TRUMAN!

Hello UVF! Welcome back to another brand new edition of "ULTRAVIOLET VISIONS", where I give updates on the current underground Vaporwave/Electronica scene, as well as recommend some music I've been listening to along the way.

Firstly, just wanted to remind you all of our latest release on the UVF label!

UVF-010: The Book of Nonsensical Oddities Vol. 2: micronapz in the chromatic cloud fortress by waavypanda

This newest waavypanda release is the 2nd installment in their "Book of Nonsensical Oddities" series so far and its been a pleasure to make UVF it's home. Both releases are their own unique blend of synth heavy ambient/electronic music that present these beautiful sonic soundscapes filled with ear candy.

"micronapz in the chromatic cloud fortress" is much more dreamy and pillowy compared to Vol . 1. Waavypanda's use of glittery synths that are constantly generating these eclectic sequences of noise give this release so much shine and air. The track "heart tremors" is a big standout track for me with it's massive pads and glistening synths.

This release is a very refreshing piece of minimal, experimental, ambient/electronic music that I highly recommend for anyone wishing to space out and float into a whole different dreamlike world that waavypanda has painted in front of us. The album dropped last Friday October 20th, and is available digitally as well as on CD!

Skyline Tapes Season 3 / "SL​Œ​JAMS vol. 3" by amber dregs

Gonna give a quick shoutout to our friends over at Skyline Tapes for their official launch of Season 3 for their label! They just dropped their first release of the season, "SL​Œ​JAMS vol. 3" by amber dregs, and it is fantastic! Amber dregs has been one of the most prominent and promising artists to feature on Skyline Tapes and is finally back again with another banger release.

After a small hiatus, amber dregs has returned to bring us what I believe is their best project yet with its insanely crisp, vaportrap production. Tracks like "RETINA FLASH" and "ODYSSEY OF TRUTH" are highlights for me for their forward thinking sample chopping and percussion that drive the songs forward with such fluidity. Really happy to see amber dregs return and super excited to see what Skyline has to bring to the table for Season 3!

Also wanted to quickly mention that Skyline Tapes is currently accepting applications to volunteer for their "Skyline Street Team". If anyone is interested in applying to help promote some of Skyline's releases, events, and merch, I've left all the information down below as well as the Google Forms link to apply!

Songtradr's Acquisition of Bandcamp and the What This Means for The Future Of Independant Music

Let's get started with one of the biggest news in the online music space, Epic Games selling Bandcamp to Songtradr. Songtradr is a music licensing company that allows artists to license their music to then be legally used in content such as commercials or movies. In theory, as long as Bandcamp is allowed to run as is, just as it has been under Epic's acquisition for the past year, then this might be a great tool for artists to be able to additionally monetize their music with their already existing library of music integrated directly through Bandcamp. However, in the very short amount of time that this acquisition has been made public, Songtradr have not started on a great note with the community.

Late last month, Epic had already layed off around 16% of their employees and after then selling the company, only plans to have 250 employees offered a position with Songtradr. Any remaining staff that didn't receive an offer were layed off, despite various attempts from Bandcamp's union, "Bandcamp United", to settle an agreement to recognize them. It's said that a large portion of the employees that didn't receive offers were part of their writer/editorial team for the "Bandcamp Daily" articles.

Despite this maybe not having a major effect on most of the key Bandcamp music features, this news has shown Songtradr does not have as much care or appreciation for the curation/editorial side of the site and has left many users and artists to feel worried for the future. Many independant artists and listeners on the platform have shown a discomfort with the idea of a random company buying out Bandcamp and swaying the future of their beloved community.

In recent times, building your own website to sell your merch and distribute your music has already become a popular choice especially among certain independent music labels. Many artists have already been looking towards other alternatives for hosting their music and it seems like we might be expecting a resurgence of "DIY Websites" to come. But it's not just the Bandcamp acquisition that has artists worried about losing their community.

Twitter (aka "X") has gone through many major changes throughout the past year since Elon Musk's acquisition of the company back in April 2022. Over the last year, Elon's sporadic decision making as well as laying off large portions of the Twitter team has also made it's users very worried for the future of the site. To be fair, Twitter is a much bigger site and would take much more work to completely ruin overnight compared to Bandcamp, but I see a comparison to people's responses to both acquisitions. Twitter is where a lot of fan engagement, promotion, and community building occurs within smaller independent music groups, and Bandcamp is the heart and soul of where all that art takes place. WIth both websites potentially going through major shifts, it's very understandable for artists to want to look for alternatives that don't rely on the behalf of a large company for their art to continue disrupted.

