A Light Genre History of Vaporwave and Relating Genre Elements

So where exactly did what we call Vaporwave come from? Where did all these sounds and following sonic qualities that show up in Vaporwave arrive? Aren't they just beeps and boops that sound electronic while other beeps and boops sound more real? What makes these individual and where did they come from? Well, despite Vaporwave being fairly recent musical pop-up, everything's got a history. From Aphex Twin to Macintosh Plus, this post is going to walk through some of that history.

Like was just said, Aphex Twin. Well, what's Aphex Twin's influence on Vaporwave today? Aphex Twin was a popular EDM/Techno producer in the 1990s but really hit his stride in the late 90s. Aphex twin was a popular mainstream audience by the late 90s despite having an experimental edge. Some people today might say the sound is "tryhard" or "edgy." What this is saying is that it almost has an accidental camp element. This could come from having dark sounds/themes or inserts like voice samples of "I'll eat your soul" and screaming/moaning. Either way you take it, either genuine or slightly too edgy, there are sonic elements within Aphex Twin's that can be linked up to Vaporwave. Let's look at two of Aphex Twin's biggest songs, Window Licker and Come to Daddy. First of all, both songs use a lot of vocal samples manipulated through synthesizers, now this isn't something Vaporwave now has exclusively, quite the opposite. Aphex Twin hit heavy critical claim with his latter 90s songs (you can can't 1992 as his first major achievement) and from that comes influence. Synthed voice samples are everywhere, even outside of electronic music groups. But nonetheless, synthed vocal samples do also find their spot in Vaporwave. Not just the usage of them but the amount of time they exist within the song. Vaporwave uses samples as the entire song backbone at the very least if not more in most cases generally. While Aphex Twin has lots of sample work in this track it isn't the same case. The influence still stands though. just look at the heavy vocal sampling in Macintosh Plus' Floral Shoppe. Come to Daddy is based around several vocal samples as his the other Aphex Twin track this post is bringing up, Window Licker. Window Licker is not only features an even more heavily manipulated vocal sample but also employs a consistently present bass line riff that is shifted and changed throughout. By the end, the bass taken from individual ringing notes and forced into a buzz. This kind of thing is recoverable in Blank Banshee's Ammonia Clouds, Venus Death Trap, and Hyper Object all off of the album "0." These three tracks find themselves doing a similar thing as Window Licker, but of course with their own creative style. For instance, Blank Banshee's tracks use bass that sounds much more like a physical bass guitar being plucked, sample or not.

Speaking of samples, this post wouldn't be able to talk about Vaporwave, a sample based genre of music, without talking about Plunderphonics. Plunderphonics was a sect of music coined by composer John Oswald in a 1985 essay. Plunderphonic music refers to music that is not sample based, but entirely a single sample source manipulated into a track with a beat and rhythm (sometimes this isn't also the case though.) It takes the sample and re-edits, speeds up, slows down, etc, and plays with it, but the sample source is the only thing introduced into the song (some tracks does use a backbeat though.) John Oswald has a track that is just Judy Garland from the wizard of oz saying "rainbow" from the track "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" slowed down to last over a minute. A more recent track from a Vimeo user named "jessethaulfilm" is Br Ba which takes the first episode of the show "Breaking Bad" and re-edits sounds of guns being pulled and Bryan Cranston being nervous into a punchy and quick beat. So it's easy to see the connection from Plunderphonics to Vaporwave, especially with some of the most mainstream and flagship tracks the genre has to offer being so based in a single sample area. Just look at what some call the Vaporwave album, Macintosh Plus' album Floral Shoppe. A lot of the tracks here are mainly a single sample being manipulated and played with into its own unique new track and then having a few new things placed on top (if any.)

From Floral Shoppe theres the opener, ブート(Booting.) This track is entirely the song "Tar Baby" from the artist "Sade" off of the 1985 album "Promise" just slowed down by a lot, re-edited, and with key words and parts repeated and reorder for musical effect. There are no other samples on top of this track beyond Tar Baby. "Booting" is truly one single sample edited and reshaped to make something different within  Vaporwave sonic qualities and thus at heart something within Plunderphonics' qualities as well.

Something worth mentioning in this short history is Muzak. Muzak (word trademarked back in 1954) is a term that refers to a brand ambient music that plays in elevators and stores. So how does this play into Vaporwave? These songs are most always put together to great a positive shopping or consumer environment. Because of this, most things within the designation of Muzak are almost always very soft, smooth, ambient, and attempt to put together a soothing sometimes totally harmonious musical environment. Now, some of these words do clash with some of the general attributes. Things like being constantly soft and consistently harmonious or non-dissonant/positive sounding. But at the same time some of these things work into Vaporwave well, such as ambience and a consumer environment. If you think about it, store music isn't such a ground up production anymore (but I'm no expert in the spread and usage of store music across the world) and elevator music seems to be something of the past. But that's how this jives back into Vaporwave. Exactly due to the fact that it is a bit of an older thing that has passed. Just look at Far Side Virtual.

