w w w . d e e p d i v e . c o m is an album able to deftly navigate the nuances of many subgenres of the vaporwave scene. While on the surface, it might appear to be a traditional lo-fi album. As the album progresses, you find tracks able to successfully navigate out of the box it had seemingly placed itself in. You wind up with some unexpected influences flooding the album while never losing the lo-fi vibes it establishes out of the gate. You get climatewave (“Mind Mirage ドット 通信”) tossed in, and even some classic vapor (“Zetta 禅”) shows up. But the biggest triumph of the album is arguably its selection of samples and loops, as the album stays engaging from beginning to end, avoiding the lulls you’ll often encounter in longer albums.
Vocal vignettes blurring the line between human and synthetic.
Ubiquitous samples that are timelessly musical (loon and shakuhachi lovers rejoice).
Now that you understand how Denver producer Luxury Noise’s debut full-length Forgive Yourself sounds, I would ask how you imagine the album feels. If your answer is “a contemplative journey exploring both the darkness and euphoria of self-healing”, I would be surprised. And then I’d ask if you’d already heard the record.
One of the most compelling aspects of Forgive Yourself is the contradiction between the vibrancy of the sonic palette it uses, and the hazy landscape it conjures. Like a carnival covered in fog, Luxury Noise continually indulges the senses with downright impressive production chops, sparkling melodies, and sweeping soundscapes. Yet, despite the spectacle, he never offers the cheap satisfaction of revealing exactly where you are. While the multi-faceted blend of house rhythms, IDM dazzle, and vaporbreak warmth is what will draw many listeners in, what will keep listeners coming back is surely Luxury Noise’s ability to explore a range of emotional arcs.
“Big Maybes” opens the record, and stands as one of the strongest tracks. Scenically wide pads, sustained cathartic vocals, and expertly manipulated drum breaks combine to form what is the most euphoric five minutes of the album.
“Onmymind” artwork (single version)
Directly after, “Onmymind” gradually builds into a cavernous club soundscape no less impressive than the opener, but distinctly more groovy and fog-enshrouded. The titular vocal sample and an intoxicatingly simple saxophone lick take turns coloring the space atop a stout acid bassline. Once again, Luxury Noise’s keen sense of musical direction and sound production is on full display, and the album begins with unwavering confidence.
Afterward, things wind down into a suite of more contemplative and understated mood pieces that nonetheless offer compelling variety. “Kori” at last pushes the throbbing basslines and IDM-influenced drum samples to the forefront, while “Devotional” comes to a crawl with the most gorgeously melancholic atmosphere yet. “Variable Midlives” shows the return of subtle yet perfectly placed woodwind drones, followed by a downtempo movement so sedative that it could put you under if not for the level of glitchy intricacy within the song’s whitespaces.
The album then reaches peak warmth with track 8, “slowbliss”. The elaborate microrhythms and granular sample slices, now all but expected, are momentarily cast aside to make way for a digital wall of sound, fit for the song’s title. During this piece especially, one must appreciate how much texture and depth Luxury Noise fits into the mix without sacrificing clarity. The record is misty and introspective by design, but the haze that it casts is by no means colorless or ill-defined.
Cassette release (via Pacific Plaza Records)
As the album arrives at its closing passages, both “Goodbyes” and “Threads” further lay out open spaces to reflect, despite the crisp details hidden under the surface. The title track, and fittingly the final one, then kicks us back to uptempo territory. Yet, even with the gear shift, the piece still feels firmly stuck just beneath the ever-present gloom, not quite reaching the highs of the opening song.
While the three closing tracks admittedly leave some climatic closure to be desired, they are preceded by “Esther”, an unmistakable high point. It’s also the song that most embodies the colorful-yet-opaque, frenetic-yet-anesthetic dichotomies at the core of Forgive Yourself. Despite the high BPM –one of the highest on the record in fact– it contradictorily carries an almost leisurely aura, like an explosion seemingly captured in slow motion. That is, until the second half when the beat plunges into half time and you realize you truly are in slow motion. All the while, Luxury Noise’s arsenal is on full display: glistening melodies glide above snippets of evocative vocals, a striking array of rhythmic layers, and ear candy fit for an hour of repeat listens.
