Various Artists – NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL VAPORWAVE

Recommendation: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL VAPORWAVE refers to a 2012 fabricated compilation album of the same name. One that, fittingly enough, never came out – because that’s the point, right? But in 2015, Colosseum Records¹ went ahead and did it, and the result is forty-two tracks compiled from various artists within the vaporwave scene, mostly those who have released music on the label itself. Much of the California label’s output focused on classic-style vaporwave with elements of hypnagogic and VHS pop – of which this compilation is no exception.

As a representation of the contemporary scene, NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL VAPORWAVE probably isn’t the best place to start for newcomers; it’s more Smooth Jazz Samples 101 than it is vaporwave – especially in the album’s first third. The album plays way too much into the copy/paste samples that’s more representative of what outsiders think vaporwave is rather than be an accurate demonstration of the genre’s breadth.² By 2015, the scene was much more varied than this; there is little to no representation of broken transmission, vapornoise, late night lo-fi, vapour, ambient vaporwave, ECCOJAMS, or future funk; the main exceptions being a single track from telepath and the amazing futurevisions suite of “VIRTUALLYALONE20XX” by KING QUARTZ.³

One must remember that this is a small subset of what the genre has to offer. Most of the pure-sample tracks are decent-sounding in their own right (e.g. “beat” by cyberlust), but with the caveat that the album heavily plays to the genre’s memetic side, with there being no better example than the roman-statue-and-palm-trees album artwork. But for $1 USD (as of this writing), it’s not exactly a huge financial burden, and there are certainly some hidden gems that lie within the long tracklist. Just don’t listen to it and think that’s what we should call vaporwave, because it tells just a chapter – not the full story.

 

Tracklist

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1. Windows ’93 (I N T R O) – (0:31) – Various Artists
2. O N L I N E – (2:35) – Internet Archive
3. voyage en andalousie – (2:32) – POCARI ステューシー⁴
4. 木天蓼 – (4:55)⁵ – 猫 シ Corp.⁶
5. Luxury Machine – (4:02) – Shoji正治⁷
6. Smooth – (3:45) – 6. VHS Dreams™
7. DIGITAL ROMANCE – (1:01) – HOME COMPUTING
8. HOTLINE – (1:56) – HOME COMPUTING
9. SUSHI BAR タイクーン – (2:07)⁸ – 猫 シ Corp.
10. mallthugs&streetrats – (3:25) – KING QUARTZ
11. merimnao – (2:16) – Ambivalent State
12. POWERING ON – (2:53) – ローマンRoman⁹
13. VIRTUALLYALONE20XX – (8:42) – KING QUARTZ
14. ネオン顔 ＮＥＯＮ ＦＡＣＥ – (2:48)¹⁰ – Tｕｒｂｏｗａｙ ターボ道¹¹
15. Wet Business – (2:08) – VHS Dreams™
16. ライフループ¹¹ – (2:07) – Ambivalent State
17. Audio Japan – (3:43) – Encarta™
18. subway terminus – (1:41) – POCARI ステューシー
19. b a b e – (2:03) – ローマンRoman
20. 美しい音楽 ＮＩＣＥ ＭＵＳＩＣ – (2:49)¹² – Tｕｒｂｏｗａｙ ターボ道
21. WEB SURFING – (1:19) – Internet Archive
22. beat – (1:11) – cyberlust
23. 対決1989¹³ – (1:50) – peazy86サイバーハンター¹⁴
24. fast forward – (2:30) – bbrainz
25. hypnotic – (1:14) – cyberlust
26. パワーベースpower base – (2:11)¹⁵ – コンベアーCONVEYOR¹⁶
27. 悲しいネットワーク¹⁷ – (1:04) – Internet Archive
28. c r y s t a l p e p s i – (3:13) – pacintosh mlus
29. Downloading – (2:21) – Internet Archive
30. Hey Marine (feat. ローマンRoman) – (2:28) – Cyber Intima 現実¹⁷
31. Mild West – (1:52) – Cyber Intima 現実
32. 絡み合い – (8:39) – t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者¹⁸
33. ｓａｂｒｉｎａ  ｓｕｚｕｋｉ – (3:32) – Phoenix #2772
34. TECHNOLOGY – (2:09) – QUADRA 630
35. J A P A N E S E S U M M E R – (1:44) – ＭＲ. ＭＩＹＡＧＩ
36. A GIRL NAMED YUKI – (1:25) – ＭＲ. ＭＩＹＡＧＩ
37. ZEN州¹⁹ – (1:14) – bbrainz
38. DATA CORRUPTION – (1:50) – AMERICA OFFLINE
39. h o r i z o n – (2:35) – la trace
40. II – (2:40) – NeuroPort
41. Runway – (2:22) – la trace
42. ａｒｅ ｙｏｕ ａ ｄｒｅａｍ？．．． – (3:30) – Phoenix #2772

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¹Home of bbrainz, VHS Dreams, and ローマンRoman.
²… which, ironically, is the exact same charge that’s leveled against the Now That’s What I Call Music series. I get the impression the title of this compilation was chosen to be funny rather than with the self-awareness of the representative tracks.
³Easily the best track on the album.
⁴Japanese translation: “Pocari Stussy”
⁵Japanese translation: “Polygonum wood” (?)
⁶Japanese translation: “Cat System Corp.”
⁷Japanese translation: “Shoji Masaharu”
⁸Japanese translation: “Sushi Bar Tycoon”
⁹Japanese translation: “Roman”
¹⁰Japanese translation: “Neon face”
¹¹Japanese translation: “Turboway”
¹²Japanese translation: “Beautiful music”
¹³Japanese translation: “Showdown 1989”
¹⁴Japanese translation: “Cyber Hunter”
¹⁵Japanese translation: “Power base”
¹⁶Japanese translation: “Conveyor”
¹⁷Japanese translation: “Cyber Intima (Reality)”
¹⁸Japanese translation: “Telepath”
¹⁹Japanese translation: “Zen state”