of b e g o t t e n 自杀, so I want to waste no time jumping right back into the deep end.

I hope you're ready, because there’s no going back now. Cheers.

b e g o t t e n 自杀’s third album: (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗篇

[July 23rd, 2018 / GEO - 015]

On the 23rd of July, 2018, Geometric Lullaby would unleash b e g o t t e n 自杀’s third album on the label, (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗篇. Considered by many to be the darkest and lowest point of b e g o t t e n 自杀’s career, (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗篇 spends a majority of its time intoxicating you with these hazy vocals and washy synths, a sound replicating the viscosity of syrup or honey as they slowly pour into your ears like a heavy fog, gradually filling up the space inside your head. (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗篇 is a hypnotizing pendulum, laughing gas for your ears as they become nothing but vulnerable entrances to b e g o t t e n 自杀’s dastardly deeds. If b e g o t t e n 自杀’s previous album (hushwave) - 治愈它 was the light and airy side of the producer, then (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗篇 breaks up the crowd as a heavy, slow moving, hulking counterpart. They are the sounds of a mad person; someone who had gone off the deep end.

“From the onset of the very first track, my heart felt like it had a weight pressing into it. Like sleep paralysis, I was terrified and yet my body completely relaxed. From the choice of chords and textures of the samples down to the lyrics, this album hits me probably most hard of all the b e g o t t e n 自杀 releases.”

Dennis, Owner of Geometric Lullaby

In my previous video, we last left off with Dennis’ trying to figure out what he should do with the mysterious package he received from b e g o t t e n 自杀. The strange envelope sent to him contained a single card that read "You're Invited" in big cursive letters. Below, there looked to be a fingerprint in red ink, or possibly blood. An address in Georgia, USA was also given on the card, and at the bottom was a scratchy b e g o t t e n 自杀 signature.

After some research and digging, he found that the address on the outer envelope was traced to a mental institution in Georgia while the address scribbled on the “You’re Invited” card on the inside of the envelope led him to a small graveyard with several mausoleums in central Georgia.

Dennis didn’t know if they should have the red ink, or what seemed to be blood, tested for DNA. He wondered if he should go to either of the addresses in Georgia. Or, possibly try and find someone to go there for him since he lived in a completely different state. His mind was flooded with questions.

Between the release of (hushwave) - 治愈它 and (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗篇, Dennis never received any further communication from b e g o t t e n 自杀, ultimately causing him to have to personally investigate the item he had gotten in the mail further.

This is what happened.

Dennis was able to eventually get in contact with a good friend who lived in the area of the Georgia addresses given to him, the friend actually took the time to find the address when Dennis reached out and agreed to scope out the place as the friend became just as interested as Dennis was.

When the friend FaceTimed Dennis upon their arrival, Dennis would see that they were in the middle of a beautiful graveyard, stones and trees engulfing the entirety of the background. They informed Dennis that they couldn't find anything that stuck out out of the ordinary, but Dennis asked them to just look a little bit longer since they had already gone through all that trouble to get there. This was Dennis’ first, and possibly last shot, at attempting to see if all of this b e g o t t e n 自杀 chaos was for real or just a hoax, so he knew he had to take advantage of the opportunity.

His friend was alone and the connection wasn't the greatest, but they ended up agreeing with Dennis’ request. As the sun began to set, they walked along each line of headstones and showed Dennis everything they could see. Dennis watched from his office, focusing on everything that was coming his way, all while wishing he could have just made the trip himself.

As time went by, the friend kept telling Dennis that it was just a simple graveyard and whoever was doing this to him was most likely just messing with him, but Dennis didn't want to believe it. He wanted something to happen.

"Just keep going. Walk through the whole thing," Dennis recalls telling his friend. And so he did, with Dennis wishing he had just one more email or anything else at all to help explain the letter and the reasoning behind the odd request for his friend, but he really had nothing to go off of besides what little b e g o t t e n 自杀 provided him with, and most of all, his own personal curiosity.

His friend reached the last row of gravestones and…they found absolutely nothing. But when his friend turned the camera to leave, Dennis spotted something.

"What was that?" Dennis yelled, nearly spilling his drink.

"I don't see anything, I..."

"No, on the road!"

Behind Dennis’ friend, on the only road path that led into the cemetery was an all black car. Dennis swore it hadn't been there before and he knew it definitely wasn't his friend's vehicle.

His friend’s face fell from a joking and light expression to fear. He hadn't noticed that car before either.

"I'm not going anywhere near that!" his friend told him.

Dennis begged his friend to talk to them, maybe knock on the window or at least wave, but his friend refused. The car didn't move and the windows were tinted so dark that it was impossible to see if anyone was inside.

And of course, by luck, the connection started to lose quality and the picture became blurry. The black of the car smudged the screen, mixed with the greens and greys, all painting the screen with its bad connection.

Next, the audio began to cut in and out. Dennis only got one more flash of something distinguishable before it completely disconnected. He couldn't tell if his friend was smiling or screaming. The still frame left him anxious and worried.

Dennis would try calling the friend over the next few days and it seemed that his phone was off or had no connection at all. A week would pass with these attempts by Dennis, which only led to a shocking discovery: the number had suddenly been disconnected completely. Any form of contact with the friend seemed hopeless at this point as Dennis would also discover that his Facebook account was deleted as well. Dennis called the local police station and gave them all the information he had regarding b e g o t t e n 自杀, the emails, the addresses, the situation with his friend, and the odd FaceTime call at the graveyard. Then, not three days later, Dennis would get a call.

It was his friend.

The friend acted as if nothing had happened all, as if they checked out the graveyard and there was nothing there. Dennis asked about their phone, their time away, not calling Dennis back, why they would suddenly delete their Facebook account, but strangely enough, Dennis’ friend would brush it all off as if Dennis was just making it all up in his head. The friend would tell Dennis that they were just busy and that there must have been a problem with their cell phone provider or service at the graveyard. They also claimed that they had just gotten tired of Facebook so they wanted to delete it for a while. A bit too coincidental as you can probably tell.

At this point, Dennis didn't know what to think. He knew the only other place he could get a clue from was from the other address he received: the one for the mental institution. He decided to ask his friend again to see if somehow, possibly, he would be willing to go check out that spot as well for him, but the friend said that he was busy.

Dennis’ friend hasn't contacted him since that follow-up phone call, nor has b e g o t t e n 自杀 as mentioned earlier. Summer of 2018 came and Dennis decided at this point, it was best to just release the next album in the b e g o t t e n 自杀 series, (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗篇. Maybe making this release go public would draw b e g o t t e n 自杀’s attention back in to the label owner who was constantly craving any sort of communication. As the release ran its course online, Dennis would spend his time planning on how to figure out more about the mental institution from which the letter he received was addressed. And of course, he would be checking his email, waiting for contact of any kind.

As with all of the previous b e g o t t e n 自杀 albums that were sent to Dennis in that initial email, (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗 would also contain a poem, block of Chinese test, and music videos from the producer to go with it all. Here was the attached poem:

"A ghost is a being sent to remind

A creature of memory, outside of space and time 

It returns with a vengeance, won't leave me alone 

Just as happiness finds me, my honesty is blown 

 

Another year will I last? A decade or two? 