It takes only a minute’s runtime to understand that Luxury Noise is no stranger to both the technical and emotional sides of music. Following 2022’s Second Light as well as The Light at a Certain Hour –two stellar EPs in their own rights– Forgive Yourself at last presents Luxury Noise the chance to pull out all the stops and make a complete artistic statement in the way that only an LP can offer. And an artistic statement it is, indeed. The album is not only introspective in theme, but also seems to show a self-reflection on the artist’s long and varied career itself, letting all past explorations culminate into a cohesive whole. As beautiful as the “what was” may be for many of us, Forgive Yourself delivers a compelling reminder to appreciate and enjoy the “what is”.
Gilded Sentience by Augnos is one part concept album and one part jungle experience. There has been a resurgence in Y2K drum and bass from other notable acts, such as Pizza Hotline, and Vaporwave Drum & Bass from Jungle Fever. Just like how a large component of vaporwave is to look back upon and recontextualize the past, this new wave of Y2K dnb artists aims to revive the sounds of the PlayStation 1 era, a soundscape where early dnb dominated. Think back to notable games like Gran Turismo and Gran Theft Auto III.
While Augnos is no stranger to this sound with tracks like Daymare and Rewind, Gilded Sentinece is nothing like their other works. Firstly, this appears to be Augnos’ first LP, at least under this name. The description implies that what we are experiencing is the first step into some lost world, but will we stay long enough to uncover Aurelia’s secrets?
Our first clue towards this being a concept album was the description on the album’s Bandcamp which reads as follows:
Aurelia interactive console 6.23.88b
Greetings user, I am AICON
I serve as your guide to the depths of Aurelia’s history
Type your question to begin your interactive journey
corre@aicon62388b %what is the gilded sentience?%
Already, the listener is primed with a destination, a narrative, and a question. This album entices the listener with gorgeous artwork depicting a large structure reclaimed by nature. The dense foliage covers the architecture of some long-abandoned civilization and evokes some immediate questions. What happened here? How did this place get to such a state?
What could this album be hiding? Will the album provide the listener with answers? We are not sure. Coming in at just five tracks, this album is beyond lean. Typically, a concept album would boast a more extensive tracklist, often at least one that could support a three-act narrative, however, brevity is the soul of wit. Perhaps Augnos can tell us a lot with a little. Let’s dive into the tracks:
1. Chroma Trails(3.5/5) Starting off our journey is “Chroma Trails.” This chiptune-esque track starts off light, whimsical even, like the listener just put in an old NES cartridge to an obscure sci-fi/fantasy game. The driving synths blast to the forefront of this opening track and stay throughout the experience. The mixture of light atmospheric chimes and heavy 80s synths promise a lot; discovery, adventure even. It’s a strong start, but we felt it was hiding its power level a bit. If we’re on the brink of discovering a long-lost civilization we want that anticipation to be thrown right in our face.
Before the release of this album, Enraile dropped a remix of this track, which puts the jungle aspects further to the forefront. The remix houses far less chiptune, and a lot more chopped-up drum and jungle breakdowns, serving as a heavier version of the original. In keeping with the videogame-inspired motif, this remix would serve better as a bonus stage or as an opening to new game+.
2. Sunwell Terrace(4/5): We drop the synths and driving bass in exchange for some solarpunk staples; the sounds of nature. Here is where the journey for the listener begins in earnest. “Sunwell Terrace” gives us a glance at the undisturbed nature of Aurelia, at least that’s what we are led to believe. As stated above, the synth keys are replaced with a droning base while light piano and other MIDIs are used to mimic animal sounds. Paired well with a primal-trap beat and this track will instill the listener with a sense of adventure as if they are on the trail, hot on the heels of discovery.
3. ¡Corre!(3.5/5): We have reached the halfway point in our journey and the solar punk aesthetics begin to melt away into a proper jungle track. The sounds of nature take a back seat while an eerie soundscape of high-pitched keys and sweeping bass takes center stage. It puts the listener in unfamiliar territory, divorced from the familiar and pleasant into something that’s quite uncanny and mysterious.
