Summer 2011: I downloaded Laserdisc Visions' New Dreams LTD. I wanted so badly to understand it, but I felt more confused than anything, especially after being so enamored for months with the perfection that still is Vektroid's Telnet Erotika. At this point, we were still a year and a half away from the first use of 'vaporwave' as a genre name, and all I knew about whatever I was hearing from New Dreams LTD. was "this sounds...different." Nonetheless, I downloaded everything I could find of the other Beer on the Rug releases, and what made me fully get whatever this newfangled genre was, was Midnight Television's self-titled album.
A decade before, I was looking longingly out my window facing the second busiest street in my hometown at 1:00 a.m., seeing people drive by and wondering where they were going, why they were out so late, what my town even had to offer at night. If I wasn't staring out the window, I was surfing online, looking around for Incubus-related media and thinking about how I wanted a shirt from T-Shirt Hell. My choices. Or I was in my bedroom, flipping through the channels, either stumbling onto color bars or George Foreman Grill paid programming, eventually settling on The Weather Channel as I got ready for bed. All of that to say: Midnight Television, within a ten minute album, hit every mark and sent me back to my early days of high school and the memories I mentioned above. Since then I'd chased and looked and downloaded so many albums in the broken transmission/signalwave genre for an album that would hit me in a similar way, or at least have a similar vibe, and I'd say International Telecom's ３ａ.ｍ.Ｓｉｇｎａｌｓ hits pretty close.
Nine tracks and four bonus tracks of music you'd hear or wish to hear as you channel surfed in the middle of the night, damn well knowing you're not going to find anything outside of paid programming, color bars, Girls Gone Wild commercials and phone sex ads, and uninteresting classic movies. Knowing you need to go to sleep but being too stubborn to do so. Wishing that you could go explore your hometown at night as you saw others do but lacking the courage and a driver's license. Originally released in early 2023 via TVVIN_PINEZ_M4LL's label, B O G U S // COLLECTIVE, this album later got a cassette release via Aexion's label, Enterprise, which sold out. I am jealous of all of you who have this one on tape, truly. This album has some top notch sampling choices and provides the most comforting vibes that I'd last experienced with 猫 シ Corp.'s NEWS AT 11. I don't know if these comparisons will help in enticing you to check this album out if you've not done so, but LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM. Just fucking do it.
You can find the album for free at the link below:
