- For a tiny scene that has only existed for a few years, vaporwave has had a surprisingly tumultuous lifespan. Many of its artists, responsible for creating a genre already resistant to narratives, have since disowned it or moved on. Pronouncements of its death go back to 2013. Hong Kong Express's Dream Catalogue emerged last year as a new torchbearer for the contentious scene, and in true vaporwave fashion has racked up over 100 releases since. The Bandcamp label, heavily influenced by Western fantasies of East Asia (a common theme in this scene), touches on all aspects of the genre. There's the imaginary muzak for futuristic worlds, moth-eaten edits of disco and funk, hi-tech and high-concept projects and, sometimes, just plain-old ambient music dressed up in vaporwave aesthetics.
The second album from 2 8 1 4—which comprises Hong Kong Express and t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者—lands closest to ambient, and is among the more mature and considered albums on Dream Catalogue. Originally released at the beginning of 2015, it's been reissued by Not Not Fun on cassette—essentially taking 新しい日の誕生 (meaning "Birth Of A New Day") out of the digital vaporwave stream and closer to earthy artists like Robedoor and White Poppy. Despite the context, it still feels like most vaporwave albums: alternately brilliant and sloppy, emotionally resonant at one moment and hollow the next.
新しい日の誕生 sets itself apart with a vivid, picturesque scope and wide ambient landscapes. The dominant theme here is drift. Sometimes the duo deal in drone—like on "テレパシー" where they luxuriate in a constant tone for over 10 minutes, savouring every miniscule tonal change and decay across the lengthy runtime. And decay is another prominent aspect that separates 新しい日の誕生 from the pack. Where vaporwave is often resolutely digital and clinical, the duo indulge in Basinski-like looping. Check the way the piano notes shimmer and melt together on incredible opener "恢复."
2 8 1 4 also take what sounds like funky radio jams and strip them down to eerie skeletons. In these moments, 新しい日の誕生 recalls Passed Me By-era Andy Stott with its haunted, slo-mo grooves. It all adds up to an album that moves at a glacial pace, which is great to veg out to, but can test attention spans when listening closely. In fact, 新しい日の誕生 suffers in more than one way when you put it under a microscope.
"I think the most important thing to aim for in vaporwave, as a producer, is to make something cinematic in effect—make the listener feel unexplainable feelings," Hong Kong Express said in an RBMA interview last year. With 新しい日の誕生, he and t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 have done just that, though maybe "ambiguous" is a better word than "unexplainable." There are big, sweeping emotions, but they're hard to pin down. The album's reliance on vaporwave clichés—from the neon-city imagery to the track titles themselves—makes it feel a bit run-of-the-mill.
Though the album comprises all-original material, a few tracks sound like nothing more complex than slowed-down edits—though they're admittedly no less affecting than the more creative moments, which highlights what makes vaporwave both an intriguing and sometimes frustrating concept. At some level, it might be derivative, overabundant and low-value (literally and figuratively: most releases are free, and a campaign to get this one pressed onto vinyl has been met with some resistance), but when things line up, it can be a winning formula. As such, 新しい日の誕生 is a record with stunning highs and a fair few lows. If nothing else, it's proof that the spirit of vaporwave is alive and well.
Tracklist01. 恢复
02. 遠くの愛好家
03. 新宿ゴールデン街
04. ふわっと
05. 悲哀
06. 真実の恋
07. テレパシー
08. 新しい日の誕生