4. Healing Atoms(4/5): We’ve found the healing station! In the penultimate track, we are given a light and airy boost in this dream-like soundscape. With samples and instrumentation that would fit well in an Equip x R23X collaboration, this track allows the listener to ascend to a new level of being.
5. Home Space (3/5): And just as we were about to head off on an otherworldly journey, it ends. All stories have to come to a close, but this track left us wanting more. The minimalist sound is pretty jarring after just coming off the heels of “Healing Atoms” and within the sonic narrative of the album, it’s unclear where the listener is supposed to go after this. The obvious answer is back to the beginning, but after listening to this track multiple times we were only left with a feeling of yearning. We yearn for a full experience.
Gilded Sentinece presents a lot of promise to the listener. With just five short tracks we explore a diverse array of sounds like chiptune, jungle dnb, synthpop, and solarpunk. However, the abrupt end of this album only brings out the fact that with more tracks this could be a full-blown concept EP. We’re unclear if that’s what the artist was going for, but if the chief critique of this album is “needs more” then what’s here is pretty substantive. Overall, Gilded Sentience is a short dip into a strange jungle soundscape that we hope to revisit one day.
Falling into memories offers up a lo-fi album with an incredible sense of longing. The romantic undertones, while no stranger to the genre, just feel all the more powerful here. This is thanks to many facets, but opening with a heart-wrenchingly sad track titled “farewell” definitely sends a somber message. The samples chosen for the remainder of the album don’t shy away from piling emotions on top of emotions either, making an album that demands your attention. It hits the emotional targets it sets out for itself so effectively that we almost don’t want to recommend listening to it unless you’re already sad. Just in case!
Favorite Track: Still Running Towards The Moonlight, Still Far Away From You
Known previously for releasing albums with consistently strong thematic premises, quality of production, and presentation between long periods of time, 식료품groceries is one of the most recognizable names in both mallsoft and the freshly redefined utopian virtual subgenres of vaporwave. While many of his previous albums under this alias have tackled ideas through collecting and arranging tracks in a traditional track-by-track series, the most striking thing about this newest album is its choice to work with a new set of rules.
Only two tracks are set before the listener, complimenting one another to make a cohesive whole. While there is a more dissected tracklist contained within additional materials supplied with the album, the main way the listener is presented with the contents shows how it was intended to be experienced. By doing this, 폐점 challenges listeners to approach it as a fully imagined piece front to back, or at least to its halfway point. In similar situations, artists in the past have used this methodology in order to create a cohesive stream of music that straddles the invisible space between a mixtape and an album.
폐점 takes this idea and does its best to bring out the most entertaining elements from both worlds, allowing itself to pick from the varieties of texture that a mix’s sound can offer and bringing it together with the atmosphere and direction that belongs to a full album. From front to back, ideas flow into one another to compliment and contrast, wordlessly telling a story in a way that makes good use of its mix-style format.
Album Art By Sugar Crash
The Sound
The most interesting thing about the collection of sounds contained within 폐점 is something that has come up within recent vapor a lot as formerly sample-oriented artists draw themselves towards original creations. As 식료품groceries made his move from 슈퍼마켓Yes! We’re Open (Supermarket Yes! We’re Open) and Housewares to 인터넷 쇼핑 (Ascension) (Online Shopping (Ascension)), samples were almost entirely lifted away from the process to display original compositions. By showing this process, 폐점 is in a unique space where it is difficult to tell what within it is original and what is sampled, as the base parts within all feel smoothly connected, yet each one is crafted to fit a musical niche where judging its nature of origin proves daunting.
Ironically, questioning the sampled nature of these tracks only makes them that much more impressive. The artist has progressed to a point where their quality is high enough to be mistaken for a direct sample, muddling original work with true samples to only put this further on display. More importantly, it shows how each previous album has built towards this, a naturally fitting peak of a project that has spanned nearly a decade with different angles, aesthetics, and methods of achieving and arranging its desired sound, all centered around the goal of bringing the most musical potential around one central idea.