Every day is a curse, but somehow I get through 

A friend is a pawn, a lover the same 

Another piece of my life, just a game 

 

I'll lose soon enough, I'll fall to the rest 

Inside I have lost, I've failed the test 

I deserve to disappear, and be forgotten at last." 

 

"Please, don't touch me...stay away"

Here was the Chinese text that was also sent with this album:

1不是给我们，耶和华，不是给我们，乃是因为你们的爱和信实，就是荣耀。 2为什么国家说：“他们的神在哪里？”3我们的神在天上。他做任何让他喜欢的事情。 4但他们的偶像是银和金，由人的手制成。他们有嘴，但不能说话，眼睛，但看不见。他们有耳朵，但听不到，鼻子，但不能闻到。他们有手，但感觉不到脚，但不能走路，也不能用喉咙发出声音。 8那些造他们的人，就像他们一样，所有信任他们的人也是如此。 9你们所有的以色列人相信耶和华 - 他是他们的帮助和盾牌。 10亚伦家，相信耶和华 - 他是他们的帮助和盾牌。 11敬畏他的，信耶和华 - 他是他们的帮助和盾牌。 12耶和华记念我们，要祝福我们，他将要祝福他的百姓以色列，他将要祝福亚伦的家，13他要保佑那些敬畏耶和华 - 小和大的人。 5月14日，耶和华使你们兴起，无论你和你的孩子。 15愿耶和华，天地的造物者蒙福。 16最高的天属于耶和华，乃属于他给人类的地球。赞美耶和华的，不是沉默的人，不是死人。 18我们现在和永远都是传扬耶和华。赞美耶和华 

1 Not for us, the Lord, not for us, but because of your love and faithfulness, which is glory. 2 Why countries say: "Where is their god?" 3 Our god is in heaven. He does whatever he likes. 4 But their idols are silver and gold, made of human hands. They have mouths, but they can't talk, eyes, but they can't see. They have ears but cannot hear, noses but cannot smell. They have hands, but they cannot feel their feet, but they cannot walk or make sounds through their throats. 8 Those who made them are just like them, so are all those who trust them. 9 All you Israelites believe in the Lord-He is their help and shield. 10 House of Aaron, believe in the Lord-he is their help and shield. 11 Those who fear him, believe in the Lord-he is their help and shield. 12 The Lord remembers us and will bless us. He will bless his people Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. 13 He will bless those who fear the Lord-small and big. On May 14, the Lord raised you up, regardless of you and your children. 15 Blessed be the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth. 16 The highest heaven belongs to the Lord, and belongs to the earth he gave to mankind. Praise the Lord is not a silent person, not a dead person. 18 We are preaching the Lord now and forever. Praise the Lord

Music videos for the tracks (disintegrate) - 瓦解 and (neurotic) - 神经质 were also sent from b e g o t t e n 自杀. For (disintegrate) - 瓦解, we are given this extremely low-res black and white footage of a train. It most certainly seems to be security footage slowed down as we can see the individual frames of this train moving its way along the tracks. A figure appears on the tracks, glowing as if the camera detects the heat coming off of their body. Next, the person purposely puts their body in front of the path of the train, and you can guess what happens next. It’s some pretty heavy stuff so please watch at your own discretion when visiting the Bandcamp page for (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗.

The music video for (neurotic) - 神经质 returns to that low-res, VHS quality skeleton footage we’ve seen in previous music videos from b e g o t t e n 自杀. Nothing really happens here as we’re just given this glowing skeleton looking down at the floor in a dark and ominous room. 

For fans of really smooth sample work, all with a creepy undertone and undeniable dark energy, (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗 is 100% for you. Its hopeless cries present in the vocal samples chosen are harrowing. The piano work feels heavier than the world, the drums decayed and beaten, and when all blended together we are served a smoothie that can put an elephant to sleep. (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗 is heavy, strong and emotional; hypnotizing, intoxicating, and alive. This album is best paired with the night time. Happy travels.

b e g o t t e n 自杀’s 4th album: (happy anniversary) - 周年快乐

[October 8th, 2018 / GEO - 020]

If (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗  was the low point, then (happy anniversary) - 周年快乐 serves at the manic counterpart. Talk about a 180 degree turn from our last departure with (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗, (happy anniversary) - 周年快乐 gives us a mirage of okay-ness, a soothing cloak that hastily covers up the darkness we had just previously heard. And this is replicated in the artwork as well: by far the most colorful and bright b e g o t t e n 自杀 cover yet, exciting greens and euphoric blues flood the skull upon every listen. Hustle and bustle vaportrap, soothing guitars maxed out in the reverb department, chimes and jingles sounding like you threw a fluffy pillow at a gigantic, gem-infused chandelier, listening to that wonderful sound as each individual crystal is knocked into the other.

The album also wraps up with four bonus tracks, each with these really fun and hyperactive chop jobs with samples bouncing all over the place, overall, a complete contradiction from the lethargic moods heard previously on (phantom psalms) - 幻影诗.

(happy anniversary) - 周年快乐 and its generally warm sample flips and extremely short run time confuse us from everything we just heard, it’s sporadic and sudden change in tone from the last three albums is just…bizarre.

What is exactly is going on with b e g o t t e n 自杀?

"This album feels spastic, nostalgic, dreamy, and surreal. It is all over the place, as if the artist's mind was going a million miles an hour while creating it. The lo-fi-type beats mixed with 8-bit and acoustic guitar highlight just part of the sampling and experimentation this album explores."

Dennis (Owner of Geometric Lullaby)

Here was the poem b e g o t t e n 自杀 sent over with this release:

"What a happy anniversary

What a joyous span of time

What a wonderful evening

With your hand in mine

You tell me everything that you want to say

You let it all out, put it all on display

I can't say a word, my mind goes blank

I want to shed tears, say words, give thanks

So happy anniversary, from me to you

You'll never understand, they never do."

Here was the Chinese text b e g o t t e n 自杀 sent with this release:

很容易陷入爱情，但是在一生的其余时间里，与同一个人保持恋爱更加困难。很容易陷入爱情，但是在一生的其余时间里，与同一个人保持恋爱更加困难。

即使一年过去了，你们分享的爱情持续下去。发出我最美好的祝愿，你将继续在爱和幸福中得到祝福。

在整个年龄段，许多人搜索，但从来没有发现像你们两个人那样的爱。愿你永远拥有伟大的爱和幸福的祝福。周年快乐！

感到自豪，知道你拥有每一个人渴望的那种爱，有一天会发现。愿你的心永远保持着像爱情一样的关爱和激情。周年快乐！

It is easy to fall in love, but it is more difficult to stay in love with the same person for the rest of your life. It is easy to fall in love, but it is more difficult to stay in love with the same person for the rest of your life.

Even if a year has passed, the love you shared continues. Send my best wishes, and you will continue to be blessed in love and happiness.

