Saturday, March 22, 2025

Cool Albums for March 22, 2025

Hello, I know it's been nearly two months since I've posted around these parts, but I felt inspired after a walk with mp3 player number three this evening and felt like I should post about some cool albums I've been listening to lately. As always, all links will open in a new tab. 

days of blue skies - As The Days Go By.... - Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous album. As I said in a previous post, slushwave can be hit or miss for me, but when this album hits, it hits. If Only Today Lasted Forever, Night Drive, West to East, Soft Moonlight...all of them are pure gems. Please check this one out.
TCR-4 - daily media - I've listened to so much Mom and Dad's Computer lately, half because I truly enjoy it but half because MDC is so prolific that I have countless albums of theirs to check out. I'm a sucker for the MDC-related albums that thrive in a 2000s frutiger-nostalgic world and I feel like they curate that vibe for their releases in a way that itches my brain. For this one, just imagine if somebody stumbled upon a WebTV music playlist that's nothing but dance-y bangers, and there you go.
Afterdeath Television - Mater Natura - This release is stunning. Another new age-y nature-filled release in a similar realm as the FM Forest album I'd previously mentioned on this blog, apparently inspired by Overgrowth. The sample choices are lovely, and it was a comforting album to listen to in the midst of grieving. Really glad I gave this one a listen after I admittedly listened to another ADTV album that didn't fully gel with me.
OnlineSculpture - 美しい都会の女の子! - I forget how I stumbled onto this artist, but this five track EP goes into some unexpected and very fun sampling directions. It reminds me of something I would have heard back in the early early days of vaporwave, where chillwavers and other electronic artists were sampling and the lines of "is it vaporwave or is it not" were very blurred. Track two has this killer post-punk sounding bassline that I absolutely live for, and I hope this artist chooses to make a full album in the future.
Faint Waves - Paradiso: The Alternate Paradise - It's crazy as fuck to listen to an alternate version of a release before hearing the original, but I'll listen to it in the future. For now, I will say that the Paradiso versions seem to put a Balearic spin on the original tracks in a way that gives me full-on Pure Moods. This actually played on my mp3 player right after Mater Natura, and may I say I think they compliment each other well. 

There are definitely others I've liked in the last few months and I could go way way back and link those, but maybe I'll get to doing that eventually. I hope this post finds you well, and we'll talk again next time, whenever that will be. xoxo

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Video 2000 - Midnight Ride & Remixes


A Trip Down Memory Lane, starring luxury elite:

Video 2000, if I recall correctly, was recommended to me through the SoundCloud algorithm, and seeing comments from Liz of SPF420 and Reverb Lite on one of his tracks basically resulted in an insta-click on the play button. I forget which track it was, maybe Waiting For You? But I knew I had to get him on Fortune 500

When he sent me Midnight Ride, I was floored. It was different from much of the albums I'd heard in the scene at the time, and looking back, was an early adopter in the VHS Pop territory. I used to go on daily walks during the spring and summer with my mp3 player in one hand and a water bottle in the other, and though I had plenty of albums I listened to, Midnight Ride was one of my three hype up go-tos. I do not like ranking any Fortune 500 albums, we saw what happened when another label chose to do that with terrible results, plus I think that is mean! But I will say that Midnight Ride holds a special place in my heart, and I'm so thrilled to have given it the platform it deserved. 

Arctic Contact gave me a heads up that Midnight Ride was getting a tape release, and my first reaction was "FUCKING FINALLY." Video 2000's only cassette release had a terribly poor rollout on a label I refuse to name, and I remember coming back online and wondering why Midnight Ride never got a chance to shine in a cassette setting. Arctic Contact did a stellar job in giving Eternal its well-deserved flowers, and I knew that Midnight Ride would be treated just as wonderfully. But THE REMIXES? BABY.

BABY.

The remix side is a who's who of modern VHS Pop, sprinkled with cool vaporhomies, even a Mabisyo feature! And everybody killed it. I felt such pride, like I was watching my baby grow up and it's not even my damn child. I love when Fortune 500 alumni get their flowers, and I consider Fortune 500 artists to be family. 

