OSCOB / Digital Sex - Overgrowth - Overgrowth is easily one of the best albums to come out of vaporwave so far and stands as something of a landmark for the genre. It made enough waves that some folks were pushing for a new label, “Naturewave”, to describe its distinctive take on vaporwave, which focuses on natural-sounding samples and “organic” feeling compositions. I don’t think a genre as niche as vaporwave needs further fragmentation into subgenres, especially considering how much it already has to fight against being labelled as a “meme genre”, but Overgrowth certainly is unconventional. It managed to carve out a unique sound and deal with subjects beyond the typical malls and 90s operating systems while still capturing the vaporwave A E S T H E T I C. The album’s soundscape evokes walking through a forest, with all its verdant darkness, growth and decay. Many of its samples lie outside the typical vaporwave-fare; birdsongs and water trickle through, lifted from field-recordings & nature documentaries. Vocal samples are used sparingly, but when they do appear, it is to great effect. Mother, Afterglow, and Complex all stand out as particularly outstanding in this regard. Even if vaporwave hasn’t been your cup of tea in the past, I’d recommend that you give this album a serious listen. Favorite Track: ‘Complex’
Soft Lashes - Silk Decay - I stumbled onto this album while it was featured on Bandcamp – I decided to give a listen mostly because I liked the album art (judging books and albums by their covers actually has worked fairly well as a heuristic in my experience ¯_(ツ)_/¯). If you’re into bedroom/dream pop, this will likely be in your wheelhouse. I tried to avoid using the term “jangle” here, but the guitar tone really kind of begs for that description. Favorite track: Revive + Aimless
Ved Buens Ende - Written in waters - This is a re-release of an old 90s avant-garde Norwegian black metal album by Ved Buens Ende. As a band, they very much were ahead of their time: in 1995, when this album was first released, nothing sounded even remotely like it. It took the world a few decades to catch up; finally in the last few years, there have been some new black metal releases cropping up that harken back to the sound of Written in waters. Unfortunately this was the only full album they released: they did release an EP in 1997, but I haven’t managed to track down a copy and no one has yet done a re-release of it. Favorite Track: ‘I Sang for the Swans’
Four Tet - Anna Painting - Not one of my favorite Four Tet records, but I decided to give it another chance this week and it started to grow on me quite a bit. Favorite track: Either ‘Anna Painting’ or ‘Lahaina Noon’
Bowery Electric - Beat - Bowery Electric was one of the first American post-rock bands of the 90s, blending elements of trip-hop and ambient with shoegazey guitar work. Beat was their sophmore album, released in 96 following one year behind their self-titled debut. Compared with Bowery Electric, Beat tones down the murky, shoegazey guitars in favor of a much-crisper, synth-fueled sound. The album’s main single, ‘Fear of Flying’, managed to get quite a bit of college radio airplay at the time, but for the most part, Bowery Electric never quite blew up in the way that some of their more genre-conforming contemporaries did (cf shoegaze’s MBV or trip-hop’s Massive Attack). Despite this, Beat helped put the use samplers, synths and drum-machines on the map for many of the post-rock acts that followed them. Favorite Track: ‘Beat’
Weatherday - Come In - Now that 2019 is coming to a close, I feel that I can safely say that this is one of the best albums released this year and certainly one of my favorite. Buzzing just beneath the surface of every track is an electric, emotionally-raw undercurrent. Often, the mixing of lo-fi albums comes across to me as being poorly-done, but here the lo-fi production results in a warm and fuzzy sonic patina that adds to the charm and honesty of the album. Come In has managed to resist my best efforts at categorizing it, but somehow it keeps finding its way back into my rotation. Favorite Track: ‘Come In’ or ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’