Throughout the ages, many people searched, but never found love like the two of you. May you always have great blessings of love and happiness. happy Anniversary!

Be proud of knowing that you have the kind of love that everyone desires, and one day you will find it. May your heart always keep the love and passion like love. happy Anniversary!

Music videos for the tracks (quartz) - 石英 and (diamond) - 钻石 were given for this album. (quartz) - 石英 would feature the reverse footage of gradually burning birthday candles, instead of everything melting away we see these candles rise from the grave. (diamond) - 钻石, an extremely short track at less than a minute long, presents sped up footage of a trick or treater during Halloween. 

To add some more context to the story, Dennis, the label owner of Geometric Lullaby, also spends his time performing in a band. Knowing that they would soon be on tour towards the latter part of 2018, Dennis realized that their route through the east coast of the United States would inevitably lead them past the address for the mental institution mentioned in the mysterious envelope.

Unfortunately, misfortune would strike again.

A hurricane would hit at the exact time they were supposed to drive south through Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Next up on the tour would have been Georgia, the state in which the mental asylum existed.

To make matters even worse, their engine died. Dennis notes it would’ve cost them several thousands of dollars to fix, and so instead of finally getting to the bottom of the surreal letter from our favorite little mysterious friend b e g o t t e n 自杀, they high-tailed it back home to Minneapolis from Syracuse, New York.

However...it was around this time that Dennis would finally receive an email from b e g o t t e n 自杀. It was short and it was simple. But to actually get some communication after such a long silence felt amazing. It said the following;

"Thank you. I am still alive. I am okay for now."

b e g o t t e n 自杀

Just those simple lines gave Dennis so much joy. He was glad that b e g o t t e n 自杀 was happy with how Geometric Lullaby was handling their releases. Dennis was nearly brought to tears.

At this point in our story, autumn of 2018, Dennis was yet to respond. The email was sort of final sounding, but of course, Dennis still had so many questions. At this time, Dennis wanted to take the next couple of weeks to figure out exactly what he wanted to respond with and how he wanted to say it. He was ready to continue to keep everyone updated on the situation, but thought it would be best to finally drop the fourth b e g o t t e n 自杀 album in October of 2018.

(happy anniversary) - 周年快乐 seemed to be the true calm before the storm in the saga of events between Dennis and b e g o t t e n 自杀. It was as if the melancholy musical style from the album replicated the seemingly calm section of the timeline the two virtual pen pals found themselves in at this moment. And while Dennis was relieved to finally hear back from b e g o t t e n 自杀, everything was still so odd. Any question Dennis had up until this point was still unanswered, nothing was solidified, nothing declared or figured out. Dennis took this time to focus on the label, prepare that fourth b e g o t t e n 自杀 release, and just take the time he needed to figure out his next move with the unknown producer.

In part III of our story, we’ll be wrapping everything up with b e g o t t e n 自杀.

Will Dennis figure out the truth behind the mystery?

Is it all a hoax, or something to truly be worried about?

I can promise you the oddities don’t end here and I can not wait to share with you how everything concludes. Until then, I think it’s time we put a virtual bookmark in our little story here, the insane tale of b e g o t t e n 自杀 is one of my favorite musical mysteries of all time and I hope to see you around for our final installment of what happened between Dennis and b e g o t t e n 自杀.

Thank you, we’ll talk soon.

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.

VAPOR95 LIVE 4.0 REPLAY

IN CASE ANYONE MISSED THE FOURTH VAPOR95 LIVE STREAM...

We've uploaded September's full show for you here:

It was a privilege to bring thirteen artists together for a visual and auditory spectacle and to share that with our fans and friends was an honor. Thank you to everyone who joined us to talk and vibe with the artists, fellow fans, and supporters!

Special thanks to ΛDRIΛNWΛVE, CVLTVRE, Neon Vectors, Limousine, Pad Chennington, Future Girlfriend Music, Vaperror, Macross 82-99, Flamingosis, Android Apartment, Lola Disco, kissmenerdygirl, and Tupperwave and the Vapor95 friends and family! Follow, explore, and support these musicians if you had a good time at Vapor95 Live 4.0!

We're excited to do more of these shows so stay tuned for upcoming digital concerts by following the DARKNET Recordings Instagram, the Vapor95 Instagram, or our Facebook. You can also sign up for our mailing list on the bottom of our store's homepage.

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.

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Who would be on the Vaporwave Mount Rushmore?

Which four artists would make up, if one were to ever exist in the future far, far away, a Vaporwave Mount Rushmore? A mountain commemorating the 4 most important people from the Vaporwave scene, 4 legendary heroes chiseled into the finest marble by Helios himself? 

Today, I want to showcase who I would choose as the 4 faces of the scene, and why. I think we can all agree there are a couple of obvious, you know, incredibly important figures who have really had such an impact on the scene, so many of you will have some of my picks as well… However, I think you will be pretty surprised at who I have for the final spot on this construction of the Mountain of Vaporgods.

First up, I am just going to drop the hammer and say who I think is the most important figure in the history of this entire scene, and I’m sure many of you will agree with me on this. Yes, the one, the only, good ol georgy boi, Mr. George Clanton.

I really do not need to explain much here, but just to refresh your noggin, George is easily one of the hardest working, undeniably trendsetting, and most consistent people to ever come out of the Vaporwave scene. With arguably the most successful and beloved record label in 100% Electronica, creating and being involved in a number of diverse musical projects, or, being the first person to truly bring the URL to IRL by throwing the first ever Vaporwave festival to massive success, George has done so much for us over the years and at this point, it always feels like tomorrow he is just gonna drop another insane announcement for us.

Whether it’s his vocals in the “Mirror Kisses” pop project, heavy aesthetics and vaporwave essentials as ESPRIT 空想, or just being George Clanton himself and creating Anthony Fantano-worthy music pieces or working with Nick Hexum of 311, George is one of the most successful people coming out of this community and is still so heavily invested in his Vaporwave roots, he really has something for everyone and is always the perfect artist to introduce any newcomer to the Vaporwave scene. I remember a couple years ago I brought my best friend to a George Clanton concert, and this friend had no idea who George Clanton was or what Vaporwave for that matter, and it is safe to say that he has become a pretty vivid 100% electronica fan ever since that day.

George’s consistency as someone who is always willing to try new things while making even his most diehard, OG fans happy is something I truly look up to and I know he will be making some magic for us for many, many years to come.

Next up is another one I think many of you would also put up here: the golden boy, SAINT PEPSI.

SAINT PEPSI, Skylar Spence, or as I like to call him, Big Ryan from Brooklyn, has to have the most classics to ever come out of one single artist in the Vaporwave scene alone. Seriously, really think about it for a second, this dude has so many albums and tracks that people find to be sacred in the scene; Nobody really comes close to the impact he has had. I mean, just off the top of my head, Hit Vibes, Late Night Delight, Empire Building, World Tour and do not even get me started on how many individual songs I think many of us can agree are all-time favorites.

