DJ SVYATOPOLK – THE HERMIT VERSUS TOWERS OF LABOR
Recommendation: ☹
THE HERMIT VERSUS TOWERS OF LABOR is a one-hour hardvapor mix by DJ SVYATOPOLK, one of the many pseudo-anonymous hardvapor aliases out there whose music focuses on past and present American-Soviet tensions. This releases consists of several rather long dark techno jams with firmly tongue-in-cheek titles such as “OBAMA FUCKING PUTIN (OH BABY)” and “STATE FUNDED RAVE PLAY”. The music has a strong industrial influence. Hardvapor frequently utilizes brickwalled production akin to Merzbow-esque noise music that emphasizes its in-your-face-with-a-can-of-mace attitude; THE HERMIT VERSUS TOWERS OF LABOR is no exception. While hardvapor is no stranger to heavy sardonicism, THE HERMIT… goes even harder than normal on that end, similar to how some vaporwave artists take memetic East Asian appropriation to a big extreme.
On that note, THE HERMIT VERSUS TOWERS OF LABOR focuses more on its memetic side than the content of the music. At an hour of dark techno music, it’s hard to say that there’s a reason to continue to come back to this release. It’s not necessarily poor in production or in concept, but it stretches its jokes for way too long without caprice. The whole “OBAMA FUCKING PUTIN (OH BABY)” thing is… kind of not very funny? It’s funny in the Internet-troll kind of way, but it strikes as the kind of funny that someone would claim to enjoy ironically but then get defensive about how it’s actually funny if asked why/how. Hardvapor’s hyper-belligerent attitude is part of the genre’s appeal, but as with those vaporwave artists whose albums are little more than full-width text with a marble bust, THE HERMIT VERSUS TOWERS OF LABOR falls on the side of memetic for the meme’s sake than content to which you’ll come back.
Tracklist
1. OBAMA FUCKING PUTIN (OH BABY) – (11:42)
2. YAROSLAVSKOE NORTH – (11:39)
3. REVOLUTIONARY WORKERS POETRY – (8:07)
4. PROPAGANDA CIRCUS – (11:09)
5. STATE FUNDED RAVE PLAY – (8:11)
6. VOICES – (9:26)