VirtualRealityDeluxe – 夜空 市内で

Album information:


Artist: VirtualRealityDeluxe
Album: 夜空 市内で
Type: Full-length (LP)
Release date: 24 January 2017
Label: DMT Tapes FL / Verbatim Consciousness Recordings
Format:

  • Digital download (Verbatim Consciousness Recordings, 2017)
  • Digital download (DMT Tapes FL, 2017)

 

Recommendation: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


VirtualRealityDeluxe began releasing music in early 2017 through Verbatim Consciousness Recordings, a label based out of Florida that is part of the greater DMT Tapes FL collective (of sorts). 夜空 市内で1 is their first album, coming out in late January 2017 as a mid-career release for VCR, which folded into DMT Tapes FL in October 2017. As with many DMT Tapes FL albums, the release was exclusively issued as a digital download on a pay-what-you-want basis, with label owner VitoJames imploring listeners that all music is to be considered free.

DMT Tapes FL primarily releases classic-style vaporwave music, of which 夜空 市内で is a prime example. Approximately half (or even more) of the label’s music is in EP format, but this album is a full-length album at almost forty-six minutes in length. Tracks are primarily composed of straightforward sample curation in which bite-sized portions of adult contemporary and pop music are taken out of their context with or without additional production effects. Unlike most classic-style vaporwave, 夜空 市内で features little pitch- or tempo-shifting – at least, in comparison to FLORAL SHOPPE.

The production is inconsistent. “ThePointポイント” starts the album off on a fair note, but tracks like “Free無料” and “Illusion 錯視” are just loud, as if the mastering had amplified the waveform as the album went on. It’s not presented in the kind of fourth-wall-breaking classic-style vaporwave effect in which the music attempts to call attention toward the medium or inspire a sense of old-ness;2 it just conflicts with the other tracks. “Seen 周り” has the opposite problem – it’s exceptionally quiet compared to the rest of the album.

Several songs go on for quite long; 夜空 市内で would be a more effective album if it were approximately half or at least two-thirds of its length. The six-minute-plus tracks such as “Illusion 錯視” and “Me私” just keep going and going where a hard stop would more effectively serve the classic-style milieu. DMT Tapes FL has a long history of releasing EPs that utilize a similar aesthetic, and for the most part, those are the ones to check out for this kind of vaporwave – such as 良い乗り物 through the city.

 

Tracklist


1. ThePointポイント – (4:17)3
2. Heroヒーロー – (5:19)
3. Baby 赤ちゃん – (5:16)
4. Smile笑顔 – (5:19)
5. Tomorrow明日 – (3:26)
6. Free無料 – (4:11)
7. Illusion 錯視 – (6:18)
8. Me私 – (6:02)
9. Love私を愛して – (2:07)
10. Seen 周り – (4:36)


 

1Japanese translation: “In Yaizu City”
2“Antiquity” just isn’t the right word.
3All Japanese text within the track titles are the equivalent of the English.

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