Like George, Ryan has made some pretty dynamic moves in his musical career, especially given the fact that by 2014 he was already a legend and a universal fan favorite in the scene. Many people would keep milking that vibe and success, but in 2015, SAINT PEPSI totally changed things up by releasing “Prom King” under the name Skylar Spence. What many would be scared to do as an artist ended up being an incredibly fun escape from the Vaporwave norms we got used to with SAINT PEPSI, Prom King was vibrant, confident, and full of color with another handful of memorable tracks coming out of this nostalgic, yet refreshing, dance pop joy ride.

We did see an absence of Ryan in the years following Prom King, However, in recent times he has been back in absolute full force headlining Electronicon, releasing arguably his best produced SAINT PEPSI album yet in “Mannequin Challenge”, and even doing a bunch of live shows and touring.

I am able to say that Ryan is a good friend of mine, being able to work on music with him on my album dewdropper was absolutely incredible, watching this man get into the zone and chopping up a sample I thought couldn’t be chopped up any more. One of the nicest people in the scene, a true teddy bear, I do not know where we would all be without the silky, yet dusty, tunes of SAINT PEPSI.

Third up, now this was a true tough one. I wish I could pick 5 people for this list, but in Mount Rushmore fashion, I gotta stay true to the game. I will be completely honest with you, I was split between 2 people for this list, 2 people who have had such an impact on the scene and it is so hard to leave one out but I gotta do it.

So I was split between t e l e p a t h and 猫 シ Corp., and although Jornt (猫 シ Corp.), if you are reading this, you know I love you buddy and, just like everyone else can agree upon, there are so many reasons why you could be on this dang mountain... but, look... there is just this undeniable mystique and fascination we all have with t e l e p a t h, I have to give the spot to him.

Just watch the videos of him performing at Electronicon, I know I can say as someone who went to ECON 1 in New York City, absolutely everyone and their mother made sure they were on that damn roof to watch t e l e p a t h perform as the sun set behind the 猫 シ Corp. skyline-- Oh, and I can not forget to mention the stretch of albums from 2013-2015 that many would like die for, t e l e p a t h fans are straight up die hard fans. No one does it like t e l e.

With an unbelievable amount of classic releases and having a hand in many of collaborations with other big time Vaporwave artists (猫 シ Corp. for example!), the legacy of t e l e p a t h is without question such a focal point of discussion in the community. It is so much fun to just get lost in his hours and hours of slushy, ambient cosmic goodness, his music has so much replay value due to how lost you get into each album that you sometimes forget what that album sounds like when you return to it for another listen. Everyone has a different favorite of his, there is no set “this is the best album”, and because of that alone with a massive discography, it is so hard to not give the spot to him.

Alright, last but not least, the fourth and final spot on the Vaporwave Mount Rushmore… Some of my honorable mentions would be Vektroid, Vito from DMT Tapes FL, death’s dynamic shroud, James Ferraro and Daniel Lopatin.

But folks, my fourth and final pick for this list goes to the Vapor goddess herself, Luxury Elite.

Why? Why Luxury Elite? An artist who has pretty much been vacant from the scene for years now, her last two albums coming out in 2016 and 2018? Well, there are 2 main reasons I give for this and why I find her to have the most charming touch this scene has ever seen.

First and foremost, Luxury Elite is, in my opinion, the artist I will always listen to when I really wanna go back to that return of the old days of Vaporwave. While her production may be super simple, especially compared to what we have seen today, she just gets how powerful the simplicity of reverb and a charming sample flip alone can be, the fun in the laid back mood her tracks set and the themes she presents with her music creates such a virtually romantic setting... I just absolutely love it. World Class, Fantasy, and New Classics are some of my many favorites from her. And, can not forget to mention that she was one half of one of the most beloved and important albums in the scenes history, Late Night Delight, with SAINT PEPSI.

And although her music is pretty solid for what it is, what really makes me give her this spot is that she curated and managed what I believe to be is the most beautiful archive of Vaporwave releases in existence. A now-defunct label that, even though I was not into the Vaporwave scene in 2013ish, holds some of the most legendary artists and albums to ever see the light of day in our scene and I still travel on over to the abandoned Bandcamp page from time to time to explore the classics that lay there waiting for me. Yes, the legendary Fortune 500 label was run by Luxury Elite herself.

What makes Fortune 500 so great? Let’s look at some of the players on the roster here, ESPRIT 空想, SAINT PEPSI, Luxury Elite (obviously), 猫 シ Corp., MACROSS 82-99, 18 Carat Affair, Golden Living Room, the list goes on and on. This is such a beautiful collection of releases, releases that are the pillars of the Vaporwave universe, releases that still stand the test of time and find a home in the hearts of many fans around the world.

But, who knows, maybe by 2098 or something t e l e p a t h’s great-grandkids will have released some insane Vaporwave music that we can’t even fathom yet, so maybe by the time this thing gets built there will be a whole new cast of people way more important than the ones I selected for this list. But, I think, for now, I am pretty confident that I would give the 4 spots to the artists I mentioned today, and hopefully one day we can all go on a trip to Mount Vaporwave.

Much Love, ur boi, Pad Chennington.

My Favorite Vaporwave Album of 2019 Is...

So what a year it’s been for the Vaporwave scene.

From Georgie Clanton doin’ the first-ever Vaporwave festival to Aloe Island Records quite possibly putting out the sickest Vaporwave Vinyl record I’ve ever seen, we have seen some pretty exciting stuff this year come out of what once was a strictly online music scene. And talking about the music itself, what a year for releases. From Dan Mason cookin’ up “Hypnagogia” at the beginning of the year to death’s dynamic shroud’s infamous “Live From Japan” Drop, the return of SAINT PEPSI and how about the big ass triangle, FM Skyline making moves and getting signed to 100% Electronica.

So much has happened this year, and today, I want to talk about my personal favorite release of the year and why I have deemed it so. Folks, my favorite Vaporwave release this year is TUPPERWAVE’s “Baby, I Miss You”, which dropped back in late September. The follow up to his super successful and seemingly out of nowhere “To You Baby, With Love”, TUPPERWAVE brings, in my opinion, a virtually perfect blend of Vaporwave and Future Funk to the table with this new album, and not to mention the insane list of features he’s got waiting for you upon your visitation. 

Imagine, two lovers in America, 1984, separated by 2,800 miles. To TUPPERWAVE, “To You Baby, With Love” and “Baby, I Miss You” represent a long-distance relationship and the struggles associated, hence the letter format for the titles.

One thing you’ll notice right off the bat is that the album covers were designed to be joined; this was a plan TUPPERWAVE had all the way back in August 2018 when the albums were conceptualized. A young Diane Franklin on the TYBWL cover looks happily into the distance over night-time NYC backdrop whilst Jan-Michael Vincent stares solemnly back over a Los Angeles backdrop in the day. The grids interlocking to represent the faint, distant, digital connection that they share. The day and night themes represent the time difference between NYC and LA.