As his first two albums explored the sounds present within a physical store and the third moved towards the MIDI-fied realities of the early online market, 폐점 looks further beyond for its premise, choosing to stop itself at the very end of its saga. As the difficulty of pinning down the exact feeling that the initial two albums imparted became part of their charm, so does this additional way that 폐점 stands free from the ideas of its predecessors.
Muted and moody, a somber atmosphere lies behind each track that sprawls from front to back and pulls the listener along, ambiance and static laying a backdrop to help amplify the desolation. Familiarity in a return to lost nostalgia defined much of the wave of mallsoft that partook in similar tactics, yet in turn letting fresher ideas fade and wander off into the constant backdrop gives equal power to the seamless flow of track after track.
Dance, minimalism, ambiance, new age, jazz, and nearly every style that 식료품groceries has flirted with make a triumphant return to be repurposed into this reworked return, giving a turn to punctuate themselves within this new format, rather than fade away into an improbable distance as they make their leave. The sounds of a collective city surround this focal point of a store that the artist has brought along for so many years, concluding all that came before it in a cohesive tour. Even tracks with drive to them are given a more ominous edge with careful adjustments to pitch and the individual punch of each instrument. Percussion is made less striking, pushed to the background to give more attention to the more moody, reflective treble of heavily electronic tracks.
After so much time spent building up its mood piece by piece, the album coalesces with a rise of action, taking time to pull from its gloomier tones in order to give some hopefulness to the more desolate feeling that surrounded it. As eras pass behind it in familiar samples, even the ending that it presents will lead to something new. An upward trail of chords and arpeggios lead to a fade outward, just as everything before had done to usher in what is next. Only this time, it comes on 폐점‘s own terms, fading into the background once everything has finally been said and done.
The Flavor
While the series of works that came before it gave a sense of progression in era, 폐점 takes its stride in the state of matters, its transliteration “Closing” giving us a sense of why the mood is more solid than in previous works. An outline of such a story is being told through its tracks, of a shop and the city surrounding it as the doors shut and memory of it fades out, the future seeming cautiously bright after everything falls through.
Although more releases in a similar vein may follow it, they have surpassed the original framework. The same thematically is true for the span of albums that led towards 폐점‘s existence, a saga with a fittingly punctuated end. While it may begin anew in the future, the original thread of thoughts has been tied down following its artist’s noticeable progression in skill and ambition.
In such a sense, 폐점 feels like a proper send-off to it all. Its musical flair and sense for scenery to place its sounds within is as strong as ever, enhanced by the climb in ability that 식료품groceries had made between Housewares and 인터넷 쇼핑 (Ascension). Both original and sampled sounds are embraced in order to create an anthology and a tribute to this era of his own sound, closing the store and closing a chapter on his boundless contributions to the vaporwave scene since his emergence.
The Issues
While not many, there are a few things that hold 폐점 back in the end, especially when held to its own and without the most powerful aspect of its ideas: The context. A significant amount of what 폐점 is made powerful and poignant by is context-dependent, which must be put aside when looking at the music itself. While the gripes it presents are minor, they tend to be heavily recurring throughout the album’s runtime.
One significant difficulty made in the transfer of track formatting is the length of its individual ideas, or rather, the excess of it. While the consistency of mood helps with keeping a steady flow of thoughts, some of them overstay, dragging on past the point where their full potential may lay. This is especially noticeable near the end of the final track, which rises through only a few simple motions within the span of seven minutes. There is something to admire in its dedication to this final rise, but a smaller runtime may have helped give the punctuation of its final few notes some more value.
The only other aspect that stands in its way are a few odd, occasional heavy tone shifts that spread across many tracks instead of pushing from one mood to the other, such as the unusually boisterous and polished sound of the second sub-track from “II.” Exploding into energy out of nowhere, its presence feels somewhat odd within the middle of either track, seeming as if it would fit more as a closer to “I.” to pair and contrast with the less intense, progression-heavy finale of “II.”