At the end of the day, all artists want is a place to be able to share their music with a community of like minded people and for listeners to be able to partake in that without any hassle. In an ideal world there would be a platform that is completely run and controlled by artists without the need to focus on constant expansion despite having an already profitable business model. But in this age, capitalism begs companies to consistently find ways to grow and increase profits regardless of whether the company is already finding profitable success. Asking all artists to abandon all other resources and rely only on building their own website is far too drastic and unreasonable, but I would love to see a future where artists have a platform that is completely driven by the art and not profits. This future won't happen overnight and will require a ton of work, but artists should have the final say in how their platform is handled and distributed when the main "product" that is being provided is 100% produced by artists.

As for my own personal experience, the Twitter changes have heavily discouraged me to post or interact as much on the site and switch over to other alternatives like Bluesky. But with Bandcamp, we might just have to wait and see how drastic of a change things will be under Songtradr. I'm optimistic about Bandcamp being able to stay the same in essence, but these recent events have definitely encouraged me to look towards building my own website as a backup that is supplementary and not a replacement for distributing my music and merch. I would love to build a site in the near future that is completely designated to ULTRAVIOLET-FUTURE, and I love seeing other artists and labels start their own sites as well.

Before I end things off, just wanted to shoutout EQL since we're on the topic of websites. They run a cool site where they feature music news, weekly music picks, and occasionally host live events like DJ sets or Radio shows. They actually got to record an interview with Tech and James from death's dynamic shroud and it should be going up sometime this weekend so I highly recommend checking them out!

Thank you all for checking out this week’s UV Visions! This week's post was a bit wordy and more of just a think piece for my thoughts on the current state of things but I hope you all enjoyed!

If you aren’t already following UVF on our socials, go ahead and check us out at our Twitter and our Bluesky pages! Also join our Discord if you haven’t already since that’s where I’m most active and where I keep up to date on all the things happening with the label. We've got 2 new albums dropping by the end of the year so stay tuned for any upcoming announcements in the coming weeks! -portal.uvf

Hello UVF and happy Friday!! I wanted to focus this week's blog on 2 major topics: the new Lunar Data Garden single, and my thoughts on the way that Vaporwave is represented in the eyes of the general online audience. First let's get into the new track!

"Back To You Pt. 1" by Lunar Data Garden

Last night was the premiere of the brand new Lunar Data Garden single "Back To You Pt. 1" on the LDG youtube channel as well as the new bandcamp page. The track should also be available on all streaming platforms sometime later today. We decided on making "Back To You Pt. 1" the single track for Perfect Dawn since it's probably the most recent track we finished and felt fully complete to us. The original mix for "Back To You Pt. 1" was a lot more bare bones as one of the first demos I sent over to Truman during the inital Lunar Data Garden brainstorming sessions. Over the months, this track eventually led to a second part rendition of the track that felt much more full and polished. We knew that we needed to completely overhaul the original Pt. 1 version to match the feelings and sounds of the new Pt. 2 that comes later on in the Perfect Dawn tracklisting. We sat on the original mix until about a month ago when I finally sat down and sent over a newly structured Pt .1 to Truman. It was within that day that the two of us ping-ponged wav files back and forth until we struck gold with "Back To You Pt. 1". It was one of those instances where Truman and I felt perfectly in sync and ideas were flowing without much hesitation. This new version felt way too good to be true and became an instant favorite for the both of us. It reminded me of when I had sent the first Lunar Data Garden demo to Truman for "Secret Place", which was just laying down the chops from this Danity Kane sample, and then Truman sending back his additions that just worked seemlessly and filled all the gaps we were looking for. "Back To You Pt. 1" felt like our whole production cycle for Perfect Dawn coming full circle and definitely made the two of us feel like we had something really special in our hands, just like "Secret Place" made us feel when we worked on it 9 months ago. I think my favorite portion of the song is when the drums fully kick in on the 2nd half. I don't think I've listened to the track a single time without uncontrollably banging my head as soon as those drums come in.

I hope you all enjoy the track so far and shoutout to Truman for putting together those insane visuals for the music video! The full album, "Perfect Dawn", will be available September 29th with CDs and Minidiscs by ULTRAVIOLET-FUTURE

I've been super preoccupied with getting Perfect Dawn ready to drop later this month on UVF so I haven't been able to be as in depth with these blogs as I want, but I do have a particular topic that I want to tackle for next week's blog. Until then, here's a couple music recommendations I'll leave you all with before I see you again next week <3 -portal from UVF

The legendary electronic music producer, Oneohtrix Point Never, has recently announced a brand new album along with a single track. This new track titled, "A Barely Lit Path", is this bitcrushed, distorted electronic masterpiece. OPN starts the track with this beautiful vocal excerpt that is a mix between vocoded, autotuned, and natural vocals. The end result is something right on the borderline between feeling human and robotic at the same time. The track is filled with lush string sections accompanied by OPN's famous synth work that give the whole thing a perfect balance of natural and digital sounds in harmony.

"[USA]" by Anamanaguchi is an album I've been going back to a lot recently and has had a huge influence in my side of the production for Lunar Data Garden. The album is a fusion of Chiptune, VGM, Electronic, with a hint of Rock influences on the drums. Tracks like Lorem Ipsum (Arctic Anthem) have been some of my all time favorite tracks by them and have been held in a special place in my heart. I love the use of Vocaloid throughout the album like the Hatsune Miku feature on "B S X". Alot of the glitchy electronic elements have been a huge influence on my music in the past year and the album has become very nostalgic to me.

Hello UVF! This week, I honestly don't have a ton of new releases to talk about but I have a couple releases in my bandcamp collection I'm gonna recommend to everyone. It's been a busy couple weeks getting UVF releases scheduled, finishing the UVF magazine, and wrapping up the final mix and masters for Perfect Dawn, but I've got some things to talk about for the future of music on the portal side of things.

Next week the first Perfect Dawn single, "Back To You Pt. 1", drops on Friday the 15th and we can't wait to share it with you all! Working on Lunar Data Garden has also been super refreshing and Perfect Dawn has come to be something Truman and I are super proud to be a part of. Aside from Lunar Data Garden, I've been wanting to work on more portal related music and already have 3 new mixtapes planned out as part of a new sub-alias, "New Portal Plus+".

New Portal Plus+

These new mixtapes I've been working on are composed of some B-sides from ULTRAVIOLET CATHARSIS, tracks I made during the Perfect Dawn production period that didn't necessarily fit the sound, or completely new tracks that complement the concepts. I've been wanting a space to host new music I wanna work on that isn't as high in concept or tediously produced and sitting on my hard drive to release until perfect. Lately I've just been feeling like I've put a lot of time and effort into meticulously putting my albums together so far to create very concise sounding records, but sometimes I just wanna make a collection of tracks, throw them together and drop them on Bandcamp without having to worry about a ton of promo. These mixtapes will still have effort put into them just like I do with all my music, they won't just be looming over my head for over a year until I get the song to sound perfect. I will still be working on more conceptual, thoroughly produced mainline albums for portal.rwb and portal.flx, these mixtapes are merely just extra albums that I probably wouldn't even think about releasing without a mixtape club setup like this. The process so far has been extremely refreshing and has eased my mind to be able to still put out music for those that are interested without having people wait a year between album cycles. I'm still on the fence about setting up a subscription club for these mixtapes, but regardless, the first 3 mixtapes will be available for free to the public as a sorta sample to what the club will be and if a subscription club happens, it will only be a couple bucks for my entire catalog plus exclusive mixtapes. More details will follow in the coming months but I can't wait to share what I've been working on for you all!

Other than this, I've been working on the next couple months for UVF releases and currently have 5 albums scheduled to release in the next coming months! I'm beyond to excited to start UVF Year 2 soon and to share these new releases with you all! The UVF Magazine is also coming very close to full completion and should be ready to send out for printing in the next couple weeks. Depending on the reception of this 1st Edition, I might end up doing more editions routinely, but it's been a huge mission to get so many people involved and am happy enough just to get this 1st Edition out to you all for now.

Album Recommendations

I honestly haven't had a ton of newer releases I've been able to check out this week, but if you guys have any releases new or old that you'd like me to cover, be sure to send it over!

アバドン (aka Abaddon) is an artist I suprisingly haven't brought up on the blog before, but I highly recommend you all give them a listen!! You may be a little more familiar with their album Perfect Fake , but if you haven't heard them by now, they are easily one of my favorite artists in the Vapor scene rn and are constantly pushing the boundary for Vaporwave and Electronic music. I highly recommend starting here if you are into any works by death's dynamic shroud and have a soft spot for K-pop samples. If you are looking for something a bit dreamier, definitely reach for Perfect Fake afterwords, or The Lady In Black for something much more dramatic and darker in tones.

Gonna shout out the new super going project "Wake Up" for it's incredible deep and rich atmospheres throughout. super going specializes in Experimental Electronic music and showcases a nice blend of glitch, noise, and ambient on this new release. The album definitely embraces more of a noisy distorted field-recording sound in the first half and then leads you into very airy and ethereal atmospheres in the second leg of the album. If you are looking for something to scratch that itch for something mildly ambient with heavy electronics, definitely check out "Wake Up".