If you've not checked Midnight Ride out, I highly recommend you do! And if you've heard the album already, have you at least checked out the remixes? Because they're absolute bops. 

Have a track from the original album:


And have a track from the remix side:



The cassettes have long sold out, but you can still check this album out at the link below:


Sorry I've been so quiet; January was a busy busy busy month for me, between releasing a new 1-800-TONIGHT album, working on two URL sets, doing visuals for a Twin Peaks-related show in the IRL realm, and admittedly...a bit of a crisis. The burnout has been real, and this post has been long overdue. Hopefully I'll be returning to a more frequent posting schedule again soon! xoxo

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

New Releases for December 25, 2024



Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! I may update this if more Christmas-themed releases appear in my inbox today. 

New Releases

TCR-4 - F e s t i v e - Released December 25, 2024
Various Artists - Low Jolly Depression - Released December 25, 2024
Paco Moreno - Paco Moreno's Kmart Christmas - Originally released December 6, 2024, but released physically via Disklab on December 21, 2024.

And if you missed the last post, I'll link these one more time:

FOTOshoppeツ - Christmas Forecast - Released December 23, 2024

And one more that I forgot about posting a week or two ago:

Various Artists - Holiday Countdown - Released December 1, 2024

xoxo, and ho ho ho! 

Monday, December 23, 2024

Cool Albums for December 23, 2024: Roadtrip Edition (and a few other links)

As I mentioned in the last post, I went out of town for a few days, visiting family and seeing high school homies. The trip had some good and bad moments, but could have been worse overall. I took two of my mp3 players with me; the FiiO X3 Mark III (with its not great battery) was used for the three hour trip to and from my hometown, and my Dodocool DA106 was used as I was driving around town and exploring. I have different albums loaded on each player, so I had a ton of new things to check out (and some to revisit). As always, links will open in a new window!

