骨架的 – Reflections
Recommendation: ☀☁☁
Reflections follows much of the same styles of 骨架的’s previous effort Holograms. Tracks are almost entirely smooth jazz and easy listening samples with minimal processing, with the exceptions of minor pitch-shifting and delay. Track lengths range from the artist’s characteristic sub-minute microsamples (e.g. “subway,” “more memories”) to some of the longest excursions in 骨架的’s discography (e.g. the suitably-named “long ride”). The songs here aren’t busy in the way of spiritual successors Macintosh Plus and death’s dynamic shroud.wmv, but plaintive and relatively simple, without the grimness of 骨架的’s self-titled1 debut.
There isn’t much to cover here that wasn’t already discussed in Sunbleach‘s review of Holograms: listeners might find this album tame in comparison to the leaps and bounds made by later vaporwave albums, but Reflections‘s simplicity is also its strength. It’s a light album – one that is easy to get into – and it features all of the classic-style vaporwave themes in samplism and presentation without pretension.. It’s pretty, straightforward, and quite charming; an example of effective and uncomplicated curation.
Tracklist
1. waiting – (2:58)
2. landromat – (1:30)
3. homeless – (1:15)
4. bath – (0:42)
5. backseat view – (2:17)
6. music – (1:22)
7. long ride – (7:45)
8. more memories – (0:51)
9. subway – (0:48)
10. tomorrow – (1:56)
11. alone – (4:27)
12. end of time – (1:18)
13. grids – (0:51)
14. people – (2:22)
15. radio – (0:53)
16. night – (2:21)
17. cleaning out memories – (6:30)
1… except in English!