"In A Silent Way" by Nico Niquo has been my go to ambient record for the past couple months now since first discovering it. If you are into anything from the Orange Milk label at all, this release will surely be right up your alley. The album is a perfect blend of minimal instrumentation and electronic music that just keeps me feeling warm and welcomed. Each track feels like an airy trip floating through the sky in an endless sea of sonic clouds that fill you with emotions of comfort and peace.

Happy Bandcamp Friday UVF!!! I hope you've all been well and are ready for the start of the upcoming cycle of new UVF releases! We''ve got a ton of things to talk about in this week's blog, starting off with the long awaited announcement of the upcoming debut album from TRUMAN! and portal.rwb's (aka me!) new alias Lunar Data Garden!

"Perfect Dawn" by Lunar Data Garden

The announcement was posted on the Lunar Data Garden's Bluesky page in tandem with the Blue Moon and the beginning of the next lunar cycle. The first single from the record "Back To You Pt. 1" will drop on the night of the New Moon, September 15th, and the full album "Perfect Dawn" will release on the night of the next full moon, September 29th. Lunar Data Garden (aka LDG) is a data safe haven, where any and all past data signals can be decoded and given a new life. The Garden is overseen by the two moons: Natura being the Lunar body of the natural world, and Digitura being the physical manifestation of the digital world. When the orbit of the two moons come together in parallel, we achieve an event of transcendental harmony, a Perfect Dawn. Lunar Data Garden has been a project that Truman and I have had in the works since December last year. After working with Truman on the "hello gravity! 떨​어​지​는 (Deluxe Edition)" release on UVF, and after finishing "ULTRAVIOLET CATHARSIS", we have been working on and off on what we have titled "Perfect Dawn". The album is a beautiful blend of both Truman and I's respective styles, and embraces a very Y2K aesthetic. We started off by back and forth sending each other sample ideas and aesthetic images until we started to finalize what our sounds or visuals would be. The first glimpse of LDG could be found at the end of my Skylive 2023 live set, where I played the track "Secret Place" off Perfect Dawn, as well as officially announcing the collab between Truman and I. Over the 9 months, we have been dying to share what we think is a fresh new take on the Vaporwave genre and we can't wait for you all to hear! "Perfect Dawn" is scheduled to release on Friday, September 29th with CDs and Minidiscs available on ULTRAVIOLET-FUTURE.

NEW ALBUM RELEASES

This week's blog post happens to line up on Bandcamp Friday, so I thought I'd review and recommend some albums on Bandcamp you should all check out and support today <3.

"Peacock Tail of Rainbow Magic" is the latest installment in the Afterdeath Television discography. This album opens up with this beautiful, kaleidoscopic intro "Kill Your Ego Before You Enter" that is just filled with atmosphere and just feels like the audio equivalent to a breath of fresh air. The album is very much in this sorta "Prog Vapor" lane similar to a lot of newer releases from death's dynamic shroud. "Is It Love" is this epic blend of vocal samples from so many different sources that some how all stay together as a cohesive idea. I love the track "Compass Play (Sky Seams)" with its super groovy bass and infectious vocal samples. The track centers around this Demi Lovato sample until the song finally explodes around the halfway point into this dramatic break-beat filled climax. Overall, I love how effortlessly Afterdeath Television is able to blend so many different samples together and form something new in the end. Favorite Tracks: Compass Play (Sky Seams), Crystal Moon

"Dense Object Forest" by out://0f//bounds is the brand new release to come out of the side alias of fellow UVF artist, Two Circles. Dense Object Forest is 10 tracks of Ambient-Electronic VGM styled Vaporwave. The opener "Trailhead (​花​柄​)" welcomes us into this new world with its bubbly arpeggio sample that ping pongs in between your brain. The 2-part self titled tracks feel like the background music to some kind of RPG where you're just standing idly by in some kind of forest village. I love the deep soothing chords in the track "Refracting Crystal Cavern" that are accompanied by this drum loop that just drives the whole thing forward and puts you in a trance throughout the whole experience. The track "Lamp Light Off" is such a beautiful way to close off this album and say goodbye to the little world that was created before it. It's main melody is like a lullaby putting you to sleep and having you reflect on your time spent travelling through this Dense Object Forest. I am always stoked to new music come from both out://0f//bounds and Two Circles. If you haven't checked out any of their work, I highly recommend you start here! Favorite Tracks: Trailhead (​花​柄​), Refracting Crystal Cavern, Lamp Light Off