Cool Albums
Various Artists - DE PROFUNDIS - This dungeon vaporwave/synth/dark ambient release curated by The Expanding Earth brings various sounds and vibes together to create a really interesting and cohesive album. I'm actually on this one as 1-800-TONIGHT with a track that will appear on an album that will hopefully eventually be finished soon, and I feared that it would not work too well with the rest of what would be on the album, but consider me pleasantly surprised. One of my favorite moments of my trip happened as I was on the bypass, facing the sunset, listening to Aus der Tiefe, and it was the perfect combination. I actually ended up recording it on my camera, and I need to move it and the rest of my photos over to the computer to see how they all turned out. 
ALIAS 404 - S​e​a​s​i​d​e R​e​s​o​r​t - I love a good summer-themed album, and it seems that this artist released quite a few of them that I'm going to have to check out soon! I really loved the sample choices and the loops and chops that enhanced some of these tracks. I was driving in bitter cold temperatures, and listening to this left me longing for a visit to the ocean. This album is super cute, check it out!
gh0st - 喚起 - Unreal that this album is four years old now. I've loved this album since its release, but it'd admittedly been a bit since I'd checked it out. What a reunion! I found myself with additional favorites on the album (𝓮𝓷𝓾𝓯𝓯 𝓵𝓾𝓿 is hypnotic, and I had forgotten that 前回 is a sample twin with one of my favorite Topaz Gang tracks, so chills galore with that one once the sax came in), and I am still convinced that 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝒾𝓃' is one of the best late night lo-fi tracks to come out in the last few years, just perfection. I've really enjoyed gh0st's albums, but this one is my favorite. Perfect use of verses, perfect chop use, perfect everything. 
modern dream - FLYING HOME EXPERIENCE - I know that the album where it was released had some controversies a few years back (catfishing/fake identities, doxxing me as a humblebrag to somebody else), but I try to look past it and enjoy the releases that got caught in the crossfire and had nothing to do with the label owner's decisions. This album sounds like part synthwave album, part dreampunky, part 'tribute to Vangelis', and it's so, so good.
Sport3000 - C​l​e​a​r​a​n​c​e S​a​l​e - The first tracks sound like a love letter to the Kmart tapes that took the internet by storm many years ago, but as the album continues, you hear some songs experiencing the result of tape wear, or sounding like a skipping CD (something that ended up stressing me out mid-drive home, hahaha), and the last tracks go into eerie hums and noises, which I just discovered was an intentional choice meant to signify the death of a department store. I really liked this one! 
//𝙡𝙮_ - /​/​just_ - This three track EP with titles that say "just the other ____" samples popular jazz artists but incorporates a funk/hip hop vibe to all of them. My favorite //𝙡𝙮_ album still is a view down the valley, released on Dark Web Recordings and goes into insane looping that makes the original source sound totally unrecognizable for the most part, but I do love these quick //𝙡𝙮_ EPs that go into VHS pop territories. Hoping that Ally comes back soon!
👁‍🗨📲 - 👁​点​击​と​👁 - Though this album came out in December of last year, many quickly put it at the top of their "Best of 2023" lists, and for good reason. I have plenty of unsolicited hot takes about vaporwave, but one of my biggest pet peeves about some vaporwave is how I feel like people use full verses and choruses of original tracks way too heavily, almost like a crutch. Just recently, I heard an album that literally slowed down the entirety of Saturday Love by Cherelle and Alexander O'Neal and called it a day, and I was super pissy about it. I think that using large amounts of the original sample in a song can open up the possibility of vaporwave artists getting targeted by labels regarding copyright infringement/takedown notices, but in a creative sense, can also hinder the potential of what a song can transform into as a vaporwave song. Take Nobody Here as an example: he turned a love song about dancing with a lady in red and transformed it into an anthem of isolation and loneliness. I feel like, the less people use of vocals and verses, the more creative the transformation can be. All of that to say, and going back to actually talking about Eyeclick here, I feel like Will and Nathan do a great job of using vocal heavy songs, but they use them more as a component rather than a crutch. They chop the fuck out of the vocals, they paulstretch the hell out of them, they turn them into bizarre eccojammy sorts of things. It doesn't feel like the vocal is the forefront of the song, it feels more like the vocal is just a part of an overall theme they're going for with each album, more of a compliment or a cherry on top of what they're going for instrumentally. Do I sound snobby yet? Anyway, all of that to say, listen to this album, it's fantastic. I am the number one 台​湾​SWAG​『​Princess​』​外​约​网​(​k 7 7 9 9 . c n​)​遇​到​以​前​同​班​跩​跩​的​校​花 想​干​她​很​久​了 见​面​一​定​要​好​好​教​训​她 stan, just saying!
CyanBlue - Cyanide - Cyan's third album was excellent company as I drove around my hometown, taking photos in the bitter cold. I'd say this one's my favorite of his. He can do insane flips of already great 80s pop tracks and transform them into extravagant bops like it's nothing (click here for the perfect example), but there's something about this album that sounds...a bit more mature, maybe? Definitely elevated. Great sample choices as always, and it grooves and grooves. I will say that I was blown away by the track Over and Over because I really genuinely thought that all of the components of this song were from an original 80s track. It blew my mind when I discovered the verses were being sung by Lavera and Seth Nova. Def check this out.

And a quick shoutout to unknown settlement - autumnal gloam, something I discovered before I went on my trip. It's a short and sweet classical TV signalwave release, the tracks sounding like they were ripped from old late 70s/early 80s sign-offs of some sort. It's gorgeous!

Additionally, some New Releases, of which there's not many. I'm sure folks are waiting to start releasing albums in the new year. But here are a few!
ʍindƨpring ʍeʍorieƨ™ - @_@ - Originally released on Swamp Circle on December 18, 2014, but released physically via GLOBAL PATTERN on December 18, 2024.
FOTOshoppeツ - Christmas Forecast - Released December 23, 2024

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Links post for December 17, 2024

I'll be heading out of town for a few days, so I figured I'd make a quick post before I went radio silent. I'll be back in time for Pad Chennington's Ugly Sweater Party on Sunday (something that I'm a part of!), and hopefully I'll be back with some albums to shout out in the next post. This one won't be as mega as the last post, but it'll still be a goodie. As always, links will open in a new window. Here we go.

