CGI Gold™ 複合 – C O N T A C T S
Recommendation: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Each track on C O N T A C T S is a real, callable phone number from the United States. No, Sunbleach didn’t call them.1 But if you want to, you’re more than welcome to do so, and the blurb written by Adhesive Sounds for this release implies to suggest such. That’s a rather interesting charge, as if C O N T A C T S has ARG (alternative reality game) qualities that call attention to the oft-cited interaction between man and technology that forms the basis of much cyberpunk art by making the listening experience of music an interactive media by way of the track titles. For that and that alone, C O N T A C T S has some props.
This is the second release from CGI Gold™ 複合.2 It’s a tight concept album around phone communication, featuring several samples of different dial tones and communication media, such as the Skype send-call ringtone. It’s like Far Side Virtual by James Ferraro in its upbeat, highly corporate musical aesthetic, with the major difference being a heavy utilization of samplism from muzak (especially the jazzy kind).
As an actual listening experience, C O N T A C T S is pretty much the same as most other classic-style EPs out there. Its strength is in its concept, which chips at the fourth wall of music consumption by providing real, actual phone numbers and suggesting the listener call them. Should you be listening to this with someone’s personal info on there? Is it okay to use someone’s contact number when creating music? Those kinds of questions aren’t the kind normally asked in vaporwave (or music in general), making C O N T A C T S an album that is not attention-grabbing in terms of musical content but does conceptually stimulate.
Tracklist
1. +1 (719) 266-2837 – (2:21)
2. +1 (307) 200-6019 – (1:21)
3. +1 (605) 475-6958 – (0:47)
4. +1 (858) 651-5050 – (1:57)
5. +1 (605) 475-6966 – (2:13)
6. +1 (630) 932-6723 – (2:10)
7. +1 (800) 295-0051 – (1:10)
8. +1 (914) 737-9938 – (1:20)
1What if they’re the hacker 4chan?
2Japanese translation: “(CGI Gold (TM)) Composite”