Other Bandcamp Friday Recommendations

"Species of Crystalline Genesis" by Life Silence Genesis is easily one of the craziest vapor-related releases I've discovered recently. Dropping back in April 13, 2020, this album features production from Claud Sheffner, Métropolita, and Palmer in this insane fusion of Plunderphonics, EDM, and Glitch Pop. I found this album just digging around through the Vaporwave/Plunderphonics tab on Bandcamp and was instantly hooked upon hearing the first track "I Know It". This track boots up with this EDM style riser and these Miley Cyrus vocal chops that glitch and distort while building up to this huge climax, where these high pitched vocals squeal as if at the top of a mountain. Many tracks through out the album feature samples that sound vaguely familiar until they become warped and contorted. The track "Minus Blossom" is another highlight track with its simple sample loop until we gradually stretch the sample into unfamiliarity in this grand glitchy Vapor-trap epic. I'm absolutely in love with how this album maintains balance through the chaos and how it's able to blur the lines between cohesion and incohesion. I highly recommend people check out this album as well as the rest of the music from this artist, seeing that they seem relatively unheard of. Favorite Tracks: I Know It, Deep Haze, Minus Blossom, Slow Decay, Sideways In Time

"Connections" is the most recent project to drop from fellow UVF artist, scarecrow_back in April this year. Easily being my Album of the Year so far, Connections shows scarecrow_ combining everything about their music into one jam packed, eclectic Vapor/Electronic odyssey. The production on this album is scarecrow_ at their best while continuing to come up with so many new and fresh song ideas. "Full Of Color" is exactly as described with its grand drums and bursts of glitchy vocals panning through your ears. "Conciliation Programme" feels like a celebratory opening after this world Full Of Color has been opened. I love how "...and Never Will Be" is a call back to their older release "Never The Same" with the use of the same samples as the insane track "Reality Breaker". "Combined" has this beautiful synth progression following this main Ariana Grande sample until the track breaks down at the midway point and shifts unexpectedly in classic scarecrow_ fashion with this break-beat section that closes the track off perfectly. "Relentless" has been a favorite of mine since it was showcased back with the teaser of the album. The beginning is so melodic and beautiful as this lullaby-like melody starts to build and fade away when the mid section comes in. The track slams through with these abrupt sample chops and transitions into this groovy dance beat. The track flip flops back and forth until these growling Dubstep-like synths come in that somehow still blend together with the earlier elements of the track. Honestly, I can't possible encapsulate any of scarecrow_'s music perfectly in a blog post so I highly recommend you all to check this release out for I'm sure you are going to be blown away. Favorite Tracks: Full Of Color, Conciliation Programme, Combined, Relentless

ULTRAVIOLET-FUTURE & portal.rwb

Thank you all for checking out this week's UVF blog! I've been on vacation from work these past two weeks, while simultaneously planning out the upcoming months for UVF releases, finishing up Perfect Dawn, and getting things ready to print the 1st Edition UVF Magazine, so it's been a super busy time for me. The only thing I ask this Bandcamp Friday is to support the label in any way and check out my solo music as portal.rwb/flx. I've been trying to balance running the label as well as continuing to make more music as an artist, so any support means a ton to me <3. Any purchases made today go 100% to UVF and get split 50/50 with the artists, without the cut from Bandcamp, or you can even tip any amount here on our Tumblr page! Make sure to also join us over at our discord to keep up with the community and to be in the know for any future releases on the label. Thank you all again, please support your favorite artists, and I hope to see you all in next weeks blog <3! -portal from UVF

Hello everyone! Econ 4 is finally here this week and although I couldn't make it to NYC, I'm here to share and shed light on a couple new Vapor releases, as well as talk about some new changes to the ULTRAVIOLET-FUTURE label to come for Year 2!

Let's start off with...UVF Year 2 Roster Announcement!

With the start of our second year of UVF, the label is now an official label account on Bandcamp! This is an idea that I've thought about for a while now and I'm so happy to announce our starting roster with artists: portal.rwb, TRUMAN!, Two Circles, scarecrow_, and salt.bmu. Since starting the label, I've loved interacting with so many different artists and trying to represent their releases in a physical form the best I can. Over the first year there's been a lot of trial and error and now going into year 2 I feel like I know the overall sounds and aesthetics I want UVF to incorporate. Despite having a roster of artists, I am still 100% open to working with outside artists on a release just as I would before the transition. Nothing major has changed in the way of artists being able to submit music to the label, just that now I have a dedicated group of artists I feel best represents the sound of the label and who I want to spotlight their releases. Big thank you to the artists on the roster for entrusting me with their music. At the end of the day there are no strings attached and artists are still free to release solo and work with other labels, but I still appreciate them for allowing me to represent their music. I hope for the roster to grow over time and to continue working with other artists in the future!

