#Plunderphonics

[notaplaceofhonour]

so apparently skibidi toilet has cumulative billions of views, and a lot of adults are baffled by this. despite being one of said adults, more than a generation removed from the core skibidi audience, i actually don’t rly get the confusion?

i admit i’m surprised by the sheer size of that number, bc i’m old enough to remember when FЯED became the first to get a million subs, most of the youtubers I watch are still in the low millions range (and i like it that way), & I almost never see any references to skibidi in the wild that aren’t zillennials/millennials being confused, but imo there’s nothing mystifying about the appeal

it’s just an evolution of youtube poop & machinima—already incredibly popular formats on youtube—mashed up & taken to 11. hell, a very similar gmod meme, the TF2 vengabus/Thomas the Tank Engine “We like to party” video, is a decade old with upwards of 66 million views:

yeah, skibidi is “weird”. it’s absurdist. that’s the appeal. and kids are doing what kids do with things they like. we were the same with nyancat, salad fingers, harry potter puppet pals, and the like

i totally get if it’s not “for you”. idk if it’s rly for me. but i honestly find it harder to understand being baffled by skibidi toilet after living through seeing internet culture & media be shaped by “lol random XD” humor, youtube poop, machinima, absurdist memes, plunderphonics, hyperpop, etc. etc. than i do understanding the appeal of skibidi toilet

[disease]

POLYESTER [JOHN WATERS, 1981] sampled in: "FRONTIER PSYCHIATRIST"— by THE AVALANCHES [SINCE I LEFT YOU, 2000]

[postpunkindustrial]

Negativland - Escape From Noise LP

While some of the records I have posted on this blog are inexplicably out of print, others like this one are very explicably out of print.

Negativland and SST had a spat after their US record brought the wrath of both Bono and Casey Kasem upon their heads orphaning a bunch of fasntatic bit of noisy, experimental plunderphonics

If you like having your own copies of things download it from my Google Drive Here

[haveyouheardthisband]

[youmg44]

Hbomberguy - Sparta Formant CWE Remix! This video took me a while to make mainly cause of procrastination lol

Full credits in the YouTube upload:

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

Since I Left You • Stay Another Season • Radio • Two Hearts In 3/4 Time • Avalanche Rock • Flight Tonight • Close To You • Diners Only • A Different Feeling • Electricity • Tonight • Pablo's Cruise • Frontier Psychiatrist • Etoh • Summer Crane • Little Journey • Live At Dominoes • Extra Kings

Due to this album having several variations of each song differing from release to release, we've opted to include the Discogs link for this specific variant of the album. The Spotify and Youtube links below are for the 20th Anniversary version of the album.

Spotify ♪ Discogs ♪ YouTube

[declanlikesmusic]

never got into vaporwave probably, what projects should i listen to for an introduction??

I always love this question. Finding the best primers to the whole of the vaporwave landscape and introducing new people to them is one of the many things with this genre that I just find so fun. I'm going to try to be as succinct as I can, but I am going to shoutout a lot, specifically twelve, so go ahead and take your time with these.

Macintosh Plus – Floral Shoppe (2011)

The biggest vaporwave album of all time. I will tell you now that this album is by no means perfect, it has quite a mixed reputation among fans & outsiders of the genre, but this is the album to single-handedly define the genre's core ethos in such a highly-concentrated way. If nothing else, this should give you a taste of what inspires and influences the genre most.

Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1 (2010)

By all accounts, this is the very first vaporwave album and to this day, nothing sounds quite like it. A classic array of disorienting, hazy & psychedelic loops of old popular songs that still sound fresh and wholly enveloping.

猫 シ Corp. – HIRAETH (2014)

This one here is to help people gain a better understanding of what your typical standard vaporwave album often sounds like. It's quite varied in a number of subtly different styles & approaches to traditional vaporwave with some ambiance sprinkled in as well.

SAINT PEPSI – Hit Vibes (2013)

Now we're getting into the individual subgenres of vaporwave and while there's a few traditional vaporwave tunes sprinkled in here for variety, this album birthed & defined the genre of future funk with some of the best dance bangers you'll find in the scene. Lots of classy tunes on here, it's an absolute jam.

Blank Banshee – Blank Banshee 0 (2012)

Up to this point, every album I've shared has been intensely sample-based. This album still carries some samples, but it has original beats & synths to establish another subgenre known as vaportrap. It's a great beat tape with some classic tunes and I also recommend its sequel too, which is my favourite vapor album of all time.

ESPRIT 空想 – virtua.zip (2014)

Carrying on from the last album, this one almost doesn't use samples at all and when it does, it's usually an extra sound or instrument at most. I'm putting this here to establish that even basic vaporwave can be crafted from original compositions and the results are short but great.

t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 – 現実を超えて (2014)

What makes vaporwave the way it is and not like any other genre adjacent to it is its intensely heavy focuses on atmosphere more than anything else. So naturally, you're going to see a lot of bridges to ambient music. This first example is the subgenre of slushwave, which crafts the same excellent vaporwave tunes, but additionally filters them through such a wash of effects that transform them into psychedelic & blissful dreamscapes.

식료품groceries – 슈퍼마켓Yes! We're Open (2014)

The next subgenre in this vein is mallsoft, which answers the question of vaporwave being set in the tall & wide spaces of shopping centres by placing relaxing tunes in pools of reverb and letting them sprawl from the loudspeakers of the area's corners. This album is the first big one to establish that with a unique setting and gorgeous sample choices.

