AOTW | 14 May – 20 May: Casino Gardens – Casino Gardens

Is it vaporwave? … Honestly, that’s kind of a hard question to answer. Casino Gardens is heavily featured in collections and guides discussing early vaporwave releases. For example, it’s part of the famous Ultra Guide that collected vaporwave releases from 2010 to 2014. It’s also notable for being the very first album ever released through the Beer on the Rug label, which went on to release a host of now-classic old-school vaporwave albums such as Midnight Television’s self-titled EP, FLORAL SHOPPE by MACINTOSH PLUS, and THE PATHWAY THROUGH WHATEVER by Mediafired. The music isn’t samplism or MIDI at all, but lo-fi indie rock with a serious cassette-tape production aesthetic that purports to tell the story of gang violence in Florida. With that said, perhaps Casino Gardens isn’t vaporwave – but its association with the genre warrants attention on its own.

Read the Sunbleach article here, and check out the music below:

 

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