Far Side Virtual is an album from James Ferraro that is first and foremost is an electronic Muzak work. It's a work that pulls together feelings of early computer programs and 90's/80's elevator music. Because of the aesthetic that it creates, basing itself in 80s/90s technology and consumerism ambiance, people also place it within the Vaporwave category. Though it's interesting because it does utilize samples to create its audio world (as Vaporwave and other sample based genres do), but at the same time many of the tracks and individual sounds in the album are created from the ground up. Everything from melodies to the digital voices going over menu options can often be found without base samples. So Far Side Virtual is kind of an artificial nostalgia creation that fits itself inside of the Vaporwave space due to those reaches at nostalgia within the electronic space. The same way Muzak as a whole has been reaching towards feelings of a different time and place (I.E. Nostalgia) for some time now. The influence on Vaporwave and the individuality of Muzak seems to be notable, and if anything, Vaporwave can always be found sampling Muzak for its own gain.

Lastly, Hardvapour is going to be brought up. Hardvapour is a Vaporwave subgenre that rose up in late 2015 and positioned itself in opposition to the Vaporwave sound with the release of End of the World Rave from Wolfenstein OS X. There's even an album titled "Vaporwave is Dead" featuring a monologue that states "...in the beginnings in the end of the world, vaporwave is dead." Think of Hardvapour as Vaporwave with a punk attitude, faster tempo, and much more musical influence from electronic dance music (like hardcore techno.) All of this, but with the core sampling and sample/aesthetic inspirations of Vaporwave. It completely considers itself the anti-vaporwave, vaporwave sound. This is something present in it's core values as a subgenre as mentioned above. It throws out the smooth muzak feelings and tones of the Vaporwave sound for something more aggressive, hard hitting, and swift. Hardvapour peaked with the release of "Hardvpour." a compilation album from DJ VLAD featuring many different Hardvapour tracks from a large assortment of producers, maxing out at 54 tracks. Since that, most say that the subgenre of Hardvapour has gone pretty quiet.

Today, Vaporwave is still changing and some say it's having it's "second life." We have albums that are very much emphasizing the new age roots of the genre like the self-titled album from New Gaia, and we also have Future Funk tunes from the artist Odaxelagnia and their recent LP "Vapor.wav" that are able to combine the hyperbolic and satirical view of the early Vaporwave visual aesthetic with a unique musical approach to make something new that satisfies the innate humour of the genre as well as the experimentation present in its identity. Vaporwave is something special. It has such a vague definition as to what it is that almost a mysticism surrounds what actually makes Vaporwave Vaporwave to the newcomer. The humor and the memes can also make that much harder, but once you clear through that fog you can clearly see how much creative opportunity exists within this and can still be defined as Vaporwave.

Blank Banshee - 0 album review

Blank Banshee's album "0" is primarily a work of ambience and techno sampled relaxed beats. The album sounds like an old computer from the mid 90s being booted up and brought into the music-scape of the 2010s, and it might as well be. A lot of the manipulated, sampled, and even created sounds come straight from the tech and computer sounds and vibrations from those days passed. At face value, this is a slow tempo electronic album and it utilizes the "past" setting to its musical advantage. Mainly because the aesthetic of Blank Banshee's "0", the nostalgic warped tones, the jazzy and dance-like melodies, and the relaxed speed. "0" comes off as un-aggressive and unforced. The album is cooperative with the listener. It doesn't force the feelings of enjoyment or ambiance into the audience's face, rather it uses its buzzing tones that drone on for sometimes song lengths of time to become enjoyable to the person listening. And this feeling probably comes up from the individual samples and tones chosen for each individual song. None of them really sting or pop in a way that feels like other modern electric music. Blank Banshee created music here that has tones that rather slide into the rest of the musical combination. This is done either by the way of slowly increasing the volume of an individual element, such as the aforementioned tones, or selecting a sample or synthetic sound that is "softer" and feels, like I said before, unforced.

Some have classified this piece as more specifically a "Vaportrap" kind of sound. "Vaportrap" being ,as the name implies, more hip hop influenced. This being usually through the samples chosen as the track backbones mixed with the beats chosen and the beat tempo. All these being closer to something hip hop influenced. This being said, the reason for the classification as "Vaportrap" sometimes is probably because of 2 or 3 tracks on here with increased tempo and definitely a more rave-type feeling or vibe to them. For one of these main culprits just look at the track "Bathsalts."