Cool Albums

LAST CEREMONY - Sunsets & Late Night Drives - I've listened to quite a few LAST CEREMONY releases in the last year or so, but this one's my favorite. The title track is a gorgeous introduction to this appropriately named album, of starting your drive at blue hour and continuing well into the night time as passing cars are fewer and fewer, and turning off your car in the driveway at 2:00 a.m. with bleary eyes and clarity. Kinda reminds me of how I try to organize my Late Night Lofi tracklists a bit. The only complaint I have about this album is minor, and a bit of a compliment: I wish it were longer.
TCR-4 - M​o​s​t​l​y​ ​C​l​o​u​d​y - A short but sweet signalwave album (that gives me hints of barber beats with the sample selection) that's inspired by the Pacific Northwest. It's relaxing, it's cozy, it's quite pleasant. 
you still feel them out there, don't you - 最 後 に 永 遠 に - Admittedly, slushwave can be hit or miss for me. Whether it's the sample selection, what is being sampled in the song (I feel like you've seen me say more than once that I wish people didn't use full versus and choruses as a crutch and get a little more creative in what the song is sampling, which may be a hot take), but this album from YSFTOTDY is BEAUTIFUL. Great sample selections, and the tracks take me on a hell of a journey. I usually see a 26 minute song and think "why in the world does a track need to be this long", but 木 の 誕 生 / 竹 月 worked fantastically, reminding me of the end of one of my favorite Deerhunter songs in how both tracks make you feel like waves are crashing around and over you. While Little Kids by Deerhunter leaves you feeling disturbed, 木 の 誕 生 / 竹 月 provides nothing but tranquility. 
Various Artists - S​​​Ξ​​​CR​​​Ξ​​​+ ΞXPLOR​​​Λ​​​+​​​ION PROGR​​​Λ​​​M [Vol. 1] - Vįr+üål Åįrßñß did an incredible job in curating this release. There's not really a spoken theme, but the cover makes me envision an alternate universe where the Boston Dynamics robots took over the earth, and the effects of global warming are reversing itself as nature overtakes what humans built. All of that to say, it's really pretty, and half of this compilation is appearing in future Neon Nights* episodes.
死夢VANITY - lavish memories - 死夢VANITY has returned with another lovely late night lo-fi album that could be the soundtrack of a luxurious date night, or a soundtrack of a top notch spa experience, or a soundtrack to shopping for very expensive jewelry. It's very rich sounding, kinda borderline barber beats-y as well with the sample selection, and I love it. Welcome back, homie.

New Releases

Notorious Secret x [carteBlanche] - Moondial - Originally released August 25, 2023, but received a physical release via Underwater Computing_ on December 13, 2024.
Various Artists - Sailing Vol. 2 - Released December 13, 2024 (I am on this comp!)
Donor Lens - The Singles (2019-2024) - Released December 13, 2024
LAST CEREMONY - Ambience of Absence - Released December 13, 2024
Florida Rains - Tampa Theatre - Released December 13, 2024
FIJI島の水 - INMY5Y5TEM - Single. Released December 16, 2024
Crystal Eternal - Ibiza Danse Magick (Radio Edit) - Single. Released December 15, 2024


* Neon Nights is my online radio show that airs biweekly, every other Tuesday, at 10:00 p.m. eastern. I play a lot of what gets highlighted in these posts, and I sometimes like to do themed episodes, too. A new episode is actually airing tonight, if you'd like to come in and check it out! Here's the link to the show. Also, fun fact: the next episode after this one falls on New Year's Eve, and it will be a two hour 2024 Neon Nights retrospective, a.k.a. Late Night Lofi VII (which I previously highlighted on the blog), and tracks that fit the vibe of the LNLF mix. It'll be a beautiful episode. If you're gonna tune into any of them, choose that one. 

Until next time!

Monday, December 9, 2024

Links post for December 9, 2024

Good evening! Sorry for the silence. I've been working on URL sets and getting three episodes of my online radio show, Neon Nights completed since December's gonna be crazy eventful for yours truly. This will be another megalinks post of Cool Albums and New Releases. As always, links will open in a new window! Here we go.