Conclusion
폐점, by its very nature in concept and execution, will hit the hardest with those who have followed each album that preceded it and were able to see the sheer span of time and effort that was put into developing the sound that allowed the album to become its truest expression in the end. From start to finish of its runtime, all cylinders are firing from places left dormant for years, along with pieces polished in more recent times. It’s a machine built from everything before it and an end product only held back by more integral pieces of identity that the project itself has held close since its start.
Altogether, these aspects aid 폐점 in being one of the most impressive works by 식료품groceries yet, both as a statement of where he is currently as an artist, and what there is to the future.
Installation Disk is an album about installing an OS goddamn it, and I dare you to find a music genre besides vaporwave that would even entertain the idea. Actually, there is a lot more to it than that. “Our goal was to comment on the pros and cons of the advancement of technology within one cohesive work.” So says Vivi Vulture. “We wanted to bring about a piece that flowed and glitched, got you comfortable, then ripped off the blanket.” L a z u l i _ y e l l o w echoed his partner’s statement on the sinister undertone of this album; “I had this idea of a Windows 95 startup disk that slowly brainwashed the user.” The theming of this concept album is great. From front to back, they absolutely nail the feeling of some malevolent bit of software being installed in on your computer. The album also has an impressive variety of tunes from our silly little genre. From the more traditional sounds of slowed down samples that can be found in “Formatting… DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR DEVICE” to the more upbeat trappy sounds of “PCI Bus Scan,” this is an album that does a whole lot. And yet it still feels like one complete piece of work thanks to its overarching theme. As promised above, the album, ends on some rather disturbing notes, as it ventures into more experimental sounds that will leave you feeling more than a bit unsettled. This one gets a thumbs up.
Vįr+üål Åįrßñß & h º r ¡ z º n щ ¡ r e l e s s have paired up to create a very interesting mix. While h º r ¡ z º n щ ¡ r e l e s s will prefer a more “traditional” approach (if there is such a thing within the genre), Vįr+üål Åįrßñß’s use of samples creates a contrast that is definitive to the album. He uses a variety of samples but prefers to keep the voices at their original pitch while slowing them down. This, coupled with slow backing tunes and reverbs, creates a subtle, but easily identifiable sultry mood. One can picture a couple about to have sex for the first time to ✻ ✼ ✽ L0vįng❧Y0u ✻ ✼ ✽.. There’s a clear feeling of desire, but also an intention to enjoy every moment of the experience.
This is presented in alternation with h º r ¡ z º n щ ¡ r e l e s s’s equally relaxed, but more melancholic work. The pitch shift and slowed-down samples combine to create a distinct feeling of tiredness that is prevalent in the genre. Or rather, a feeling of satisfied weariness, like one would have after a concert or after finishing a marathon. There is a certain liminality to this “half” of the album, created in part by the slow vocals, as well as a feeling of finality.
The two sides of the album are connected by a feeling of deep relaxation, even if caused by very different things. With these two moods, similar in form but so different in feeling, these two artists have created an interesting experience. Perhaps it mimics the mixed feelings one might have while enjoying the company of a certain someone one has a history with. Or perhaps the remembrance of a lost love, remembering the good times one had while remembering the current loneliness.
There is no easier way for an album to piss me off than to use a sample, slow it down, and call it a new piece of music that is now yours. Luckily, Penthouse Pleasures by Crystal Eternal does not do that. (I pulled a sneaky on you.) You can tell they really put the work in. Painting a picture of a highrise penthouse in New York City (Hey, I know that place!) the album primarily uses ‘80s disco, jazz, and funk to give it a very urban feel, not too dissimilar from the likes of Saint Pepsi (Hey, I know that guy!) Admittedly, Penthouse Pleasures does start to sound very “samey” as it goes on. Instead of each song feeling unique from one another, I found myself sort of compartmentalizing them and going, “this one is a jazz song and this one is a disco song and this one is another jazz song.” This could have been prevented by cutting down the number of tracks on the album or mixing sounds up a bit more, but other than that, it is a skillful album and will likely scratch that itch you got for vaporwave with a big city feel and a high living sound.