 "Bathsalts" features deep percussive elements akin to popular hip hop and dance tracks. There's a deep loose drum present throughout the entirety of the song. We get the consistent wirey flare of a rave siren as the front facing feature of the main melody. We even have the sample word and namesake "bathsalts" being played, warped, and re-warped for changing pitches and speeds past the halfway point. This track is very much a dance/hip hop song. These are the classic attributes of such a thing. It's mostly obvious that it's a dance/hip hop track after just one listen. This track as well as the tracks "Hyper Object" and "Photosynthesis" are probably the reason for the occasional classification as "Vaportrap." Those tracks all contain qualities that feel more on the "Vaportrap" side of things. Faster tempo, stinging dance type beats, loose and heavy percussion, and familiar dance aesthetics like "sirens." These songs are in contrast to the ambient Vaporwave feelings that encapsulate the rest of "0" featured in songs like "B:/ Start UP."

On the other side of the coin we have a track that fully embodies the ambient Vaporwave qualities of Blank Banshee's "0." This being "B:/ Start Up." At its heart and soul this album is an ambient electronic piece featuring full bodied buzzing electronic tones with heavy sampling and a relaxed tone. "B:/ Start up" is the thesis for the aesthetic qualities of this album. This track is basically the windows start up sound manipulate to move forward then in reverse with claps and a back beat for the whole first half. After that more tones moving at a faster speed are added. "B:/ Start Up" is an ambient, fun, and light track with buzzing, oscillating waves all inspired by the sounds of old technology.

The descriptions above may make it seem like this album is all in similar tone, but that's not true. For example the first half of "0" features three tracks all featuring (if not based around, than at the forefront) fairly complex bass melodies and bass manipulation. These tracks are "Ammonia Clouds", "Venus Death Trap", and "Hyper Object." They keep the overall "Vaporwave" feelings of the the album but still remain creative within that. "Venus Death Trap" has almost a jazzy feel to it's bass line while mixing a warped piano sample into it as well. What we get here is a puzzled but still calm feeling. All these three tracks keep that tone of calm confusion, like a maze that's easy to figure out but you're taking your own time with it because you have the whole day. Basically, it's a positive and enjoyable tone.

Blank Banshee's album "0" is one of the early flagship and entry level piece's of Vaporwave work. It's a unique and creative handful of ambient electronic that will always cause heads to nod out of enjoyment. With its classic feelings and vibrations with phasing slow electronics that have way of just sliding right into the good parts of your head, Blank Banshee's "0" is a good piece of music to check out. This is a banger.

Macintosh Plus - Floral Shoppe review

As an album, Floral Shoppe (2011) from Macintosh Plus (who also goes by the name Vektroid), is a relaxing mix of ambient dissonance and many manipulated samples from the past. It's for many among the 'mainstream' or 'netstream' the flagship seminal Vaporwave piece that represents the visual and sonic aesthetic of the genre. The album contains works that are loaded with, if not entirely composed of, samples from 80s/90s audio media and 80s/90s technology (such as computer start up and old program sounds.) This post is going to follow through and evaluate each track on Floral Shoppe, from its sonic elements to how those interior elements fall into and represent the audio qualities of Vaporwave.

1:ブート (Booting)
First off, in terms of length of the song in the context as an opener track we're looking at around three minutes. This isn't nearly the longest track on here but isn't one of the shorter ones either. The song is made entirely out a manipulated, heavily slowed down version of "Tar Baby" from the artist Sade's 1985 album "Promise." It's mostly the song playing out without much interruption, just slowed down. It feels passive and unaggressive. Periodically the artist does go back and loop some sections and play previous sections over the current, prominent sounds. At the most you have three different points in the track playing at the same time. Some people say this isn't very creative while others say it leans more experimental or playful.

2: リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー (Lisa Frank 420/ Modern Computing)
If you've only ever heard one Vaporwave track, odds are high that it's this one. Seriously, this is The Vaporwave track from anything to simple examples, but mainly, to jokes and the 'meme culture' that surrounds the genre. This track is in its entirety a slowed down version of Diana Ross' 1984 track "It's Your Move" off of the album "Swept Away." The same comments about creativity on the opener track can definitely extend to this one. This is a heavily ambient sound created here.

