#chuckperson

Chuck Person’s Eccojams Vol.1 is considered to be the first Vaporwave album. It was created by electronic music artist Daniel Lopatin. The album features various 80′s rock songs and easy listening songs slowed down and chopped up. [1]

The digital magazine Crossfader describes the album as “pop culture looking in on itself and attempting to find a signal in the noise of a cavern of nostalgic malaise”. [2] With its repetitions of just a few lyrics in well-known songs the album forces the listener to examine the lyrics in a new light. The track A1 is the song Africa by Toto slowed down with sections of lyrics repeated. This forces the listener to hear the song in a totally different way and helps to shape new meaning around the song.

The album’s art features edited screenshots from the game Ecco the Dolphin by Sega. [3]

Not only did the album inspire Vaporwave as a genre, creators were inspired by the album itself. Creators made their own albums that featured similar art work, track names, and track sounds. A notable Eccojams inspired release is Sponge Person’s Eggo Jams. Both albums feature slowed down songs, similar names, and similar album art. Another notable Eccojams inspired album is Eccojams Vol. 1 (Nightcore). It’s just the entirety of Eccojams, but speed up and pitch shifted upwards. 

It’s interesting to see how different the tracks can sound when their speed is adjusted. Much like appropriation in art, the original Eccojams has been used to inspire so many other musicians and musicians still borrow elements from this 8 year old album.

“Chuck Person’s Eccojams Vol. 1.” Wikipedia, April 20, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chuck_Person%27s_Eccojams_Vol._1&oldid=837351987.↩

“Vaporwave - Music Primers.” Crossfader (blog), May 24, 2016. http://www.xfdrmag.net/crossfaders-vaporwave-primer/. ↩

This is the first track of Chuck Person’s Eccojams Vol. 1. This song samples Africa by the band Toto.