AOTW | 24 September – 30 September: General Translator – CONTEMPORARY

Well, it’s probably about time that we updated the album-of-the-week, right? COMMERCIAL PARENTING sure as hell had a good run. Coming back into regular updates, we’re kicking off the fall season with CONTEMPORARY by General Translator. As stated in our article, General Translator was one of the most engaged members of the mid-life vaporwave community, starting up in approximately 2013 and releasing several albums before fading out of the community around 2016/2017 (although there are hints of a comeback – maybe even a CONTEMPORARY 2!). Released in 2014, CONTEMPORARY is one of their most well-known releases, having been featured in the Vaporwave Ultra Guide that compiled notable vaporwave releases from 2010 through 2014. It was digitally issued through Bedlam Tapes and later received a cassette edition that quickly sold out.

CONTEMPORARY is anything but contemporary for 2014 vaporwave. The album is assuredly classic-style, being made out of numerous samples from mass media and pop music, but it hearkens back to the original vaporwave developments practiced by artists such as Datavis where vaporwave samplism incorporated pseudo-noise elements and glitch. This the title CONTEMPORARY a bit of dramatic irony in the context of its release – which could very well be the point. Track titles make significant use of overly positive tickers (e.g. “Excellent Flight. Class”), Japanese text, and advertisements – all combining to create a somewhat surreal interpretation of media through the lenses of nostalgia for the unexperienced but not the inexperienced.

If you’re looking for new old-school classic-style vaporwave, then this one will hit the right buttons.

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

 

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