s t e f – Inside of Clouds

Recommendation: ☀☁☁


Do you know stef? He’s a downtempo electronica and vaporwave producer out of the UK, and he’s released four albums in three months. Inside of Clouds is stef’s November 2016 release; it’s an eight-track album of utopian vaporwave with imagery akin to INTERNET CLUB’s Redefining the Workplace and PrismCorp Virtual. Beats flow in each and every track, giving Inside of Clouds a vaguely trip-hop feel. As demonstrated by the title, each track has a different nature theme (e.g. “Garden”, “Mountains”) – however, one wouldn’t know by the songs alone.

Although short in track length and run-time, Inside of Clouds is quite varied. “Garden” kicks the album off with a stereo screw and jungle percussion that’s taken up a notch on “Mountains”. “Cave” has a strong, driving bass, and it juxtaposes nicely with the jazzy “Water”, which utilizes a piano and saxophone lead that will be familiar to those fans of the jazz-hop of the Dream-Hop series by Suli Hyuga. “Galaxy” is the most heavy-hitting song on the album – although that’s putting it relatively – and has a few moments of breakbeat textures toward its middle section.

If there’s any advice to stef in the future, it’s to let those tracks breathe just a bit more. Inside of Clouds – and be extention, stef – has the potential to be a pretty stellar release, and the production acumen is absolutely there. However, a few of these ideas sound like they end just a bit too soon. Now that’s a hard game to play, as it’s totally easy for songs to go on for much longer than they’re welcome to stay,2 but “Water”, “Galaxy”, and “Heaven” sound as if they’re about to end just before they really get going – especially since “Galaxy” ends on a cold stop. Obviously there’s no need for filler, but if he just slows down a bit and gives the songs a bit more body with which to play, then he could easily rank up there with ECO VIRTUAL in utopian vaporwave production.

 

Tracklist


1. Garden – (2:34)
2. Air – (1:42)
3. Mountains – (2:21)
4. Caves – (1:46)
5. Water – (2:35)
6. Stars – (2:35)
7. Galaxy – (2:27)
8. Heaven – (2:13)


 

1Styilized as “s t e f “.
2As much as I love black metal, it’s got a huge problem on that end.

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One comment

  • weatherman115

    Found a typo
    “Now that’s a hard game to play, as it’s totally easy for songs to go on for much longer than they’re welcome to stay,*1* but “Water”, “Galaxy”, and “Heaven” sound as if they’re about to end just before they really get going”

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