3: 花の専門店 (Flower Shoppe)
At this point you may be noticing a pattern of not just sampling, but making tracks almost entirely out of a sample. The sample in this track is "If I Saw You Again" off the self-titles album from Pages in 1978. In terms of editing, it's a bit more on the Booting side of things with a bit more actual editing and manipulation of the sample in the track. Opening guitar and drums are stopped and repeated at regular intervals that great a dissonant atmosphere, but a smooth one that then contrasts the slowed down version of the track when the repeating stops. It almost feels like a sci-fi neo-jazz type sound at the speed it has.

4:ライブラリ (Library)
The sample here is the track "You Need a Hero" from Pages off of their 1981 self-titled album. What we get here is a 2 minute 43 second track that is a slowed down version of the song. The only other edits that are up front made to the sample are some points where one of the main melodies is repeated and played on top of the ongoing track. Because of the slow down, the jazz vibes are made even smoother. You could say, even less crispy.

5: 地理 (Geography)
This is really interesting because this song's main sample is the underwater level theme from the 1997 Turok videogame. It's mostly just once again a slowed down version with some selective track layering but that doesn't mean that the sound isn't super entrancing and relaxing, because it is. It takes something that I assume was to add to the action elements of an action game and makes it dreamlike.  
6:  ECCOと悪寒ダイビング (Chill Divin' with ECCO)
If the previous song was calm and dreamlike, this track is actually a dream, or at least, that's the feeling it seems to be going for and comes off with. Using the sample of "Deja Vu" from Dancing Fantasy's album "Worldwide" (1993) the song comes off as a sleeping ocean of sound, and by that i mean it's an extremely ambient and slow song. Think elevator music or the background sound in a spa. It's calm with the goal of calming. Though once again, from a creative standpoint, this track is another within the "slow down and introduce repetition at some points" formula of this album. Though in the end, the path to get to the piece doesn't affect the piece of music itself. 

7: 数学 (Mathematics)
This track once again takes a piece from Dancing Fantasy's 1993 album "Worldwide", this time heavily utilizing the self titled track. The track is very transformative with this sample though. It all opens up really ambient, noisy, and fuzzy, bordering on glitch noise and continues into an insert of the sample's saxophones. As the track continues the background glitch noise fades into the background somewhat and the horns take more foreground space. A very passive and positive track at an over 6 minute runtime.

8: 外ギン Aviation (Foreign Banks Aviation)
This track adds onto Flower Shoppe's list of songs that use Dancing fantasy's "Worldwide." The sample here is Carioca Groove. The track feels like the title implies. It feels like you're relaxing at a swanky tropical airport, early for your flight, spending your time lounging around and taking in the fresh air and upscale scenery. Out of all the tracks here, this one sounds the most entirely positive. By that I mean consonant, most of, if not all, the other tracks on Floral Shoppe utilize a lot of crunchy, or dissonant, harmonies that create a constant surreal atmosphere, but "外ギン Aviation" is sticking itself firmly in a serene actuality.

9: て (Te)
No matter where you may look, it seems like it might be impossible to find a proper source sample(s?) for this song. It seems every noise in this is original, or it's such a deep mix of multiple samples that you can't identify an original. At face value, the feeling that falls out of this song is like the game save screen of an old JRPG, which is fitting considering the Vaporwave mold of old technology and media. The track cracks at peak high notes with the fuzz of an older SD television and creates an atmospheric that seems fitting to the realm of witches and wizards or Final Fantasy.

10: 月 (Moon)
This track makes fantastic use of the song "I Only Have Eyes for You" from Zapp's 1988 album The New Zapp IVU. It's simultaneously disorienting and a banger. The main thing this track does is slow down the main sample, but doing that really transforms it. It's an otherworldly ambient atmosphere that is really easy to get your body into thanks to the thudding repetitious bass and long vocal notes being stretched out for so long due to the slow down. This is one of the top tracks on the album. It's dizzying and almost on the verge of danceable at the same time. 

11: 海底 (Seabed)
This song breaks the established mold of this album and the general definition of Vaporwave to some extent by featuring a very contemporary sample of Jamie Foxx's "Sleeping Pill" from the album Best Night of My Life (2010). Imagine the previous track, but more poppy.  It's the same general approach, but the pleasant atmosphere is promoted to something mainly in the dissonant space that causes the track to sit mostly in the "uncomfortable" ambient range. And in a very Vaporwave move, this track just sort of ends at 2:18. 

What we can take away from this album is that it's an incredibly unique ambient piece that can satisfy somebody looking for something on the experimental side. There are known qualms in regards to the creativity, or lack there of, related to Floral Shoppe and whether or not Macintosh Plus is really producing new work here because they pull so heavily from each sample. I think those comments are pretty quickly dismissed once you see how Macintosh Plus is so transformative with every sample used. Floral Shoppe takes something familiar and turns into something that is simultaneously still familiar and absolutely different at the same time.