Electronicon Weekend

In case you are living under a rock, this weekend there are a plethora of live shows happening in New York revolving around the huge Electronicon 4. I hope everyone out there in NY this weekend has an insanely good time and please stay safe <3. Although I couldn't make it this year, my heart is there in spirit with you all and I hope I can finally make it out next year!

Last night was the 2023 Summer Slushy Festival hosted with the help of Geometric Lullably, Pad Chennington, Dolphin Uppercut, and Vaperror of 100Plus Records. This is the first event they've put on together and has an insane lineup of artists jam packed into one night. The night was split into two stages so fans could jump back and forth to try and catch their favorite artist's sets throughout the night. There was also a live stream of both the indoor and outdoor stages so that people at home could tune in and catch some of the sets! I didn't get to tune in much but if I were there, I definitely would've tried to catch the Vaperror, TOWERS, desert sand feels warm at night, Discoholic, and Days of Blue sets just to name a couple favorites. Hope everyone had a great time last night and I wish the best for the future of Summer Slushy Fest!

Today and tomorrow are the days of the highly anticipated "Electronicon 4"! The event is being split into a 2 day festival for the first time and is still unknown as to the schedule for day 2. Some insane artists are new to this years lineup like Enraile, Datagirl, James Ferraro, and 18 Carat Affair! Obviously if I made it to Econ this year I would HAVE to catch the DDS and Giant Claw sets being a huge shroudie, as well as the George Clanton, Enraile, Esprit, and FM Skyline sets to name a few. This is usually the biggest show of the year for so many artists and thank you to George for continuing to put on these huge events!

The tape swap is a tradition to follow every Electronicon and this year is now a full on event with a huge lineup of artists and vendors. The event is being hosted by Utopia District and is happening on Sunday the 27th after the days of Electronicon. There are plenty of artists and vendors to choose from like Business Casual, Geolul, Pacific Plaza, First Class Collective, and our friends over at Pause and Reflect just to name a few. If you happen to stop by the Pause and Reflect booth, make sure to pick up a tape and snag a free sampler CD with a track from every one of their releases to really get a taste of what Pause and Reflect is all about (also the CDs were made by me!) and be sure to tell them UVF sent you ;). If I were there I would definitely need to catch the Eyeclick, ZeroRei, Cyber Surfer 3D, and Ahero x Vangoe sets. There is an insane amount of activity happening this weekend in the IRL Vaporwave space! Even just being at home and seeing all the videos and pics of everyone at the Slushy Fest so far already makes me super happy and proud to be a part of such an amazing community. Hope I can one day see you all in the future and share some amazine experiences together <3.

Now that the UVF and IRL stuff has been covered, let's cover a couple new releases!

"4D" by Blank Banshee is finally here after much anticipation from the fans. The tease of a new Blank Banshee album came with a tour announcement with a total of 32 shows! This is actually the first Blank Banshee album I've heard in full surprisingly and this release has definitely had me wanting to dive deeper into their discography. BB has been extremely influential in the uprising of the Vaportrap sub-genre since their beginning with their classic album, "Blank Banshee 0". Their most recent albums "Metamorphasis" and "Music for Menus" have definitely shown BB experimenting with their sound into more avant-garde electronic production. 4D still gives that Vaportrap feel while embracing a much heavier tone with more traditional tropes coming from EDM and House music. The album definitely feels like a cross between background music to hack into the mainframe and club music that would play in a dark underground club with millions of strobes flashing. I love the opener "Run" as it starts off with this heavy, distorted main synth/guitar lead. An incredible start to set the tone for the record as we come down to more mellow tracks like "Sundial" and "Good Times", which feature these infectiously groovy synths accompanied by some nice vocal chops. Overall, I like the heavier more atmospheric approach to the instrumentals BB has brought to the table with 4D. Most of the songs are short, sweet, and to the point, although some may find a few of the tracks to feel a bit samey after the midway point in the record. I feel like in the last couple years there is a rise in much heavier production in Vaporwave releases and 4D is a prime example of that. Favorite Tracks: Run, Good Times, Trojan Horse, Spirit Season, Trojan

