Vektroid, Macintosh Plus, New Dreams Ltd., 情報デスクVIRTUAL, Laserdisc Visions, Fuji Grid TV, PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises, esc 不在, etc...

why is her stuff so elusive and odd and yet so compulsively listenable? because it is

I mean, sure, there are parts of that 17 hour album that are just already cool music slowed down and reverbed out (pretty shameless to just chop n screw Oval, but hey), but still: she has a gift, there's no denying it

Ty frogbs, totally on board w/ this thread, especially because I've so much to still discover of hers and related music. Will read 'n learn.

I must have been out to lunch a little too long, but just hearing this stuff for the first time today and really enjoying it.

Thinking of pioneering "yacht vapor" which draws inspiration and content from loggins, mcdonald and the pocaros.

Track 3 on floral shop is my jam

However, her sound feels constrained to the genre; I wish she'd branch out more stylistically. For instance, RDJ, another prolific wunderkind, had conquered acid house, ambient music, jungle, noise and glitch and even industrial electronic music styles in a span of 5 years while inventing a few genres on the side.

Only if you listen to her more well-known stuff - I think her discography is really diverse once you jump into it. Don't forget she had amassed a fairly large catalogue of drum n' bass, ambient, IDM, and glitch-type stuff before she even turned 19. Some of her recent albums are quite frankly unclassifiable. Even amongst her vaporwave stuff, it's not all samey the way a lot of this stuff tends to be. New Dreams Ltd, 情報デスクVIRTUAL, PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises, Macintosh Plus, and Laserdisc Visions all have a fairly distinct concept about them.

Anyway just popped into this thread to say I really dig the way she's been remixing/re-releasing her back catalogue over the last few years. It's kind of a nightmare for those who try to sort out and collect this stuff but it's pretty neat to see "completed" versions of albums she did years ago; for example the "Isle of Avalon Edition" of the New Dreams Ltd. Initiation Tape, which mixes in some of the esc不在 stuff, or the recent Telnet Complete (highly recommended, btw) which takes the original EP, remixes/re-edits everything, and sandwiches it all between 12 new tracks. Or the cassette version of the Laserdisc Visions album, which I think cuts everything with snippets of the Fuji Grid TV album in the background. Or whatever the hell she did to that Sacred Tapestry album. I can't think of another artist who does stuff like this, especially not someone this prolific. It's like what might've happened if Zappa was around in the age of Bandcamp.

appreciate your thoughts and recommendations as always frogbs

I find it hard to think and express something about her that I'm confident about, but I like her sense of harmony, as in that Tortoise one mentioned on the vaporwave thread and "Saudade" on Telnet

She's really good at naming stuff. I don't mean for that to sound like a backhanded compliment, but it's true. Every one of her albums has a kick-ass tracklisting.

Here's a particular track I like. It's from Starcalc, which is sort of hit-or-miss, as though she's finding her feet a little. But this track rules. The way all the elements come together here is pretty incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pu4TbxkabI

(by the way, a huge chunk of this album is essentially a remix of the "Information Desk" theme from Lego Island, including this track...how cool is that??)

That's a good one. I also dig "Yr Mind" from that album, which is more atmospheric

from upthread

>(pretty shameless to just chop n screw Oval, but hey)

shameless or perceptive? I think she knows what's going on

By the way, the rumor that a good number of the samples (on systemisch) were generated from Aphex Twins "Selected Ambient Works II" is correct.
Piece number nine on systemisch is a complete Aphex Twin piece, which was scanned backwards through a CD Haenger. We put a ten second delay on the stereo tracks and then added an effect on top of that.

http://www.meso.net/oval/metzger.html

kind of wondering what tune that was referring to. I can't think of anything in her catalogue that sounds like chopped n screwed Oval, though admittedly I've only heard like...40% of her output. she did remix some SAWII tracks in the early days though.

for the record the 情報デスクVIRTUAL album is the shameless one. I love how most of the reviews remarked about how she had found this treasure trove of forgotten infomercial and hold music when it's like...no, this is literally just John Tesh and David Sanborn, almost totally unaltered.