TUPPERWAVE spent a lot of time on these albums, experimenting with subtle methods of achieving the perfect sidechain/bass combination. This is something I absolutely loved on TYBWL and I’m really happy to see it return in BIMY, it was a unique touch on sidechaining that made the tracks feel really delicate on the kicks, where most other albums would just blast your eardrum to oblivion.

On “Baby, I Miss You”, TUPPERWAVE  tried to capture each artist’s style that he was collaborating with, all while staying true to his signature sound. And what a variety he ended up getting, producing with Future Funk artist ED. on the track 'Paradise Ocean Club', there is a ton of hopping as ED. is known for finding really nice flowing chops, bouncing around from one slice to the next. Both ADRIANWAVE, DUCAT & UNI DELUXE hit TUPPERWAVE up with that club filled dance flow which came out really well with the 80s samples they chose together.

“I absolutely love these guys and feel like they really lifted the energy of the album in the center, gearing up toward that Vaporfunk drop off toward the end.” - TUPPERWAVE

The latter half of the album kicks off with Melonade, really taking that thumping Vaporfunk approach with heavy sidechaining. TUPPERWAVE recalls Melonade having really awesome ideas in regards to layout, which can be heard with the radio cuts in the track. He also got to work with the big homie Dan Mason, Dan rerecording a majority of the bass and background elements on the samples they chose for the track.

“The sample was improved 10x by the king himself, an absolute pleasure to work with and an absolute musical GOD.” - TUPPERWAVE

So that is an explanation of the album literally, but what truly makes it my personal favorite album of the year? Well for me, TUPPERWAVE and his two big releases this year represent the true beauty of the Vaporwave scene at its current state, the entire community has truly evolved to something beyond music in 2019 and there has never been a time like now where we are all striving to be connected more than anything else. We’ve all made some pretty great friends here, and “Baby, I Miss You” represents the beautiful idea that you can work with anyone you want, learn from anyone you want, artists you’ve looked up to for a while are just as much of a fan of the scene as you are. We all in this together baby.

It’s also the perfect blend of Vaporwave and Future Funk for me, you know me I’m not a fan of that like super high pitched, 130 BPM and up, anime girls all over the place type of Future Funk (It’s just like a sugar overload lol shit be givin’ me a cavity!). Everything is really smooth, a nice blend of all different types of sampled genres to constantly give you a new story upon every start of the track, yet it’s glued together with that unique sidechaining style TUPPERWAVE has really attached to himself so it all blends wonderfully as a full album. It’s like you just finished playing a full 90-minute game of soccer, all you would want is a nice cold beverage right? Drinking something too cold would just give you a cramp and a half... “Baby, I Miss You” is that perfectly chilled yellow Gatorade, just cool enough to quench that thirst.

TUPPERWAVE, who once went as The Vapor Room, has made a couple of releases in the past but it seems that this year he really blew up for many, even his classic-Vaporwave release of “KOALA KORP コアラ” got some pretty solid recognition as well. Entering the 2020’s, who knows what he, or anyone else for that case, has in store for us, all I know is that these are what we are going to be calling “the good times” in the future... So enjoy the ride!

Much love, ur boi (AND HAPPY NEW YEARS!),

Pad Chennington

Have You Heard of “Virtual Phantasy 2097”?

What were you doing in the year 2014? Yeah, 2014 may have only been 5 years ago, but for the Vaporwave community, things were very, very different.

Vinyl records in the scene were basically non-existent, death’s dynamic shroud was just beginning to make their way up the ladder, and Dream Catalogue was the go-to place artists wanted to have their albums featured on.

Talking about Dream Catalogue, there was one artist present on the label at the time, and for quite a while up until that point, that seemed to drop nothing but eventual fan favorites release after release. No need for an introduction here, yes, the elusive t e l e p a t h, at this point an already legendary figure in the scene, was undoubtedly taking over the Vaporwave community. Unsurprisingly, many artists wanted to work with him around this time, one artist in particular who went by the name of Golden Living Room. And that folks, is where we begin our story today, the story of one of t e l e p a t h ‘s many collaboration albums, and how Golden Living Room was able to make it all happen… a story showing that sometimes, all you really have to do is ask.

Get comfy my friend, because you and I are going to be exploring the legendary “Virtual Phantasy 2097” album and how it all came to be. 

Back in 2014, Golden Living Room was an active artist on Bandcamp and eventually started to get likes on his tracks from t e l e p a t h himself. He also started seeing an abundant amount of people in the Vaporwave community sharing music from t e l e p a t h and constantly creating a conversation surrounding his latest releases. GLR, at the time, had a jaded attitude towards Vaporwave and states that he did not like what it was changing into compared to the genre’s original conception and recalls being very dismissive of new projects coming about in the community. 

“I was very dismissive of new projects and had a very closed mind about anything new, even if it was hyped. I would listen to a few seconds of a track and then skip it, forming my opinion that way. I was in a terrible state and missed out on so much music when it was happening.” - Golden Living Room

Around the same time, GLR was also approached by Dream Catalogue to do WELCOME HOME. While working with Dream Catalogue, Golden Living Room was doing a guest mix for the label when he decided to give another try listening to this artist everyone seemed to be raving about, t e l e p a t h, and began to like what he heard. The warm quality of his tracks, all while being able to penetrate his subconscious mind, was more than inviting for GLR and he began to develop a new appreciation for the direction(s) Vaporwave was going in. 

Golden Living Room decided to contact t e l e p a t h shortly after on Twitter and struck up a conversation, only to quickly cut to the chase and state that he was interested in collaborating with him. At the time, GLR knew many artists were working with t e l e p a t h so he thought it would not hurt to just ask. He was confident their sounds would mesh, and he went for it. And, as you can tell, asking really paid off.

Something about the effortless flow of the album made it a perfect project for the duo, and to this day, “Virtual Phantasy 2097” is one of GLR’s favorite personal releases. The timing of contacting t e l e p a t h was right on the money and the way the whole album unfolded was effortless. 

“It took little to no thinking on either one of our parts. It was more of a flow of energy that took its own course.” - Golden Living Room

The album, in classic fashion with anything t e l e p a t h happens to touch, is a dreamy, slushy, swirly intergalactic travel through the farthest of stars. At over a 70-minute listen, “Virtual Phantasy 2097” is a pretty lengthy release and features a side A primarily from t e l e p a t h and a side B primarily from Golden Living Room, with t e l e p a t h pretty much creating everything else after the addition of GLR’s already existing tracks. The two spent several more nights chatting for hours, coming up with titles and aesthetic ideas. The artwork, layout, and design of “Virtual Phantasy 2097” were all done by t e l e p a t h. He chose the cover of the album based off of the original aesthetic of Golden Living Room at the time, a very “videogamey”, insides-of-a-computer habitat. t e l e p a t h also thought of using the Sega Saturn spine for the album art, fitting for GLR as that was one of his favorite systems.