Cool Albums

clust.r - ever chance - River has been killing it, first and foremost. Between running a killer label, releasing two albums on my favorite label of all time, and the album I am linking here, he's been absolutely fucking killing it. clust.r is def not a typical vaporwave album and is more of a cool experimental, glitchy pop record. It's catchy, it's pretty, it's chaotic in the best way.
Atlas Cries - Night 露 - Enraile's third and latest release on the Shatterfoil label under his slushwave alias is most certainly a gorgeous album. Sure, it's a bit more simplistic in the samples, primarily using J-Pop material, but he has killer taste in sample curation. It kept me great company driving home in the middle of rush hour traffic, a soothing balm to the stressors of shitty drivers around me. Give it a listen!
Real Player 7 - Opportunity - I downloaded this album years ago and finally listened to it recently. I'm unsure if many of you are familiar with the label Crystal Magic, but this was once upon a time a label based in New Zealand that hosted quite a few indie/electronic/early 2010s internet music, and a bit later, shifted into releasing vaporwave and vapor-adjacent releases from Power Nap, Eyeliner, and Real Player 7 (a project by the person behind the label himself). Unfortunately, he deleted the Bandcamp page many years ago, but if you'd like to read about the history of this label, a lovely homie by the name of Michael Brown has you covered. Fun fact: Michael is also doing a 33⅓ book on Eyeliner's Buy Now, which you can pre-order here. Anywho, all of that aside, Real Player 7's Opportunity, released in 2013, was so far ahead of its time. I feel like, in a different world, it would be just as esteemed as Eyeliner's releases, or the PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises releases. It's midified corporate muzak at its finest, with titles such as Officechair Meditations and Outlook 2013 that sound exactly how you'd think they'd sound. Also, highlighting the track Inner City Reflections, because it merges vaporwave and drum and bass in a way that would be extremely appreciated in present day vaporwave. Since the album no longer exists online, it seems, I've uploaded it to Mediafire. Enjoy!
International Telecom - Н​о​в​ы​й М​и​р - You may remember my post about the immaculate 3​a​.​m​.​S​i​g​n​a​l​s, but don't go into this album expecting a sequel. Instead, go into it expecting the cousin of one of my favorite signalwave albums of all time, Synthetik/PROGRESSIVE REGRESSION by Kanal Vier & FUJIWARA INTERCOM. Filled to the brim with late 90s/early 2000s commercials that take you back to the days of ads toying with futuristic imagery and everything being transparent or translucent, this album is short but very sweet. I need more albums like this, and I truly hope somebody takes on a project like this and really expands on the looping so these tracks don't end as abruptly as they begin. (See: FUJIWARA INTERCOM - FUTURE IS HERE, from the album linked above!)
Incarta '95 - ON THE RUN - This album, based upon a fake movie about a missing man who appears after 30 years and sends a letter and CD to a news station about where he's been, shifts from vaporwave to synthwave, even into house music a little bit. Another short but sweet album that I'm glad I checked out. I may have discovered it through a Retail Archaeology video, since this one came out shortly after my computer croaked. This is an interesting concept album with some bangers, especially the track Open Road
g h o s t i n g - 2D FUN AT GRID WORLD! - GodfuckingDAMNIT, THIS IS STILL SO GOOD. I hadn't listened to it in years, and after hearing it a few days ago, I knew I had to include this and possibly introduce or re-introduce you all to this hypnagogic pop classic. I know many of you know g h o s t i n g for his fantastic vaporwave and broken transmission albums, but this album takes what Telenights started and goes full zany, using commercial blocks in this album to enhance what already sounds like music inspired by 80s Saturday Morning Cartoon blocks. It's incredible. If you're into Boy SnacksPunks on Mars, or James Ferraro during the On Air and Night Dolls With Hairspray era, give it a listen. If you have no idea what any of these references are, listen to g h o s t i n g and then click on those other links.
Late Arcane - Prestige - This was going to be in the New Releases section, but after hearing it a few days ago, I knew I had to include it here. This is a fucking fabulous follow up to Extravagance, with songs that are signature Late Arcane at this point, but also tracks sampled from 80s italo disco and funk, some AOR sprinkled in there, even something that reminds me of 90s R&B my sister used to listen to. It's a really fun listen. If Late Arcane chooses to upload his set from this past weekend's album launch stream, check it out for Little White Flower alone, and see how crazy his fingers go on that one. If you don't find yourself headbanging to that track btw, I don't know what's wrong with you.

