WAVE

 

I've meant to write more about the emerging 'Wave' genre, as it's emerged over the past few years on SoundCloud. After finding a great new mix by Kareful today, I decided to just that.

Wave is a genre label attached to a collective of different artists, but typically has a mix of trap, dubstep and grime influences, but I also hear echoes of Witchhouse, and a lot of influence from gothic dance music, but slower and more chilled out due to the Trap influence.

To my sensabilities, I find this genre very enjoyable, as it channels what I liked about the goth music scene of the mid-2000s, but without any of the pretension or the homage to the 80's aesthetic inherant most dark synthpop or EBM. It's a style of music that's evolved out of a collective of artists spread across the world via SoundCloud, which this article explores really well.

There's a great article discussing the ins and outs of the emerging genre, with some interesting quotes from the artists themselves about the aspirations they have for their music, one that bridges the gap between dance floor and introspective bedroom music:

Kareful has one other ambition that at first seems bizarre, but makes complete sense within the wider context of the times in which we live.“Wouldn’t it be great if our tracks resonated so deeply with people they start breaking down on the dance floor crying?” he grins. “We’re trying to make the most emotional tracks possible. This surely has to be the best result of that?” [...]

“I think emotion plays the most powerful role in any production or piece of music,” agrees Sorsari. “Being able to move a listener with an emotional vibe that you want to exude from a track is probably the coolest thing ever. I want the listener to put themselves into an imaginary environment based on what they’re listening to and to resonate with it… The wave genre has been a gateway for me to do that, and play it in clubs.”

For others listening pleasure, an ongoing WAVE genre playlist I've been curating for a few years: