So in between the end of ep 2 of City and the City and Match of the Day master moles introduced me to vapourwave, an entire genre of music I was blissfully unaware of until yesterday. The cornerstone idea seems to slow down and pitch shift music, particularly 80s pop, until what was jaunty and upbeat is now melancholic and threatening. Here’s one of the founders (he became One Oh Trix Point Never) turning Africa by Toto into god knows what… more hilarious videos (including an extreme version of Running UP That Hill) in the comments. Apparently it is not just a joke, but a proper genre that people, like, choose to listen to.
Kids eh, got introduced to vapourwave last night by them
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This, I think, is genius – unlocks the extreme melancholy. As kids sagely remarked, could play in the Gold Room of the Overlook Hotel.
It’s nothing new, moseley. In the old days when it were all fields round here, we used to play 45rpm singles at 33rpm. Jolene worked especially well. Now, the kids have given it a name to do with giving up smoking. Cuh!
Amusingly the converse is also true: play “I’m on Fire” by Brooooooce at 45 and he sounds just like Dolly!
Indeed it does!
That is spooky.
I love this.
A crucial part of the genre is re-scoring and ‘chopping’ Simpsons videos to vapourwave – this is apparently the daddy version:
And finally of course slowing down does sometime create something extra-ordinarily beautiful:
There’s an ultra-slow “Wuthering Heights” too that was doing the rounds a while back…
Love that Kate Bush track – it sounds like waves crashing. Nicely tying in to the theme on side 2 of hounds of Love
Did you listen to all forty minutes?
Six times?
No and no. Once was enough (there may have been a nap in the middle, which is another reason to rate it. I’m always on the lookout for some good nappin’ tunes).
Have you been on Napster?
….I’ll get me dial-up coat ….
Surprisingly good, in an ambient chill-out sort of a way.
Me too. I used to giggle when I put 45rpm singles on my Dansette at 16rpm.
Gary Numan’s Cars at 78rpm sounds like Gazza is constipated.
Hoooooom, don’t be so hasty.
Unplug the jukebox, and do us all a favour.
That music’s lost its taste, so try another flavour –
‘ent music’ ‘ent music’
‘ent music’ ‘ent music’
You are disappoint @vulpes-vulpes?
I think he might be referring to the Ents from LOTR, for whom time passes much like the Kate Bush video above.
Gah! We did this int’ nineties!
The kids are taking pop music from the dire 1980s and making it longer.
What a bunch of w******s.
OOAA.
Are they also still wearing their trousers around their knees?
What’s the rush?
Bring back Pinky and Perky.
Hurrr
Why?