Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews

Hypnagogia is the state of consciousness one experiences when transitioning from waking to sleeping. Hypnagogic vaporwave attempts to capture this sensation through the production of music that can be airy and ethereal or moody and ambient. Join Ross and Birk as they discuss one of their favorite sub-genres of vaporwave through the lens of two classic albums.

Albums Discussed
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virtua.zip by ESPRIT 空想
A Heart Full Of Love by DARKPYRAMID

Related Links
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Essential Hypnagogic Albums
Pad Chennington Interview with George Clanton

Credits
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Music by: 2Mello 
Artwork by: Patsy McDowell 
Ross  on Twitter
Birk on Twitter
Follow Night Clerk Radio on Twitter for updates

Whether it hits you with aggressive 808 kicks or lifts you up with airy synths and trap beats, vaportrap offers a unique and wide-ranging blend of hip hop and vaporwave that can't be found anywhere else. In this episode, Ross and Birk talk about two classic vaportrap albums discussing topics such as production styles, the relationship between albums and genres, and the preservation of art in the digital world.

Albums Discussed
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DREAMS by FRCLN
Fujita Scale by NxxxxxS

Related Links
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io808: An in browser Roland 808 emulator.
808: A documentary about the 808 drum machine.
Brian Eno on anachronism in art.
NxxxxxS - Extratropical Cyclone (Official Video)
The /r/Vaporwave thread on NxxxxxS Deleting Music.

Credits
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Music by: 2Mello 
Artwork by: Patsy McDowell 
Ross  on Twitter
Birk on Twitter
Follow Night Clerk Radio on Twitter for updates

Dungeon Synth is a genre that presents a unique blend of aesthetics by combining the fantastical themes of role-playing games with the moodiness and storytelling of dark ambient. In this episode, Ross and Birk listen to two albums from two very different periods in the history of Dungeon Synth and explore how the genre has evolved from its roots in black metal and 90's synths to a more nostalgic chip tune approach rooted in a love of 8- and 16-bit video games. Lend your ear to this musical adventure!

Albums Discussed
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Depressive Silence - Mourning (orig. Depressive Silence II)
KOBOLD - The valley of the forgotten secrets

Related Links
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A Guide Through the Darkened Passages of Dungeon Synth
A Beginner’s Guide to…Dungeon Synth
The (Somewhat) Definitive Guide to Dungeon Synth

Credits
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Music by: 2Mello 
Artwork by: Patsy McDowell 
Ross  on Twitter
Birk on Twitter
Follow Night Clerk Radio on Twitter for updates

We recently talked to Ron Parres, the organizer behind Vaporspace StL. They are launching a massive online vaporwave concert on May 22 and 23. Find out what the live vaporwave scene was like before Covid and what online concerts are like. 

Music Mentioned
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Sound Market- Eco Regions
Extra Breezy by Bonus Points
Smoker's Lounge Deluxe by Trans World Airlines

Related Links
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VAPORSPACE StL is an IRL & URL concentration of vaporwave and vapor-adjacent artists and their fans. VAPORSPACE StL’s primary mission is producing high-quality music events featuring vaporwave artists, while showcasing the artistic talent in St. Louis and the Midwest.

Watch Vaporspace StL on Twitch
Ron Parres on Twitter

Credits
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Music by: 2Mello 
Artwork by: Patsy McDowell 
Ross  on Twitter
Birk on Twitter
Follow Night Clerk Radio on Twitter for updates

Plunderphonics is a term coined by composer John Oswald in 1985. It describes any music that is constructed by mutating existing audio recordings into entirely new compositions. By making plunderphonic music artists tackle copyright law, fair use, the legitimacy of sampling, and numerous other issues surrounding the production of art in a digital world. Join us as we discuss the history of plunderphonics, how listening to plunderphonic music has shaped our musical tastes and experiences, and how this all relates back to vaporwave. Steal This Episode!

