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.