Having the chance to speak to Golden Living Room about the release, I was able to get an up-close look at his half of the album and his personal experiences making it. Golden Living Room grew up in the dawn of the MMORPG with games like Phantasy Star Online, Final Fantasy XI and many other games. He spent a notable amount of time playing these games, stating that the music from these games sank deep into the subconscious of his mind. The music was so important to him that he used to include at least one sample from Phantasy Star Online in every one of his earlier albums, all the way up to “This Is Where I Am Right Now”. This love for MMORPG soundtracks obviously bled into the creation of “Virtual Phantasy 2097”.

The track “Living Water” featuring Spring Water 泉is actually a collaboration with his friend Nate who runs Midwest Collective, stating that he (Nate) has always been a silent powerhouse in the Vaporwave scene.

The song "I Can't See At All (It's Safe)” was actually written in 2012 and was artistic therapy for Golden Living Room after he was mugged on his way home from his university’s library when he was studying music theory for his master's degree. The song "Halocline Systems" was supposed to be a track for his friend’s utopian cyberspace themed game project trilogy, but they were not ready to finish the game on the timeframe GLR was on, so Golden Living Room just decided to release it into one of his own personal projects.

What makes “Virtual Phantasy 2097” so funny from a discussion standpoint, or for that point any project t e l e p a t h gets his hands on, is that you really end up just praising each album for almost the same thing. How many times can we call a t e l e p a t h release an “amazing dreamscape” or “an out of body” experience? I think it’s pretty amazing to be an artist that conjures up a struggle for anyone to really explain what it is beyond these overused Vaporwave terms, the strange state fans find themselves in trying to discover new adjectives to properly explain the feelings one would get listening to one of these releases. “Virtual Phantasy 2097” is no different, a project that lifts you from your physical body and soars you through starry depths light years away from any of us. Any fan of ambiance and Slushwave should definitely check this album out if you have not already, prepare to take flight in a virtual, space-like world with the enormity of a thousand galaxies. And remember, as I said earlier, this album proves that if you want something, anything, all you have to do is just ask. The Vaporwave community is a very friendly place, and artists are always appreciative of anything you have to say when it comes to their music. Whether you want to pitch the idea of working with someone, provide constructive criticism to their latest release, or just simply drop on by to say hello, just asking a question may lead to a world of endless possibilities. 

Golden Living Room will be featured in my upcoming musical collaboration project titled “COMBOCHAMP”. I’ve decided to take 20 beloved artists from the Vaporwave scene and randomly pair them with one another to create a track for this soon to be unforgettable album releasing on New Years Day of 2020. I, and many others, are excited to see where Golden Living Room goes with his contribution to the project.

Much love, ur boi,

Pad Chennington.

The Nostalgic Sensation of "Vaportrap"

Do you feel a little warm and fuzzy inside when hearing old video game console and retro operating system start-up sounds? Love playing catch up with the hypnotic, yet chaotic, hi-hat patterns, 808 bass samples and poppy snares of traditional, hard-hitting trap beats? Well, do I got a genre for you, my friend.

Say hello to “Vaportrap”, a genre that is… exactly what the name is: a blend of Vaporwave and Trap music. Ever since its birth in 2012 with Blank Banshee’s “Blank Banshee 0”, a commonly agreed upon release that many label as the first of the Vaportrap genre, producers of the scene have been walking on a creative tightrope, a mighty fine balancing act between the two styles to constantly find new and exciting ways to blend the two very different genres together. 

On one end, we have the notoriously nostalgic undertones of Vaporwave; you’ll find your selection of old hardware sounds (take a shot every time you hear the Sega Dreamcast booting up sound effect), spacey, ambient chords and just generally textured filters on top of everything, baking every melody to have that retro charm all recycled from long ago.

In the other corner of the ring, we have the fiery attitude of Trap to cover you with the drums. Like two armies clashing with one another, Vaportrap sends in thunderous layered kick drums, sharp, rapid hi-hats, and orchestral synthesizers to combat the generally laidback and woozy vaporwave style. And while these two may seem to be polar opposites on the surface level, these opposites really do attract here as the ferociousness of trap instrumentals brilliantly fills that missing trait in the chillness of Vaporwave, and vice versa. Like peanut butter and jelly, these two genres were seriously made to be and we have seen some extremely memorable and fun releases ever since its conception.

Today, I want to give you 5 releases from the Vaportrap scene that I feel do a great job at showcasing what there is to offer, and more so, go past the stereotypical tropes of the genre. I really find Vaportrap to be an umbrella term more than anything so you may find some releases on here to be more Electronic than Vaporwave, classic Hip Hop than Trap, etc. I’m also not going to talk about super mega gigantic classics like Manapool and the Blank Banshee releases, those of you reading this article have probably heard those albums multiple times through already so instead, we are going to explore some other essential Vaportrap albums that you may have not heard about. Welcome my friend to the nostalgic sensation of “Vaportrap”.

More so a mixtape than an album, let us start off the list at #5 with CONTACT LENS’ 2012 release of “ICE IN THA VEINS”. Less hectic and more tamed than most Vaportrap selections out there, “ICE IN THA VEINS” is a 27 track long display of chilly, ice-cold sample selections and synthesizers poured over brash hip hop drum loops that take their time with you… a dream haven for fans of downtempo instrumentals. This release feels really long, like some truck driver hauling their 18-wheeler around a snowy mountainside knowing they have hours and hours ahead of them of just seeing nothing but the blanketing nature of winter. CONTACT LENS brings home a very relaxing listen attracting you in with it’s smooth, icicle-inspired sounds at the forefront.

For those who are fans of 100% Electronica artist Satin Sheets, “ICE IN THA VEINS” has a very similar feel to albums like “St. Francis” but replaces the pumpy kicks with more distorted ones and other little additions to make this more of a hip hop Vaporwave experience than a funkier inspired one. While most Vaportrap releases I would definitely not consider to be “background” music, this album is most certainly in its prime state when it is treated as a piece to merely zone out to rather than dissect and have your ears chase every individual sound like other Vaportrap releases. Many may not even consider this to be a Vaportrap release because of that tranquility and lo-fi downtempo structure, but because of it’s extremely early release in the scene and definitely having a heavy influence from Hip-Hop, I know many of you will find comfort in the slow-motion blizzard of “ICE IN THA VEINS”

As the legendary Vito James of DMT Tapes FL stated back in 2017, “I, naturally, made this (ICE IN THE VEINS) my ‘christen 2017 with an album you’ve never heard before’ an entire near half-decade later, and… my god. The quality has held up like you just cut open an air-tight Bubba Kush OG from Sacramento.

“In these modern times, our trials are not those of the flesh, but of the soul. In the long treks between safe and understandable concepts lie a murky uncertainty. Plastic bottles of milk are stacked on shelves in such a way as to make the surplus appear infinite. Like the bottles of milk, our days seem without end, only to suddenly dwindle down to nothing - but the idea that there is no end is still very real in our minds. Shelves stacked with hopes and dreams. Moments crystallized into colorful, morphing cubes that seem to detach and attach themselves to each other with unknown sentience. Like savoring a glass of milk, could one not also savor time? 

