High Tides ~ ~ ~ Chillwave

High Tides self-titled 1st release is some very relaxing tropical/coastal sounding chillwave (in the vein of Tycho) with a touch of TOBACCO's Psychrock and some wonderful nowave styled looping mixed in.



The pre-release tracks (Coastal Cruise '86, and Sunware) compromised my go-to soundtrack this summer, and I can't recommend High Tides enough:



Five of the tracks even have custom music videos that use recycled vintage 8mm-style beach videos from the 1960s-1980s to further shape the beach aesthetic High Tides flows with. It's a nice touch.

Interestingly enough, some early versions of the tracks are available on a near-forgotten Soundcloud account, but have been primarily released through Rad Cult (Tobacco's label) on their Soundcloud.

The only substantial presence this has is on BandCamp - so go buy this now, as it's worth appreciating in levels beyond the 128k MP3 preview quality.

NOIZZ FACTOR ++ Synthwave

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/noizz-factor-1
Artist's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoizzFactor

Empathy Test - Throwing Stones (Minuit Machine Remix)

Vaporwave sampling

WhoSampled, a great resource.

 

Becomes:

Vaporwave

I've been aware of this genre of music for some time, but had no idea it had a name. It didn't fit into any genre playlists I'd constructed, but the mood fit perfectly with many specific mix sets as bumpers, or transitions from one state to another. Fitting that it would be called 'Vaporwave':

Vaporwave was first characterized by its heavy use of samples from late 70's, '80s, '90s and early 2000's music, typically lounge, smooth jazz or Muzak. Samples are often pitched, layered or altered in classic chopped and screwed style.

The genre emerged in 2011 from online communities [...] Imagery associated with vaporwave includes glitch art, Classical sculpture, '90s web design, outmoded computer renderings and classic cyberpunk aesthetics. 

Use of Japanese characters and other non western writing systems is also prominent. Music writer, Adam Harper of Dummy Mag, describes the genre as "ironic and satirical or truly accelerationist", and that the name "vaporwave" itself is a nod to both vaporware, products that are announced but never actually manufactured or cancelled, and to the idea of [emotional] energy being subjected to relentless sublimation under capitalism. [Wikipedia]

Often, Infinity Frequencies [SoundCloud] tracks feel like I've fallen asleep as a child with the TV on: back when signals were analogue, and subject to distortion. I miss those days. More to be found via Reddit.