Vladyk Predovitch – Plays…
Recommendation: ☹
Released toward the end of the TKX Vault cycle, Plays… is a free jazz album by Vladyk Predovitch, one of the aliases of wosX and a “founder” of the Antifur label. While not vaporwave, hardvapor, or ghost tech by any stretch of the imagination, it’s worth featuring simply because of its place within TKX Vault and creation by one of the most high-profile (and controversial) producers of cyberpunk music in 2015/2016. Plays… is the first of the Vladyk Predovitch jazz series, which culminated with Final Plays… on Antifur Digital at the end of 2016, following Predovitch’s untimely death.
The release consists of two compositions that are entirely performed on a keyboard. In terms of jazz composition, they’re not too exciting. Plays… sounds more like a young child with a Casio pressing random keys until he hits something he likes and decides to roll with it for a while. That in itself isn’t necessarily a “bad” thing – John Zorn made half of his career off of testing the limits of improvisation – but calling this a virtuous performance of “free jazz” just isn’t true. There are a couple of nice moments, but nothing that warrants two twenty-minute shows. If you want jazz, just listen to jazz composers;1 this is more of a curiosity of “oh yeah the hardvapor dude made a few jazz albums” than something to take seriously.
Tracklist
1. Movement I – (20:36)
2. Movement II – (20:02)
1Or Converge!