Other cool albums I recommend you check out are Bathroom Plants' Garden of Accrescent Vistas (which is absolutely BEAUTIFUL) and 「黒田坊」Kurotabō's 布​団​の​音​響​タ​イ​ム​ラ​イ​ン '81​-​'93 (classic vaporwave album that does sample a lot of 80s mainstream pop and synth music, but it's fun!).

New Releases

Lunar Data Garden - Dawn I/O - Released December 1, 2024
victory over death - When at last I awaken - Released November 21, 2024
DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Sorcery - Released December 6, 2024
HYDROPLANED INTO A FALSE REALITY! - t q - Released December 6, 2024
super going - Patience with super goingAsleep and Not, and Digital Transmission Soundtracks - Released December 6, 2024
Afterdeath Television - Mater Natura - Released December 4, 2024
<VARIOUS/ARTISTS> - Intervals - Released November 30, 2024
y o u r d i s c o v e r y - HUMAN | MACHINE - Released December 3, 2024
video forum & identity crisis - ethereal unison - Released December 7, 2024
visions音と光 - Waves of static - Released December 9, 2024
Guild Merchant - Organica - Released December 6, 2024
░▒▓新しいデラックスライフ▓▒░ - ▣​世​界​か​ら​解​放​さ​れ​▣ / SPEED DIALER ! - Originally released in 2012 and 2022 respectively, but reissued on vinyl by Geometric Lullaby on December 6, 2024
猫 シ Corp. - Palm Mall - Originally released on October 2, 2014, but reissued on vinyl by My Pet Flamingo on December 5, 2024

Holy shit, that was a lot. Sorry again to all of the artists I couldn't tag due to the character limit. Talk again soon!

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Florida Rains - Trop (and new releases for November 27, 2024)

 

Florida Rains has been quite prolific in 2024, releasing 17 albums in eleven months. I'm slowly catching up on checking out their discography, but between Downtown Tampa and the album I'm discussing in today's post, I'm really enjoying what I've heard of their output. Named after a Rainfall Amounts segment on The Weather Channel, Florida Rains is another artist I've found whose Weather Channel-inspired releases have not been the same ol' formula that many other meteorologically themed vaporwave albums have followed in the last decade, choosing to go more into a late night lo-fi territory and using some really lovely lo-fi jazz samples. There's some excellent curation on Trop, and if you don't come out of hearing this album feeling extremely cozy, idk what to tell you. It was hard to choose a single track to upload to YouTube, but the track Joyce is just...SO FUCKING CUTE. I didn't realize until just now that the titles are the names of baseball players from their local team. Another reason why this album is so damn charming! I'm excited to hear more of what Florida Rains puts out in the future. 

You can find this album digitally at the link below:

https://floridarains.bandcamp.com/album/trop

Now, here are plenty of new releases to check out if you desire. As always, links open in a new window:
Dirty River - Between us - Released November 15, 2024
Mabisyo - Beatmaking Sessions Vol.1 - Released November 15, 2024
Dan Mason - Bleed - Released November 15, 2024
Mom and Dad's Computer - Home Design 3D - Released November 21, 2024
Tele + 1 & Paco Moreno - analog ghost - Released November 22, 2024
LEI WOLUNG - SMOKE AND MIRRORS - Released November 22, 2024
TCR-4 - M o n d a y - Released November 19, 2024
HYDROPLANED INTO A FALSE REALITY! - Limbo - Released November 15, 2024
bentoboy - DEPTHS-OF-MY-MIND - Released November 21, 2024
Crystal Eternal - Eyes Without a Face - Single. Released November 19, 2024

Blogspot removed everything I typed up after the links, what the hell! My apologies that not everybody in the New Releases section are in the tags due to the character limit. And an additional apology if my writing in this post is coming off clunky; I slept like pure garbo and I don't think this caffeine will ever kick in.

A quick shoutout to another music blog out there posting about vaporwave and other cool underground music, listencorp. Make sure to subscribe to their emails, as they go very in-depth in them in a way that I find to be super cool. Check them out! 

Cool Albums for March 22, 2025

Hello, I know it's been nearly two months since I've posted around these parts, but I felt inspired after a walk with mp3 player num...