While most mallsoft albums try to recreate the experience of visiting a mall in real life, what would happen if a release strove to recreate the experience of visiting a digital mall instead? This is the question that Merced Mall [Virtual Tour 2004] ponders. The experience remains a soothing one, with all the ethereal background noise you would want and expect out of wandering through a vaunted retail space, but the digital twist gives the release an entirely different texture. 90s games didn’t have the luxury of populating their wide-open spaces with sprites, so Merced Mall feels weirdly empty, but in a more welcoming way than you’d get from more traditional mallsoft. It doesn’t feel like a dead mall so much as a mall that happens to be empty. It allows for a genre used to sticking with the same handful of tricks to try out something new. And the result is something different, yet familiar.
Ah, 1997. I was at the tender, innocent age of five, discovering the things that would influence me for the rest of my life, such as Power Rangers and mimosas. It was also the final year that the original Sailor Moon anime was aired on American television sets. Back then, I didn’t really care, but it appears that for one vaporwave artist, this was nothing short of a tragedy.
Eric Gordon — aka Darien Shields — has been in the vaporwave game since 2017 and told me that he had a goal in mind when creating this alias: to create a total of seven unique albums, themed according to the years that Sailor Moon (the show he takes his name from) aired on television, so from 1991 to the aforementioned 1997. Platinum Phantom is the last in this series of albums, and as such, every sample from the album is from the far-off year of 1997. Besides the theming, he stated this time that he, in his own words, wanted to lean more into vaporwave cliches.
“This time I focused a lot more on MIDI composing than on any previous albums though. Some songs are wholly original compositions made from the samples I lifted. Some parts are just straight up slow-downs, but I tried to do that as sparingly as possible this time so I could really explore more and invest more of myself into the music.”
I like vaporwave albums with themes as it helps in the artist’s grand quest to make the listener feel something. Walking through a rainy Japanese mega-city or shopping in an eerily empty indoor mall or just making you feel sad as !@#$ are all popular themes in vaporwave. The question is; what is this album trying to make you feel? And the answer is: Well I’m not quite sure. Yes, nearly all of the samples are from 1997, but at no point did the album feel like this is something that was from or paying homage to that year. The album seems to lack a coherent vision or goal, not just overall, but in the individual songs as well.
So let us get right into it with… a slowed-down voice clip from Austin Powers? With that rather curious introduction, “Backstreet” continues. It begins intriguingly enough — Austin Powers sample aside — with an interesting melody, but instead of adding variation to that melody or having the song ramp up, it does the opposite and slams on the brakes. The music stops and what replaces it is some ultra lofi drum work and what sounds like someone banging on a pot with a metal spoon. This goes on for a bit before the melody from earlier fades back in. However, by this time my “groove,” as it were, was broken, leaving me rather unsatisfied. Vaporwave is no stranger to change-ups, however, there is usually an overarching feeling the artist is trying to convey when this is done. With this track, and many others on the album, it almost feels as though it is two different tracks and ideas unharmoniously meshed together.
“Comrade Chad” begins with a few scattered sound effects. Blowing wind, the sound of shoes squeaking on gym floors, and a tambourine. These sounds start to come together to create an interesting beat, but it just straight up stops before anything can come of it. What follows is a vaporwave tune with some pan flute thrown in which lasts for all of 47 seconds (I counted) before it again turns into something else that does not at all resemble what came before. A simple tambourine and drum-filled rhythm that can be described as rather plain. There never feels like there is a reason for these change-ups to take place and there isn’t enough time for each piece to develop before it goes on to the next one.
“Tux” is a classic vaporwave affair with a slowed-down sample and some sexual undertones. It is minimally edited, but this harkens back to the vaporwave “cliches” that Darien mentioned earlier, so it appears this was very much on purpose. It does not sound bad, just rather plain, though it is undoubtedly vaporwave, and likely will scratch an itch for those who are a fan of the classic style.
