Channel 505 – 日本の天気と気候

Recommendation: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

日本の天気と気候¹ belongs to the microgenre of “weathersoft”, which seeks to evoke the feeling of watching weather services on public television. Despite etymologically deriving from “mallsoft”, weathersoft has little in common with that subgenre since weathersoft lacks the empty production and PA-system effects associated with mallsoft. Instead, weathersoft is closely related to classic-style vaporwave in production – and if it weren’t for Bogus Collective and Prevue Guide tagging their albums with it in early Spring of 2016, weathersoft probably wouldn’t be distinguishable from other classic-style albums in terms of content. It was originally released on Prevue Guide (a television-themed vaporwave label) in March 2016, and in 2017 it was voted to be a part of the “classic-style” category of music in the vaporwave Nu Guide, which suggests vaporwave albums released from 2014-2016.

日本の天気と気候 mixes classic-style vaporwave with elements of broken transmission. Its seventeen tracks are little more than very brief fragments of lo-fi broadcast music from Japanese television, with the errant voiceover speaking through the staticky mix. Some of the shorter songs are nothing more than an unedited fragment except for some equalization to facilitate flow, whereas the mid-length or longer songs (relatively speaking) generally incorporate repetition of the sampled portions in a manner not unlike INTERNET CLUB or ghosting.

The fragmented nature of 日本の天気と気候 gives it an experimental edge that is not found in most other weather soft albums, which typically feature a more straightforward classic-style approach with more emphasis on sample curation to create the Weather Channel milieu. This album is recommended for those who prefer more noise and static in their classic-style and are not looking for imagery, as the disjointed nature of 日本の天気と気候 makes it difficult for the evocative tendencies of weathersoft to shine.²

Tracklist

1. こんにちは、そして歓迎 – (1:12)³
2. 今日の天気 . . . – (0:16)⁴
3. 週のための条件 – (0:53)⁵
4. 酸性雨 – (0:16)⁶
5. 午後 – (0:21)⁷
6. 高北極 – (0:43)⁸
7. プレビュー 1 – (0:27)⁹
8. 巻雲 – (0:46)¹⁰
9. 土砂降り – (0:44)¹¹
10. プレビュー 3 – (1:02)¹²
11. ！沿岸洪水警報！ – (0:58)¹³
12. 襟の雲 – (1:06)¹⁴
13. 地吹雪 – (0:40)¹⁵
14. ブラックアイス – 慎重 – (1:55)¹⁶
15. 鉄砲水 – (0:56)¹⁷
16. プレビュー 2 – (0:20)¹⁸
17. またね ！ ありがとうございました – (0:18)¹⁹

¹Japanese translation: “Weather and climate in Japan”
²Pun totally intended.
³Japanese translation: “Hello and welcome”
⁴Japanese translation: “Today’s weather”
⁵Japanese translation: “Conditions for the week”
⁶Japanese translation: “Acid rain”
⁷Japanese translation: “Afternoon”
⁸Japanese translation: “High arctic”
⁹Japanese translation: “Preview 1”
¹⁰Japanese translation: “Cirrus cloud”
¹¹Japanese translation: “Pouring down”
¹²Japanese translation: “Preview 3”
¹³Japanese translation: “!Coastal flood warning!”
¹⁴Japanese translation: “Clouds of collar”
¹⁵Japanese translation: “The snowstorm”
¹⁶Japanese translation: “Black ice – cautious”
¹⁷Japanese translation: “Flash flood water”
¹⁸Japanese translation: “Preview 2”
¹⁹Japanese translation: “See you again! Thank you very much”