George Clanton has finally returned with their latest release "Ooh Rap I Ya". Its been a couple years since their last release "Slide" in 2018, which really put the spotlight on George Clanton for newcomers to the scene like me. After cherishing Slide for the past 3 years since I first heard it, I wondered time and time again what a new George Clanton album would sound like. After an album like "100% Electronica", they've definitely seemed to go for a much cleaner polish to their production while still keeping a more hazy, hypnagogic, and atmospheric sound. Ooh Rap I Ya had a couple singles teased during the album rollout including tracks Justify Your Life, I Been Young, Vapor King/SubReal, and F.U.M.L. With the sound coming from these singles, George is definitely embracing sounds of the 90s, particularly in tracks like "I Been Young" with its very playful, head-bopping singing in the verses. The track comes in with one of the most infectious choruses in the whole record. With this song, as well as throughout the rest of the record, George is embracing the thought of growing older into a stage of maturity while still highlighting his past youth and learning from it rather than dwelling on the past. The track "Justify Your Life" is another smooth track with George singing in a much softer tone until the song starts to explode leading up to the chorus. George is talking about starting over and embracing a newer beginning and justifying your life. The rest of the album starts with the huge opener "Everything That I Want" that starts the record off with a bang. This is easily my favorite track from the record with an instrumental that feels larger than life and a chorus that makes you want to sing along at the top of your lungs. George is expressing feelings of having everything but not having "you" and how there is regret along the path of having it all. This track sets the tone of the record beautifully and leaves the listener feeling a longing/regret for a time that once was compared to the current day. Later in the track list we have the song "Punching You Down" which is an instant bop with its bouncy synths and "What does it feeeel like?" refrain throughout the song. I just know that when George plays this song live, the whole crowd is just gonna be screaming "What does it feel like" at the top of their lungs throughout the song. The track is definitely talking down on a particular somebody or group of people and talks about how "You're the only one that isn't laughing". "You Hold The Key and I Found It" is a more somber cut in the record that starts with this very airy, atmospheric instrumental with a lot of strings and woodwind instruments. The tracks come to fruition with George's classic laid back drum beats and cool hazy lead vocals. The track is much more of a vibe to the listener and much less about any main topic or idea and rather delivers an instrumental that keeps on trucking on and puts you in a trance. Later in the album, we get the closing track "For You, I Will". There aren't really lyrics to the song, but more of a vocal chant of "For You" throughout the track, accompanied by backing chants from the artist Hatchie. This puts the album to an end in typical George Clanton fashion by closing off with a bombastic ending just like we started off with. After waiting many years for a new release, George Clanton does not disappoint with Ooh Rap I Ya. Not sure if it takes the crown for favorite George album like Slide does but nevertheless still is an extremely enjoyable and consistent listen that I'm sure everyone would love. Favorite Tracks: Everything That I Want, Justify Your Life, Punching You Down, F.U.M.L, For You, I Will

Hello everyone! This week I've been going back and listening to some things I picked up during this month's Bandcamp Friday, as well as doing some digital crate-digging through the Vaporwave/Plunderphonic tags on Bandcamp. Let's get started with some of the new releases that have been in my rotation this week!

Starting off with the new Tabby release,"Macintosh Hell, this is one of the releases I picked up on Bandcamp Friday over at the Pause and Reflect Music label. This is actually my first release I've heard from Tabby and I have been pleasantly suprised. Macintosh Hell is 14 tracks of pure Vapor/Electronic vibes that fluctuate between upbeat and joyful tracks like the opener "Online", to heavier tracks like "Hacker". The vocal sampling is a core piece to this record and is something I instantly gravitated towards like in the track ". I love the heavy Electronics in tracks like "The Second Big Bang" where the synths creep in so beautifully, bringing you this larger than life soundscape that is so cinematic. The instrumentals of this record remind me of sounds you'd hear in something death's dynamic shroud's "Darklife" mixed with the terminally online lingo and presence of something like Death Grips "The Money Store" or JPEGMAFIA's "Veteran". Overall this album has been an extremely refreshing blend of my favorite Electronic sounds with some of my favorite Vaporwave tropes. With this record, Tabby has cemented themselves in my brain as an artist to keep a look out for in the future. Favorite songs: Online, Hacker, The Second Big Bang, Every Lie We Had.