“Cosplay” is a faster tune that sounds like it should be blasted at a fashion show. This is to say, that while it plays like it ought to be turned up nice and loud, it is not what your attention and focus should be on, leaving it in a bit of an odd position. I know that is not exactly helpful for what the music actually sounds like though, so I will say that it has a lot of electronic sounds and sirens and such. It is not poorly composed or made, but it is simply not something I can see myself listening to outside of a Zoolander film.
The uncomfortably named “Daddy” is in the same vein as “Tux.” We get a slowed-down sample that ups the groove factor, and has served as the base of vaporwave for over a decade now. This one is a bit more edited than “Tux,” which puts more of Darien’s personal touch on it. Reverbed, mixed, and tuned down with some impressive sound engineering towards the end with how the song fades out.
“Novartis” is a nice little tune that kicks things down a notch and conjures up images of running down a beach in slow motion, or at the very least watching a commercial for a Sandles Resort. It is a very light track and the one I think most has the “vibe” of 1997 that I think Darien is trying to convey throughout the entire album.
It leads into “Daisuki,” which has very little to say about itself, as the song appears to be two minutes of a nine-second melody on repeat with only minimal variation. The sound itself is very “mallsoft” and the right amount of echo is put on the track to make it feel the part, but it sounds like it should be a piece of something larger. If this was a track on a mallsoft album, I would excuse it as simply there to set the tone, but I am unsure of how to feel about it on an album like this. As with change-ups, repetitiveness is something that is no stranger to vaporwave. For some artists, it has even become their go-to technique, but when one does this, you had best make sure those nine seconds resonate with the listener. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t.
I liked the next track, “Outrun.” However, this may be only because I am on a chiptune kick as of late. Just over two minutes of classic arcade-sounding goodness, and though it feels out of place on the album, as a stand-alone track, it is a catchy piece and is an example of repetitiveness done the right way. It conveys a clear feeling of “retro-ness” and has the clearest intentions of all the songs on the album. It isn’t complex, but in this instance and with what the song is trying to make you feel, it doesn’t need to be.
Sampling a scene from the 1997 box-office bomb B.A.P.S is “Pimpsqueak.” Following the sample is a short tune in the classic vaporwave style, with a slightly tropical feel, before “Main Drag (Feat. Donor Lens)” takes us back to the throbbing beat of a dance club. It is slightly minimalistic in its sound, but I feel like it does what it sets out to do. A track that sounds like it is meant to be played as a generic dance tune in an action movie, with the main character moving his way through a club, on his way to confront the drug lord that distributes his product in the basement of the place. The song is meant to inform you that, yes, this is indeed a place where young people go to boogie and do drugs, but that is it. It is one of those rare dance tracks that is not actually meant to be played too loud. A bit repetitive yes, but I dare you to find a dance track that is not.
The longest track on the album is the finale, “Deep Blue/Orange Julius.” It begins with a 1:40 piano piece before suddenly transitioning into a slowed-down version of Amy Grant’s pop hit, “Good for Me.” A great choice for a sample, however, there are some issues. It appears to only be minimally edited, save for being slowed down. I also fail to see the significance of pairing it up with the initial piano solo. I feel like the artist was trying to get across a message to me that I simply did not understand, and I really tried. I thought perhaps there was some significance in the name, with the piano being Deep Blue and the Amy Grant part being Orange Julius, but a google search revealed no correlation. And finally, though it is a small issue, “Good for Me” was released in 1992. Just sayin’
Looking at the info on the Bandcamp page for this album reveals that there are a wide and impressive variety of samples used in the making of this album, but for such variety, it seems that there is very minimal usage of them in meaningful ways. So much so that I was fooled into thinking that a track that used multiple samples, had only one source. The love is just spread too thin. The talent is there (Shields’ previous albums attest to that) and you can tell it’s there, just not the sound. If I had to sum up the album with a single phrase, it would be: missed opportunity. There are plenty of instances where the album hints at something great, but then switches to something… not as great. The jumping around of tones and styles is jarring and the theme of 1997 just does not excuse this. Platinum Phantom feels like three completely different incomplete albums rolled up into one, only sort of complete album.