Imagine you could buy another day…”

Hello shoppers, welcome to “B u y M i l k” by producer 音LIGHTシステム (translated on Google as Sound LIGHT System). This album is a pure gem and is one of the first albums I actually ever heard when discovering the world of Vaporwave. A pretty short listen to 9 tracks averaging at 3 minutes a song, “B u y M i l k” consists of a hearty blend of characteristics to please any appetite. You’ll find your go-to Signalwave weather reporter sample as early as track #2 “家族 ｗａｋｅ-ｕｐ” and then shoot right over to a more future funk-inspired piece in the next track “夢 - ｌｉｎｅ”.

Every track has its own personality which can range from polished mixdowns to fuzzy, VHS inspired journeys into your television-watching past. Heavy reverb on hi-hats provides an expansive listen, playing homage to the open and virtually endless ocean behind the island we see in the album art. Tropical shakers and whistling birds in tracks like 夜のコーヒー (which translates to Coffee at Night), emphasizes this feeling of being alone on this cubey, 3D rendered pacific island… But being alone may be the best way to soak in everything we have going on here. For something that is only about 26 minutes long, the artist really came to play and truly deserves to have your full attention for each song we have found here washed upon the shoreline.

Next up on our travels, let's soar high into the sky with the wispy and luxuriously aerodynamic “Purgatory” by Cobalt Road. Vaportrap rendered out to have 20/20 vision, the beats kept at a constant 20,000 feet altitude has “Purgatory” feeling like some of the cleanest and freshest produced Vaportrap in the game. This, in a genre that boasts aggressive instrumentals with sounds flying all over the place, is indeed a breath of fresh air as tracks like “Mirrors” towards the beginning of the album would be nothing but a relaxing simple little tune that may accompany an airport terminal elevator if it wasn’t for the pristine drum production giving it weight and parachuting it back down to earth. The just short of a two-minute track titled “Solitude” is as tranquil as they come, distant synthesizers paired with its liking of humble bongos and the go-to reverb-heavy treatment on hats to really give you this respectful and submissive state of Vaportrap. Everything ends with a bang (especially compared to this albums standards) as the final track “Bliss” explodes into a warped, wanderlust inspired horn riff.

Cobalt Road’s release here is a very calm album that lays in between exhaustingly relaxing background music and traditional, yet super fine-tuned, trap-influenced percussion— “Purgatory” is really the perfect name for this album, in this case, an intermediate state between trap extremities and angelic soft tones.

“Suspended between two points; Light and dark, past and future, joy and sadness, life and death.“

Overall, this is a crispy clean release in the Vaportrap hemisphere; quaint yet sophisticated. “Purgatory” has the ability to be your background music while cleaning the house or writing an essay persay, all while having the ability to also be used as a piece to sit around with friends and bump your heads to its heavy trap underbelly. Which side will you take?

This is what a Metroid game would sound like with a Vaportrap soundtrack.

More so influenced by electronic and cyberpunk flair than anything Vaporwave or aesthetics of that nature, “Urania” by Ganz Feld is a great, great release to check out if you are a Vaportrap fan as its layers upon layers of diverse sounds are nothing short of captivating and inspiring for the hyper-active percussion lying below it.

Released on Dream Catalogue back in 2018, “Urania” has it all. Acid-Techno harps and synths accompanied by this marching style directness on track number #10 “Reprogrammed” is powerful and orchestral, especially those little breaks during the track where we get nothing but this buzzing and zapping drone treatment eventually giving room for the drums to creep back in. Track #2 “Hyperware” provides us a playground of techno and trap all getting along with one another... that ambient interlude towards the end of the track providing a small window of air before you dive back down into the fun.

“Urania” feels like you’ve stumbled upon an alien planet but you have yet to discover the lifeforms that inhabit it, unsure if they are going to be hostile or friendly. The album sways between calm and caffeinated constantly and really paints settings of what this alien world would look like from alien factories leaking with sludge to miles and miles of purple-grass covered hills. Almost every track, from change-ups and interludes within them, feels like it’s 3 different songs all crammed into one. Surprisingly, nothing feels abrupt though and that is why I think this release deserves some serious praise. Track #9 “Massive Chain” is a perfect example of this as layers of instrumentals are literally growing and morphing into their final form with one another, not just merely existing to differentiate from one another and making you think “wait, is this a new track?”

Also, we gotta talk about that album art, for fans of that Y2K aesthetic feast your eyes on this thing of beauty. Not sure if this is an actual 3D-rendered creation for the project specifically or if this alien-like vehicle was taken from a video game or something, but damn this thing just straight up sounds like the music coming off the album. Also, nothing screams “early 2000’s” like the color emerald, jewels, and microfiber. And the hyper-reflective water in the background? What a juicy lookin’ piece!

Last but not least, what I consider to be pretty much my favorite Vaportrap release of all time. NxxxxxS’s 2017 release of “Remember Last Summer”. Inspired by 90’s and 2000’s horror movies, “Remember Last Summer” is smoky in its production and comedically spooky in its sound choices, pitched-down vocal chops and flute melodies on tracks like “1000 Ways To Get Paid” have so much personality in them you can’t help but fall in love with its eclectic flair. This track is then followed up with “Come Home 2nite” that quickly places us on a dark path at twilight with it’s warped synths and slower percussion progression throughout the song. Right after this, “Evil Thoughts Be on My Mind” featuring Soudiere brings us right back in the trap with Halloween inspired sound effects and hard-hitting kicks, snares, and hi-hats.

I really love every single song on here and can go on about them all, my favorite I think would be “1000 Blunts”, that Goodfellas sample in the beginning before the pitch dips and that calm and cool flute beat comes in... it is so rewarding and sounds so damn good (trust me, there is no other way to describe it. So. Damn. Good.)

This album, as well as everything else NxxxxxS has in his discography, has grown on me so much overtime. I remember discovering “Remember Last Summer” right around the time I was obsessing over VAPERROR’s entire catalog and the rest of the Plus100 label in general, and I overlooked it as I was mesmerized by the more upfront, aggressive and harsh Vaportrap that you definitely can find in the bubbly world of VAPERROR and his works. There were 3 vinyl records left of “Remember Last Summer” when I discovered the album (don’t ask me how I remember that, I have a weird memory for things lol) and I regret not picking one up!

Most of you may recognize NxxxxxS by his most popular album, “Fujita Scale” (which is also incredible, to say the least), but for me, “Remember Last Summer” takes the cake with its memorable personality and narrative dedicated to cheesy fun horror movies. If there is one album I couldn’t recommend enough from the Vaportrap scene it is definitely this spooky boi right here, this thing goes ridiculously hard in the paint.

G-funk and 90’s hip hop fed through a Halloween sound effects noise bank and cooked up in the kitchen by NxxxxxS himself, a bag of candy better than any haul you have ever gotten while trick-or-treating... Stay spooky my friends.

Much love, ur boi, Pad Chennington.

The 84 Stories of Vaporwave: What is DERELICTメガタワー?

