音 LIGHT システム – Buy Milk

Recommendation: ☀☁☁


Buy Milk succeeds where many vaportrap albums fail: it’s charming. It’s not obnoxiously in-your-face like most of bl00dwave’s discography, not poppy/peppy like Blank Banshee, and certainly not aggressively hyped-up like most of 2016’s output thus far. Not that any of that is bad, of course!

No, 音 LIGHT システム’s1 seventh full-length release is lively and free – and free from the somewhat plagiaristic attitudes into which vaportrap/future funk occasionally gets trapped. Buy Milk has a pretty fascinating set-up, starting off with a killer smooth jazz sample that all-too-often heralds a one-track-wonder, but the spoken word of “womens health magazine™,” downtempo drill of “知らない,” and minor chord progressions mixed with Weather Channel advertisements on “家族 wake-up” are sure to dispel any worries that 音 LIGHT システム is a lazy producer. There’s just enough reverb to be fun; just enough inattention to the cut markers of samples to keep the song flowing but obviously “artificial” in the way that vaporwave does so well – especially on “気象•スタジオ.”

There are two bummer tracks, and they’re both at the end. “夜のコーヒー” is a rather hackneyed composition that’s a standard saxophone solo with tribalish beats; it is not necessarily bad, but it is a comparative let down after seven tracks of bounceyness in addition to being rather formulaic in structure. “愛 horizon” is a two-minute low-fidelity ambient closer with a production value that’s markedly different from the rest of the album and therefore sounds extraordinarily out of place. On its own, it’s fine, but its length and dissimilarity to the rest of the album give the impression of an afterthought rather than a fully-formed closer.

This is a short release: nine tracks in twenty-five minutes, but it provides everything that one would need and leaves the listener without the feeling of incompleteness with which such albums typically flirt. Lie back in the hammock, crack open a Corona with your lover, and relax.

 

Tracklist


1. 愛すること – (2:47)2
2. 家族 wake-up – (3:39)3
3. 夢 – line – (3:29)4
4. 知らない – (2:15)5
5. womens health magazine™ – (3:08)
6. 気象•スタジオ – (3:42)6
7. 甲斐無し – (2:14)7
8. 夜のコーヒー – (2:09)8
9. 愛 horizon – (2:03)9


 

1Japanese translation: “Light Sound System”
2Japanese translation: “To love”
3Chinese/Japanese translation: “(Family) Wake-up”
4Chinese/Japanese translation: “Dream”
5Japanese translation: “Unknown”
6Japanese translation: “Weather studio”
7Japanese translation: “Worthless”
8Japanese translation: “Night Coffee”
9Japanese translation: “(Love) Horizon”

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