Music Sampled
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Greyfolded - Grateful Dead & John Oswald
Pekka Pohjola - Sekoilu Seestyy (Madness Subsides)
DJ Shadow - Midnight In A Perfect World
NEGATIVLAND - U2

Related Links
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"Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative"
Why a Canadian Composer’s Controversial 80s Work is Still Ahead of Today's Copyright Laws
Take A Byte Out: DJ Shadow, the Avalanches and the History of Plunderphonics
Girl Talk - All Day
George Marsh on Drums: Interviewed by Terry McGovern
Every Sample From The Avalanches Since I Left You
DJ Shadow on crate digging in the documentary Scratch

Credits
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Music by: 2Mello 
Artwork by: Patsy McDowell 
Ross  on Twitter
Birk on Twitter
Follow Night Clerk Radio on Twitter for updates

Mallsoft is a subgenre of vaporwave that aims to comment on our relationship with retail spaces and consumerism. By emulating and sampling muzak, often mixed with field recordings of actual stores, Mallsoft creates a sense of occupying now abandoned shopping centers. Wander the aisles of nostalgia with us as we discuss two pillar albums of the genre.

The Albums

Hologram Plaza
슈퍼마켓Yes! We’re Open

Related Links
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Mallsoft Is The New Elevator Music
Alone In Public - a No Man's Sky Review
The myth and majesty of Vangelis’ timeless Blade Runner soundtrack
Who Sampled Yes We're Open
Jordan Bortner Yes We're Open!

Credits
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Music by: 2Mello 

Artwork by: Patsy McDowell 

Ross  on Twitter

Birk on Twitter

Follow Night Clerk Radio on Twitter for updates

Vaporwave is haunted music because it’s about being haunted by our recent past and futures they never came. Dark Ambient is haunted because it pulls us into a subtly horrifying realm. It’s a form of catharsis for late night walks, study sessions, and all the quiet nights we experience. These two albums take the listener through haunted hotels and abandoned space stations. Take a listen and try not to get lost.

The Albums

Miles To Midnight
S O L A R I S

Related Links  
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• Dark Ambient: For When You Need to Concentrate… or Meditate on the Nothingness of Existence
• A Cinematic Edge: An Interview with Cryo Chamber Founder Simon Heath
• Angelo Badalamenti On Writing Laura Palmer's Theme
• Interview with Eduard Artemyev, composer for Tarkovsky's Solaris

Credits
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Music by: 2Mello 

Artwork by: Patsy McDowell 

Ross  on Twitter

Birk on Twitter

Follow Night Clerk Radio on Twitter for updates

Without video game music, vaporwave would not exist. Just as vaporwave is music for a future that no longer exists, soundtracks for fictional games now haunt the Internet. These concept albums evoke the era of late 90s and early 2000s consoles while still retaining original ideas. Find a save point and listen for a while.

The Albums

Pleasant Specter

Night of Terror

Related Links
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• Hauntology on Wikipedia
• Video essay on hauntology
• Ghost of our lives essay
• ADX file format description

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Music by: 2Mello 

Artwork by: Patsy McDowell 

Ross  on Twitter

Birk on Twitter

Follow Night Clerk Radio on Twitter for updates

Both Birk and I stumbled onto vaporwave through the Internet. I can place my discovery of it within a few days thanks to archived emails and chats. Caleb Stokes, friend of the podcast messaged me on August 18, 2014 “BTW, this vaporwave shit is the elevator music of carcosa”. In this episode, we each review the first vaporwave album we remember and think back to how it affects us now.

The Albums

Ecojames Volume 1

Computer Death

Related Links
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• Signalwave explainer video
• Sampling/Plunderphonics essay
• First episode of RPPR that mentions vaporwave
• Who Sampled for Computer Death 
• Clifford Marshall van Buren 

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Music by: 2Mello 

Artwork by: Patsy McDowell 

Ross  on Twitter

Birk on Twitter

Follow Night Clerk Radio on Twitter for updates

A poet once described vaporwave  as “It kinda like living in a junkyard but you're in a dystopian future and you find a bunch of VHS tapes and you're the only person in the world and everything is lonely but you have a bunch of weed and you're high all the time and you're in Japan and you're in the sky.”  It’s a little more complicated than that but you get the idea.

Birk and I talk about the appeal of music like vaporwave and why we want to explore it. If you’ve been drawn to media outside the mainstream and appreciate art made without commercial consideration by outsiders, perhaps you might like vaporwave. It’s the soundtrack to memories of a lost future. No better time to start listening than today…

Related Links

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• The K-Mart Tapes
• Sabrepulse
• Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack
• Silent Hill 2 soundtrack
• Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy 
• An Abandoned Mall in Birk's home town
• Babbling Corpse, a book about vaporwave
• Cry Novel: a visual novel 
• The Vaporwave subreddit

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Music by: 2Mello 

Artwork by: Patsy McDowell 

Ross  on Twitter

Birk on Twitter

Follow Night Clerk Radio on Twitter for updates