JOIN THE INTERNATIONAL TEAM AS THEY ATTEMPT TO CATALOGUE A MEGATOWER OF UNTOLD HEIGHTS. WILL YOU MAKE IT TO THE TOP??? 

Today, you and I are going to be dissecting death’s dynamic shroud’s 84 track behemoth known as DERELICTメガタワー.

“So my first impression of Vaporwave was a very sort of negative and it made me take this Puritan stance against sampling… The idea with DERELICTメガタワーwas that, you know, the totality of music history was this “megatower” and every generation adds to their own floor or layer of this megatower… but as we take ideas from the past and recontextualize them or sample them or whatever, like a Jenga tower we are taking pieces from the bottom and putting them on the top…” - James Webster of death’s dynamic shroud.wmv

Ask any Vaporwave fan out there, and they will tell you that nothing ever really comes close to the experience of listening to death’s dynamic shroud. Consisting of Tech Honors, James Webster, and Keith Rankin (whom many of you may recognize for running Orange Milk records as well as the incredible artwork he has done for a handful of artists), the talented trio of death’s dynamic shroud provides a diverse opportunity for production due to the fact that they can mix and match their members to create the exact mood, atmosphere, and tone they are looking to nail for a project with pinpoint accuracy. Like some trio jumping in and out of the playing field in a Marvel vs. Capcom game, death’s dynamic shroud is able to pass their projects to their partners, when one of them knows the track they are currently working on, may benefit better from the talents of another member, or maybe they just simply can't figure out what to do next and inspiration has run dry... It’s a practice that provides a great example of power in numbers, and while Heavy Black Heart is the only actual known album all 3 of the members worked on, there is without a doubt that these members use one another for advice, criticism, or even just a way to look at a track in a new light.

Did you know that Tech made 世界大戦OLYMPICS completely on his own? Or that Keith Rankin never made a solo album under the death’s dynamic shroud monicker? Or how about when James works with Tech, death’s dynamic shroud spits out something more emotionally gripping and haunting like REGRET, or on the other hand, when he works with Keith, we get something way more jarring and obnoxious, the screeching yet melodic siren of I’ll Try Living Like This.

Because of this opportunity to mix and match, death’s dynamic shroud will always provide something wonderful for anyone, and it's always fun discussing their discography with other death’s dynamic shroud fans and seeing which album is their favorite.

“My first experience with death’s dynamic shroud was seeing the album art for I’ll Try Living Like This… I fell in love with the sound that is so unique to them… I love how it seems like if they think an idea is good, they find a way to make it work… they have a way of taking a round object and putting it flawlessly through a square hole, and that’s crazy to me. ” - S h e e p (Fiction Lead and Content Creator for Private Suite Magazine)

For me, I have always been split between 4 of their albums as “my favorite”: Regret, 世界大戦OLYMPICS, I’ll Try Living Like This and DERELICTメガタワー. Obviously, all 4 are completely different from one another and that is why I do not believe I will ever truly be able to pick one. But today, we are going to be specifically focusing on DERELICTメガタワー.

“... but suddenly, Vaporwave was making video game music cool again, and so we were making these mixtapes  for each other passing them back and forth and just  enjoying, so my stance really changed on sampling and recontextualizing music” - James Webster of death’s dynamic shroud.wmv

Despite its massive size of 84 tracks and over 4 hours of music, death’s dynamic shroud’s 2014 release DERELICTメガタワー was created solely by one member of the trio: James Webster. Starting as a concept album for HCMJ (another one of James names to produce music under), the works were eventually transferred into the DERELICTメガタワー album for death’s dynamic shroud.

His 84 track experiment, consisting mostly of old video game samples giving themselves to James for him to control and bend at his will, represents everything Vaporwave is all about to the fullest degree. For most of these tracks, James would focus heavily on the process of recording with tape. Music was recorded onto the 4-track, and then played back into the computer at a lower reel speed. This created a warm, natural slowing and pitching of the samples as opposed to a digital simulation in a DAW.

“... So some of that snarkiness and sort of punk rock energy from that original HCMJ concept still exists in DERELICTメガタワー”  - James Webster of death’s dynamic shroud.wmv

DERELICTメガタワー is simple at its core and represents the idea that you can really do anything in the scene, no matter how serious you take it or not. This is why this album is such a hub world for vapor fans out their, new and old. Just an experiment.

“84 tracks, just like the quests that I’ve never completed in most RPGs, you kind of get lost listening to this album, but luckily unlike our SNES, you can listen to this album on shuffle and still get a great experience.”  - KITE0080 (Vaporwave YouTuber)

The tracks themselves would be nothing without the overpowering aesthetic behind it. I envision the tower in the artwork, some floors being more convoluted while others are mere lobbies... a resting point between two hectic spots. In a way, I also like to think of the album as having to save points. I have never listened to the album straight through and whenever I revisit it, I usually listen to it in chunks eventually pausing at a more calm or simple track among its journey. There is an amazing amount of variety between every song, rainy days and sunny days, really pushing this grand journey as you progress to the top of the megatower.

“... Dream Catalogue, which is where I really wanted to be at the time… I loved what they were doing and I was a huge fan… I felt like, well if I make a 4 hour long album and just send it to them, they won’t be able to say no! ”  - James Webster of death’s dynamic shroud.wmv

And when actually glancing at the tracklist on its Bandcamp listing, that first time you stumble upon that web page and scroll down, witnessing the sheer length of songs PERFECTLY replicates the entire idea of the album in the first place... Looking up at the ever so gigantic, intimidating, dark tower in the middle of a city. You know at first glance, putting aside whether or not you will actually like the music or not, no matter what-- listening to derelict is going to be a challenge for you.

“... and, death’s dynamic shroud really lives up to their name because, if there is one way I can describe this album, it is dynamic. ”  - Magdalen Rose (YouTuber)

So whether one perceives James's reasoning for the massive length of the album as unnecessary filler to stretch a narrative or actual concrete beauty building those floors (or a mix of both), the connection between the albums enormous tracklist and villainous-looking artwork undoubtedly makes you curious about the project altogether.

“... Because death’s dynamic shroud was really just a joke in the beginning about Vaporwave, not necessarily making fun of it, but Tech and I had spent almost a decade making original music and original compositions, playing in bands… so, originally, death’s dynamic shroud was a fun space for us to play around with other people’s music… taking it to its maximum extreme was something that really appealed to me at the time.”  - James Webster of death’s dynamic shroud.wmv

An album this big and/or intriguing easily creates a buzz and, in my opinion, encouraging discussion is one of the most rewarding benefits an artist can achieve when making music; the idea that you can bring people together to discuss it and just have a fun time breaking it down.

If you haven’t geared up for the trek yet, I highly recommend finding the time to listen to this thing. This is not an album you have to listen to in one sitting, I actually recommend you treat it like a book and I think you’ll get the best experience that way, revisiting it whenever you’re ready to take on the long, arduous task ahead.

“... I say it doesn’t really matter… because I think everybody has a unique experience waiting for them inside the megatower”  - Porter Vong (The Richest Man in Vaporwave)

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."

Check out the album below