Deiphix – Hyperchamber
Recommendation: ☀☁☁
Deiphix is a digital media project that began in 2014 to “influence and create the reality of virtual, hyperfuturistic environments”1 and has released on labels as diverse as No Problema Tapes, Lost Angles, and – of course – Nirvana Port. Although there were several previous EPs and full-lengths, Hyperchamber is considered the first of the Deiphix albums – at least, according to the artist’s Bandcamp page, where Hyperchamber is listed as “DLP_01”.2 Each album consists of several long-form tracks with influences from IDM, dreampunk, vaporwave, and lo-fi electronica. Hyperchamber, in particular, is only three tracks long, but with over twenty-five minutes in run-time.
Hyperchamber is exceptionally influenced by ambient electronic music – more so than most of the Deiphix discography. But that’s not said to pigeonhole them: Deiphix is one of the few projects in the realm of vaporwave-and-related-genres by way of its strange, quirky approach to lo-fi futurism. Hyperchamber and its accompanying artwork are remarkably 16-bit. The two characters on the album artwork look like Gouraud-shaded renders for a late-90s computer game or digital art film. The tracks have just a touch of simplicity and a flavor of the excitement that came with the early wide adoption of 3D-representations; unlike the majority of Nirvana Port albums, Hyperchamber isn’t foreboding or obfuscating, but rather light, as if the producer(s) are simply enjoying the sounds they’re able to make with their Korg Triton.3
And now for some individual track descriptions: “Hyperchamber I” begins with some squeaky twittering that steadily evolves into a squirky two-chord arpeggio supported by some swirly synthesizer music. It segues into the spacey “Hyperchamber II”, which is carried by a mid-tempo kick-drum beat. Finally, the album closes with “Hyperchamber III”, which takes up almost half of the album’s run-time and is its most vaporwave-ish song, featuring reverbed percussion and a heavily pitch-shifted voice. It ends on a bit of a dark ambient note, with two minutes of a distorted bass tone. “Hyperchamber III” is the darkest that the album ever gets, as if the program render is winding its way down to the end. Each song is mixed to lead into one another, making Hyperchamber best-experienced in full listens, although “Hyperchamber II” works well regardless (and is an excellent track within the Nirvana Port library).
Tracklist
1. Hyperchamber I – (6:30)
2. Hyperchamber II – (7:42)
3. Hyperchamber III – (11:20)
1Check out more info on Deiphix here
2The “official” page truly lists Hyperchamber as the first album, but Google Play, RateYourMusic, and Discogs list several earlier albums that (apparently) have been deprecated from the Deiphix project, or simply featured elsewhere.
3Likely not what was actually used here, but you get the picture.