Mr. Hideyoshi – 地平線

Recommendation: ☹


Mr. Hideyoshi is from Pennsylvania, and 地平線1 is his third overall release and third from 2016. It’s also his first through Sunset Grid, a label from Australia that primarily focuses on classic-style vaporwave with some releases that touch vaporhop, sample curation, and hypnagogic drift. 地平線 is pure classic-style, with edited and pitch-/tempo-shifted samples from pop, R&B, and adult contemporary music. In contrast to most classic-style – which generally makes use of shorter full-lengths or EP format2地平線 is rather long, with ten tracks in over three-quarters of an hour and several tracks passing six, eight, and even nine minutes in length. The track titles are multi-lingual even for vaporwave: Korean, English, Japanese, Spanish, and Greek make an appearance.

地平線 is pretty damn classic-style. Pitch- and tempo-screw are pretty much its entirety, and the samples sound as if they were taken from the same pool as the other ten thousand or so likewise-minded releases. Classic-style is a strange genre because blandness can be a huge part of the artistic appeal in which all of these bygone sounds blend together to create a strange sense of semi-nostalgia, but 地平線 has notable issues simply in focusing for too long on aspects that aren’t memorable, and not in the mindless kind of way. Classic-style juggernaut Vektroid had an uncanny ability to zero-in on earworms when producing FLORAL SHOPPE, and computer slime picked the perfect moments of flatness in producing ミスト; both works succeeded in recontextualizing samples instead of merely presenting them. 地平線 falters here – it’s a classic-style release that presents samples in a context that does not seem to exist outside of “these were slowed down”.

Some tracks have a cycled/recycled slow groove (e.g. “夜間の愛 ( s l o w grv )”) that never get off the ground. That’s a cool thought: it’s like edging, except for music. Mr. Hideyoshi (or other like-minded vaporwave producers) should explore that line if it so interests them.

 

Tracklist


1. bailar la discoteca español – (4:49)3
3. 자신을 풀어 – (5:08)4
4. watch the p o w e r – (2:28)
5. f e e l s あなたのために – (8:26)5
6. 夜間の愛 ( s l o w grv ) – (2:55)6
7. I T E M E N U 残り – (2:29)7
8. one – (9:00)
9. βασιλιάς χορός – (2:00)8
10. ディスコフリーク 9 4 – (3:05)9
11. 恥 – (6:02)10


 

1Chinese/Japanese translation: “Horizon”
2A notable exception is FLORAL SHOPPE, which tops forty-seven minutes of run-time.
3Spanish translation: “Dance the Spanish disco”
4Korean translation: “Untie yourself”
5Japanese translation: “(Feels) For you”
6Japanese translation: “Night love (Slow groove)”
7Japanese translation: “(Item menu) Remaining”
8Greek translation: “King dance”
9Japanese translation: “Disco freak 94”
10Chinese/Japanese translation: “Shame”

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