computer slime – ミスト

Recommendation: ☀☀☁


ミスト1 is best viewed as a spiritual successor to 骨架的: just look, there are pyramids in the album art! The antiseptic microsamples feature the same crystal-clear production of Holograms, occasional effects screw notwithstanding, and even the track titles are all lowercase in the original download. But the similarities are more than just topical: computer slime (an alias of the same artist behind Midnight Television2 and Computer Dreams) released this album right after 骨架的 dropped four albums back-to-back-to-back-to-back, promptly deleted three of them, and almost entirely erased (s)he/it’s3 social media and Internet presence. There’s probably no conspiracy here: the release of ミスト simply takes advantage of a reclusive producer’s tendencies toward eccentricity. Given vaporwave’s engrossment with pseudo-anonymity, the resulting ambiguity is becoming.

Of the nano-looped hypnagogic pop albums, ミスト is one of the best, and it might even do 骨架的 better than 骨架的 does 骨架的 at some points. The majority of tracks are perfectly sterile: entirely inoffensive, innocuous, and forgettable. It’s extraordinary. ミスト encapsulates the milieu of bland soundscapes with which early vaporwave, mallsoft, and hypnagogic pop are associated. Rather than create nostalgia, this album makes fun of the past in the best way: by showing that these samples aren’t anything “enjoyable” to be remembered, but to blend entirely within the crowd and each other. In fact, the three tracks that don’t work are the ones that break this mold of pure filler: “always,” “glow,” and “wind” are way too memorable.

Any other album in any other genre would receive the criticism “I’ve listened to this release five times and I still have no idea what it sounds like” as a kiss-of-death; but for ミスト, it’s the highest possible praise that could be given. It successfully accomplishes exactly what it set out to do: evoke not emotions, but pure unobjectionable banality. It would be sinister if it weren’t so painless.

 

Tracklist


1. alone – (1:22)
2. always – (1:38)
3. carwash – (0:39)
4. slow – (2:04)
5. awake? – (0:26)
6. glow – (1:12)
7. borken – (0:38)
8. waterbed – (0:56)
9. food – (1:15)
10. life lag – (0:41)
11. weekend – (1:16)
12. wind – (1:05)
13. beach – (2:04)
14. alley – (1:59)


 

1Japanese translation: “Mist”
2One of the earliest projects in late night lo-fi.
3… to borrow a term from Tiny Mix Tapes.

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