「fluence」 – ｅｌｅｍｅｎｔａｌ
Recommendation: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[Originally posted to the SongSavers music blog on 21 April 2016.]
After dropping several tracks on streaming services,「fluence」released the downtempo vaportrap album ｅｌｅｍｅｎｔａｌ on the Dream Catalogue label – one of the foremost in professional vaporwave marketing and production. Sporting one of the prettiest album covers in the whole genre, ｅｌｅｍｅｎｔａｌ forewent the silliness of Blank Banshee for a decidedly somber vibe in common with 音 LIGHT システム. ｅｌｅｍｅｎｔａｌ has a chillwave vibe in its distinctly relaxed hip-hop beats that are more conducive to taking up a spliff than dancing in a club (ironically or otherwise). Tracks are short, with none but finale “ｎｉｇｈｔｆａｌｌ” stretching past the three-minute mark. 「fluence」makes copious use of Japanese flute, birdsong, and keyboard-led ambiance rather than utilize the samplism of peers.1 There are small glitches in several songs that add a bit of flavor, such as the speed-up/slow-down on “ｈｙｄｒａｔｉｏｎ.”
ｅｌｅｍｅｎｔａｌ has one fatal flaw: the beats are mixed way too loudly. While enjoyable in small doses, full listens of ｅｌｅｍｅｎｔａｌ are grating, simply because the beats sharply contrast with whatever else is going on. 「fluence」relies much too heavily on breath samples as beats, and they get old very fast, ending up sounding like a played-out gimmick by the fifth track. The artist also tries too hard to incorporate pop trap/dubstep nods that have nothing to do with the song; for example, there’s a “drop that shit” line on “ｔｈｅ ｒｉｖｅｒ” that totally ruins the flow of the otherwise decent track. This is chillwave vaportrap, not a dubstep jam. ｅｌｅｍｅｎｔａｌ is a decent debut, but very unsure of what kind of album it wants to be – and without the varied experiments that would make such confusion stimulating.
Tracklist
1. ｅｌｅｍｅｎｔａｌ – (2:23)
2. ａｄａｐｔａｔｉｏｎ – (2:39)
3. ｈｙｄｒａｔｉｏｎ – (2:29)
4. ｔｈｅ ｒｉｖｅｒ – (2:21)
5. ｓｅｃｌｕｄｅｄ – (2:41)
6. ｔｈｅ ｖｉｌｌａ – (2:20)
7. ｅｌｉｘｉｒ – (2:32)
8. ｔｅｓｔａｒｏｓｓａ ｄｒｅａｍｓ – (1:37)
9. ｅｎｃｏｕｎｔｅｒ – (2:01)
10. ｈｉｄｄｅｎ – (1:29)
11. ｎｉｇｈｔｆａｌｌ – (3:14)
1… since the vast majority of vaporwave artists are anonymous – itself a commentary on the Internet and digital age – it’s hard to pin down just who the producer is for certain, much less the gender.