WOSX – CHUVA

How vapourwave has evolved since it popped up a few years ago. One label intent and determined to continue the story of this genre, and of all forms of vapour (minus "-wave" suffix, plus "hard-" prefix, etc.) is Dream Catalogue – literally a pick-your-own of artists making sounds, images and ideals to select from and "install" into your mind. Not literally, but figuratively at least, since losing yourself in a lot of this label's output is not a difficult thing: it's all about imagination, dreaming. Not least in the highly evocative 'Chuva' by wosX.

Abrasive synth brass paints plaintive melody lines melting into one another, summoning a humid sort of sadness and longing; this continues for the whole track, swooping and groaning with damaged majesty. wosX weaves percussion into the mix, sharp metallic rattling, woodblock cowbell clopping, eventually erupt with thundering drum ('chuva' means rain in Portuguese) into a house beat thumping along amidst the drama. Vague whisperings and far-off vox tantalise in the neardistance.

It's nocturnal, but not exclusively so, akin in mood to the dark exoticism of John Talabot's 2012 debut album, ƒIN. For me this worked out well: it soundtracked a bus ride through jungle-thronged hills and heavy skies from Taipei to Luodong, mingling easily with the grand landscape.

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• wosX - pronounced "wossex" - is formerly known as Wolfenstein OS X and is from Montreal.
• This comes from wosX's latest album, Brasil World Cup 2034, out now on Dream Catalogue.

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LUXURY ELITE – ENDLESS

Vaporwave. The definitive escapist music genre for this decade, or this century even, jostling with nothing, in competition with nothing, its own entity, deep and weird and superficial; the new easy-listening, soundtrack to romantic dinners, vacant penthouse nights alone, settling in to a blissful spa, disappearing in thickets of people in some megacity, alighting on a space station resort orbiting Mars, and as many other fabricated scenarios as your imagination will permit.

Long after the hype dies down and the online publications of the world and their followers move onto the next hit of newness, vaporwave continues to thrive thanks to a dedicated online community and labels like— well, less of a plural and more of a singular label: Dream Catalogue. Started in early 2014 this is literally a catalogue of vaporwave, comprising dozens and dozens of releases from a load of different artists; check it out on Bandcamp.

But whatever. Really I'm just here to talk about a new track from one of the scene's better-known components, Luxury Elite. The track is called 'Endless' and it is the musicmaker's own addition to a recently released compilation, Allegiance Vol III.

For starters, this is undeniably catchy – the melody is reminiscent of vocal tracks arranged for shop-floor-destined instrumentals. It also is filled with all the airy mysticism and exotic anonymity effusing from pan pipe music that pervades plazas and high-streets across the western world (from what I can gather) – but in electronic form, of course. The damaged, found-sound-esque shuffle of the track has a delicious texture, built out of insectoid summer-nights percussion and cyclical syncopated chords, all of it washing over the simple and robust beat, thumping and swaying, the slow-moving motor that moves the track along.

Also, just in time, the music reaches a volta where the chords summon a different kind of atmosphere, more of a mysterious feel – imagine that the first part soundtracks a soaring perspective over some ancient ruins, whereas the change features soft-focus shots of slow-motion descents into the crumbling buildings and vaultish corridors of the ruins themselves (just about realising that these are edificial remains of mid-21st century Earth) – this happens just before the fade-out, making it seem as if there could be another change awaiting for us in the silence beyond the confines of this magical track.

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• Check out the compilation Allegiance Vol III on the allegiance Bandcamp – it's a free download and it's full of all sorts of tasty stuff, so why not?

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☟ Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Bandcamp • Twitter

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