2814 – 新しい日の誕生 (2015)

The last of these ambient subgenres is dreampunk, which is a lot like vaportrap in that it heavily relies on its own compositions with very few samples while still retaining the genre's focus on nostalgia, this time set in the melancholic & rainy nights of the urban city through what is at least the second biggest album in the entire genre.

death's dynamic shroud – I'll Try Living Like This (2015)

I'm gonna end this list with a few of the genre's weirdest corners. Vaporwave is constantly wide open to new & unique ways of experimentation and this album stands as the best example of that. Wholly unique aesthetic choices, completely innovative sampling techniques and an overall opus of incredibly strange, surreal & psydchedelic soundscapes.

Infinity Frequencies – Computer Death (2013)

After that, I'll close this list with two examples of an abstract subgenre known by two names. They're synonymous to the greater community & world of music, but I see them as two different approaches. They're both defined by the creation of intensely haunting, isolated & eerie loops of mysterious soundbites extracted from the likes of television & radio. Signalwave is what I use to describe the more accessible & musical end of that sound and this start of a trilogy is the best example for it.

░▒▓新しいデラックスライフ▓▒░ – ▣世界から解放され▣ (2012)

On the other hand, I will leave you with what I consider to be the most divisive vaporwave record of all time. This album defines what is more commonly known as broken transmission and it is much more obtuse, glitchy, dark & surreal to listen to depending on the album. You're going to listen to this and either love it, hate it or sit inbetween. People have taken it as a joke while others view it as a work of art. Approach this one at your own discretion.

That's it! Those are the first 12 vaporwave albums that I will almost always recommend every single one of you to check out first. The greater landscape of vaporwave doesn't start & end with these albums, but instead, they give you the best surface level primer to help dip your toes in to such an amazing genre of music.

[vaporwave]

[phonographica]

COMPACTdisc ステレオドラマ - 愛している信じてる (2020)

[soapdispensersalesman]

WAKE UP HONEY NEW VEKTROID ALBUM

[commiegoth]

Happy 10th birthday Mouth Sounds!!!

And happy early 10th birthday to Mouth Silence, released in July of 2014! I know praising Neil Cicierega on tumblr dot com is preaching to the choir but I really do think his Mouth Sounds series (Silence and 2017's Moods especially) is some of his strongest work by far.

Neil's plunderphonics work to me really codified the wave of postmodernist IP exploitation we saw rise in the 2010s as a way to explore our relationships with pop culture, and in response to corporations doubling down on "IP-driven content". We can now see this artistic movement expressed across other mediums as well, like the tv show Nirvanna the Band the Show, the webcomic Mr. Boop, or the film The People's Joker! Neil's Mouth Sounds series isn't just a silly mashup series (although it is that too), but it deliberately juxtaposes its samples in a way to have the listener reflect on the relationships of our culture at large with the songs and other found sound pieces in a way other internet mashups weren't interested in, and created much more interesting (and endlessly re-listenable) music along the way. Thank you for the Sounds Neil!

[disease]

after years of chronic procrastination… here it is: my first official audio track. 🎧🔊🤖⁉️

“BREATHLESS WOMAN” was inspired by my infatuation for mid– 20th century US propaganda films; notably their sensationalist portrayal of mental illnesses shown in hospital patients, along with the archaic methods of effectively catering to their individual needs.

the vocals were sourced from a segment of an interview involving a woman diagnosed with a depressive disorder, wherein she discusses her traumas in relation to the predatory sexual abuse administered by a paternal figure during her youth. what captivated me was the woman’s emotional demeanor—depicting a confidence seemingly rooted by Apathy, almost as if she possessed a forbiddance in allowing these abhorrent events to tarnish her definitive Self. an absolute refusal of retroactive frailty. perhaps the significance in acknowledging our own Self-Worth.

[postpunkindustrial]

Negativland – Fair Use: The Story Of The Letter U And The Numeral 2 Book and CD

From a description from the Bleak Bliss blog

“In 1991, Negativland’s infamous U2 single was sued out of existence for trademark infringement, fraud, and copyright infringement for poking fun at the Irish mega-group’s anthem “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” In 1992, Negativland’s magazine-plus-CD "The Letter U and the Numeral 2" was sued out of existence for trying to tell the story of the first lawsuit. In 1995 Negativland released "Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2," a  270-page book-with-CD to tell the story of both lawsuits and the fight for the right to make new art out of corporately owned culture.

The overwhelming (and very funny) "Fair Use" takes you deep inside Negativland’s legal, ethical, and artistic odyssey in an unusual examination of the ironic absurdities that ensue when corporate commerce, contemporary art and pre-electronic law collide over one 13-minute recording (and to hear the actual single itself, go here: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For - 1991 A Capella Mix (7:15) I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For - Special Edit Radio Mix (5:46) (Links inactive see below)

The book presents the progression of documents, events and results chronologically, contains the suppressed magazine in its entirety, and goes on to add much more that has happened since, to illuminate this modern saga of criminal music. Also included is a (at the time) definitive appendix of legal and artistic references on the fair use issue, including important court decisions, and a foreword written by the son of the American U-2 spy plane pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960.

Packaged inside the book is a full-length CD containing a new 45-minute collage piece by Negativland, “Dead Dog Records”- which is both about artistic appropriation and an extensive example of it- plus a 26-minute “review” of the U.S. Copyright Act by Crosley Bendix, Director of Stylistic Premonitions for the Universal Media Netweb.”

For the book Fair Use doscumenting the legal battle between SST and Negativland you can get it from my Google Drive HERE

For rhe accompanying CD you can get that from my Google Drive HERE

And here is the thing that started it all you can get it Here

[haveyouheardthisband]

[jt1674]

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

Call Me • Walk Like an Egyptian • Heaven is a Place on Earth • My Sharona • You Keep Me Hanging On • Diamond Dolls • Bad • You Were Always On My Mind • Venus • Mony Mony • Made For Each Other • I Love a Rainy Night

*Colloquially known as Sludgefest.

Bandcamp ♪ YouTube