Vapor Vertebrae 10-2016

STΛQQ ƟVERFLƟ
Desolate // Dream

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"Synthetic emotions, synthetic life," that's the unique selling point of forest druid STΛQQ ƟVERFLƟ's underbrush-infested vapor veils. And indeed: although I love his nomenclature of apocryphal clicks and artificial fauna, this faux-nomological locale, while usually depicted in the green artworks, is not the only means of interpreting a song's endemic eclecticism. Desolate // Dream is a prime example of two entangled parallax layers: the titular desolation (1) within a dream (2). This is certainly STΛQQ ƟVERFLƟ's most strikingly serious construction which happens to mesh 90's Goa Trance with Ambient. In the epicenter: a crestfallen twelve-note piano aorta that is alloyed by pulsatile blebs and caustic gluons of deep immersion. Deliciously contrapuntal a force to this surreal state: a softly ligneous bongo beat — turns out that the poetic life of the forest protrudes even the greatest style-related distance after all.

Twitter: @StaqqOverflo

Dan Mason ダン·メイソン
Unknown Forest

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”An Eco Virtual inspired beat” Dan Mason promises, and we don't want it any other way. Isn't he a great presidential candidate? Whatever: the coppices and underbrushes of the artist also known as Akihabara Forest are translucent and chlorotic to begin with, but these attributes are just the spawning point. Unknown Forest supersedes these attributes by means of cleverly Trap-oriented dew-coated beats; situated between four-to-the-floor mannerisms and post-millennial breakbeat patterns, the 6/8ish nature of the rhythm is a gorgeous counterpoint to the lavishly languorous lure of the tropics. From cerulean synth strings over viridian piano cataracts to a wondrously glaucous snare-underlined dawn chorus at the end: Unknown Forest encompasses the benignant reticulation of the artist's nomological prowess. Download this forest so that you get to know it.

Twitter: @DanMasonVapor

Conscious Thoughts
Take Me Away

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You know you're in the right place when Glaswegian Future Funk producer Conscious Thoughts crosses your labyrinthine path via his altruistic aureoles, sure thing, but the gorgeously amicable and intendedly ultramafic luminosity of the very first Rhodes chords — as experienced in Take Me Away, ladies and gents — exudes an overwhelmingly colorful aura. The principal three-note scheme is ameliorated through softly caustic blips, sweeping cymbal cascades and looped vocals in pitched states. The dry guitar chords add not-so-contrapuntal moments of dryness amidst the blissful scenery. A club-compatible beat? Check. However, Chris's saturated synths regularly outshine the medulla-emptying kick drums. Maybe that's the reason Future Funk remains a highly relevant potion in a millennial's workout.

Twitter: @ChrissyCray1

Woolookologie
Out Of The Subway

<東京 LP>

Out Of The Subway is the first part of a duo of tracks, i.e. the other side of a single coin whose LP-grown proportion is known as 東京 which translates into a certain peaceful village called Tokyo. Woolokologie is the wizard, also known in Vaporwave circles as Tilvera, a further representation by the human(e) musician called Luis, himself frequently featured here at AmbientExotica. The other track of the dual sound protrusion is called Departure, but I have chosen Out Of The Subway instead due to its preludic innergy amidst an otherwise highly technophile setting. In lieu of millions of people in one place and the hectic frenzy of tomorrow, Luis chooses to ameliorate the Doppler effect-accentuated, service announcement-underlined anacrusis by a supracrystalline amalgamation of synth streams, scintillating clicks and wondrously peaceful, sanctuary-compatible macro moments of tranquility. The insight given in Out Of The Subway prospers in the adjacent Departure, but this equally enchanting epithelium is for the artist to know… and you to find out.

Twitter: @Woolookologie

Future Girlfriend 音楽
Shades Of Emotions

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Futue Funk and Japanese traits fit together quite well; it's redundant to articulate this insight in terms of Vaporwave, as the reciprocation between the Far East and bedroom synthesizers is a given. The lure of Funk, however, doesn't transpire as easily. Asuncion, Paraguay-based Future Girlfriend 音楽 begs to differ time and again, what with his colloidal flumes and synthetically cascading legato structures that make — and never break — a track. Shades Of Emotions, admittedly, is a lighter affair, more easygoing and aesthetically plastic, willfully so. Celebrating 5000+ followers and counting, the artist ventures into Tam Arrow-like sped-up bubblegum territory, subsuming archetypically Shinzō lyrics, coruscating J-Pop euphony as well as vestiges of Bronx (or was that bronze?) hollers. It's fast, it's hyperchromatic, it's emotions in an iridescent Funk corset, transitions included! 

Twitter: @futuregfmusic

Vaperror
Stranger Errors

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It's a cover of the Stranger Themes song. Nothing more, but most importantly: nothing less. Athens, Georgia-based Juke joker, Rave raider and veil vaper Vaperror comes along with a wee track that is an all-too-short prestidigitation, i.e. finger exercise for the well-versed producer. But what it encompasses in its short runtime of less than a minute is the certain knowledge that the artist manhandles every aural locale he creates, be it completely original or, as is the case here, a darkly simmering cavernous cyberpunk back alley he adheres to. Moog-oid eight-note helixes and rubicund-granular synth stabs of hatched/toned down elation invoke a diffeomorphism that might serve as an ancillary route… or the first adaxial column to Vaperror's moonlit solanum phase. Whatever the truism, make sure to cling to ya boi vape (exclamation mark follows)!

Twitter: @VAPERROR

Television Spectre
Pixar

<Phantom Software 2 LP>

Filed away under "New Age" — because why the heck not — is the amethystine beauty of Pixar by Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Television Spectre. Taken from the album Phantom Software 2, this analog abyss oscillates, gyres and coruscates adaxially through the ever-morphin ether. An Ambient piece at its heart, Pixar transfigures and diffuses itself and is hence in a state of permanent metamorphosis. From fuchsia flares over centrifugal glissando jitters to semi-celestial rhenium-infested stokehold memories complete with technocratic pipes, Television Spectre's track is a subset of ideas, pulsatile pastries/pastiches and diaphanous dioramas, united by the timbrical focus on vermillion hues and gouraud galactosamines. A stop-and-go cannelure, if you will, but an audaciously velveteen one at that. 

Twitter: @tvspectre

Vaporwave Review 164: Vapor Vertebrae 10/2016. Originally published on Oct. 6, 2016 at AmbientExotica.com.