"Someday We'll Find It" was a surprise collaboration announcement between the amazing Scarlett Lemieux and Serenade Systems Incorporated (aka Amanita), and released this Tuesday on First Class Collective! This album is a split release filled with 10 slushy Vaporwave tracks with 5 tracks by Scarlett and 5 tracks by Amanita. There is a common atmosphere of this "stage play" vibe where the collections of songs sound very large and grand, as well as having these sorta interludes between of sampled songs from the Muppets (something I would've never guessed to hear in a Vaporwave album lol). Scarlett and Amanita compliment each other beautifully and crafted this nostalgic mesh of ambient and slushwave where each song makes you reminisce childhood regardless of whether you recognize or relate to the sample material or not. Definitely a recommended listen as is a very unique blend of atmospheres for a Vaporwave release. Favorite tracks: Go Back There, Labyrinth Walk, A Call From A Child's Dimension

"Trois Mouvements" is the newest release from up and coming ambient vapor artist, Endless Corridors. I've been aware of this artist since their debut back in April last year over at Skyline Tapes. The album runs a little over 30 minutes and is split between 3 tracks, "I, II, and III". "I" starts off by building an incredible atmosphere with 13 minutes of smooth, ethereal pads that make you feel like you're gazing through skyscrapers in a city. As the song develops, the sounds start to crackle and deteriorate as we enter the track "II". "II" is a darker piece in comparison where we start off in a more simple somber note and then gradually progress into more harsh noises and textures. A little bit past the halfway mark is when things sound like they are coming to a climax as the track wails towards the end before entering "III". "III" ends the album off in such a beautiful way. The rain has fizzled out and we are left with extremely soft pads as this low key arpeggio comes in as if to welcome you and rewarding you for making it here. A flute melody comes in and is accompanied by these soft plucked pianos that make you feel so personally connected to the sounds being presented to you. An extremely gratifying ending with such a slow satisfying build up towards the end as we wind down and close off this beautiful sonic atmosphere. Favorite track: III

"MEMORIES保存する価値がある" is the latest release from classic vapor/mallsoft artist, 𝕄ꌦꌚ✞ỉር Ⓜᗩ爪𝕭ꋬ. Memories shows off Mystic Mamba's classic vapor style with their love and connection to the sample material. This record feels like a personal trip down Memory lane through this wide sonic atmosphere as we revisit songs from Mystic Mambas past. I think they gave such an accurate description to the emotions you may feel when listening in their description:

Sometimes, a special person enters your life. Someone with whom you share numerous wonderful experiences. Someone who you grow to love, as a friend, as extended family, as someone you could call a partner. And you feel like things are meant to last forever, but sometimes, that’s not how things turn out. The wonderful times come to an end, and while that may be sad, it does not mean that you should live with regret. Because those memories brought you happiness. The laughter, the smiles, the peace you shared, that’s what matters in the end. And those memories are worth saving…

I typically never gravitate towards mallsoft styled music, but this album feels very personally hand crafted to mimic a curated mixtape of tracks from their past that specifically remind them more than just a time, but a person and their connection with them as well. It's very common to invoke nostalgia in Vaporwave, but to invoke the feeling of longing for a personal time period in one's life is truly special worth listening to. Favorite tracks: ⓢ☋❡ꍏ☈Ϝ♗♫ꍏ, ❡ꍏ♔♗♫❡ Ϝ⊙☈ ♄⊙☋☈ⓢ, ⓢ​⌘​ⓢ​ω

Hello and welcome to the brand new blog/magazine titled "ULTRAVIOLET VISIONS"! This has been something in the works for a long time now and I'm super excited to be able to finally share it with you all. If you aren't familiar with me or the label, my name is Robert (aka Rawb), I go by the artist name portal.rwb/portal.flx, and I run the music label "ULTRAVIOLET-FUTURE" on Bandcamp. ULTRAVIOLET FUTURE (aka UVF) is a music label that I started in August 2022 and within the last year, it has become home to eight excellent releases focusing in the Vaporwave/Vaporadjacent genres. So what is ULTRAVIOLET VISIONS? This blog will come in both a digital blog and physical print, where I will talk about various topics and releases in the Vaporwave scene. Topics may range from new releases, upcoming events, album reviews, and just general music discussion. I want this blog/magazine to inspire more discussion about what's going on in our small little corner of the internet, so I implore anyone to continue on the discourse by replying to these posts by sending over suggestions topics for future blogs and letting me know your thoughts on any topics I talk about here. Our first full edition of ULTRAVIOLET VISIONS is currently still in the works but is almost ready to publish and print! Between every full editions, I hope to use this blog to post mini articles on specific Vapor related topics or doing album reviews of upcoming Vaporwave releases. In the meantime, follow us over on our socials, join us over at our Discord and here's a little sneak peak to a draft cover for the upcoming "ULTRAVIOLET VISIONS: 1st Edition" -portal from UVF Twitter Bluesky Bandcamp

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