http://vektroid.bandcamp.com/album/initiation-tape-isle-of-avalon-edition

Aurora 3D is pretty beautiful

http://vektroid.bandcamp.com/album/dream-castle

Haven't seen this one discussed here
Original ambient compositions as far as I can tell

yea that was sort of the "lost" Vektroid album for a long time. I think it was supposed to be released on some other vapordude's label but it never happened, so it just floated around on mp3 for a while. I grabbed it from Bandcamp a few months ago, it's nice but not quite as striking as Polytravellers. the sound design on it is really something though, can't quite pinpoint another album that hits that "taped over 1000 times" aesthetic

I couldn't get into Polytravellers , at least the windows safari and sphinx bits. And not familiar enough with starcalc yet (though it was one of the first of hers I bought) to be able to isolate the polymind tracks.

ah dream castle is awesome :)

There are big gaps in my hearing of her entire output, but Initiation / Avalon seems to be her most consistent enjoyable

haven't heard the Avalon edition but I believe that one adds in bits from the ESC 不在 albums if I'm not mistaken. btw fun fact about Black Horse, nearly half the tracks sample Chris DeBurgh, including one which samples "The Lady in Red" but cleverly cuts around the "nobody here" bit. considering this was before even Floral Shoppe it's amusing how meta this genre got right off the bat.

ok so I've played Color Ocean Road about ten times in the past week, holy hell is this pushing all the right buttons

Never heard that one. Will look it up (and down)

I think Initiation Tape; Avalon is her best. "Cold Water" is a real stand out for me. Haven't heard the original yet.

She seems to very proud of / pushing the new one (seed and synthetic earth) pretty hard.
Highlights for me are Hostage Earth and Endless Jump

it's a banger alright

she's teasing like 4-5 different albums at once and then just out of nowhere releases something totally different, it's pretty awesome

yeh this album rules
'we need to talk' is my personal fav but 'hostage earth' so good too

man 'moebius blue' is such a joy
i really wanna listen to it on a bouncy castle

The 7-note quote on that one of “love is all I have to give” throws me off

Currently obsessed with Shader, this album is really doing my head in. It kind of brings together a lot of the disparate threads in her work - samples from old Japanese commercials, OPN-style Juno synth work, a bouncy take on "Sushi Plaza" from Color Ocean Road, and a 13 minute long dark ambient deconstruction of the Mac Plus "420" track. It's great how Vek's stuff is so sample-heavy and usually follows the lead of Lopatin or James Ferraro but at the same time sounds so utterly unique - like in some way this is a counterpoint to OPN's Replica but it's also its own thing, no one else could have made an album quite like this. It's such a great late night slip-into-the-negative-world kinda album.

And then the next thing she puts out are the PrismCorp albums, which I believe are drawn directly from the demo tracks of an old Yamaha. She really is amazing.

^^yes, love shader, it a really eerie album, and i agree it's a great original fusion of her different strands

like in some way this is a counterpoint to OPN's Replica but it's also its own thing, no one else could have made an album quite like this. It's such a great late night slip-into-the-negative-world kinda album.

really well put, i think it's daring and exciting how DEEP it goes into this sort of extreme-Replica dream zone

Hypnagogic for sure
Shader vs Shader Complete - which is better? I have both but have yet to do a deep dive comparison

Cosmorama is my OPO on the album

oh man, these look cool. probably gonna have to pick up Shader.

.@Vektroid reissues New Dreams Ltd. and Sacred Tapestry albums on vinyl via @AguirreRecordshttps://t.co/A9fRtOl8Yv pic.twitter.com/CeTGBlMB3d

— Tiny Mix Tapes (@tinymixtapes) October 17, 2018

did you get macintosh plus on white vinyl

floral shoppe w/ 22 x 22 commemorative poster

vektroid is brilliant

Print article on Ramona from a Portland weekly:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vaporwave/comments/9p0g02/vektroid_article_in_portlands_wweek_paper/?st=JNFNRWG9&sh=d3a162ff

That's a good interview. About a year ago she announced that she had like six albums in development, I kinda wonder where that's at now. I don't blame her for wanting to branch away from music for a while, she definitely feels like a "multimedia artist" with a pretty clear aesthetic that she's trying to nail down. On the other hand she feels like someone who could drop something insane and revolutionary at any time. In light of some of her recent stuff like Midnight Run and Seed & Synthetic Earth it's kind of amazing that she doesn't actually know how to play anything. But that's kind of what makes her work fascinating, isn't it? It's more curation than composition. Wasn't that part of the appeal behind Macintosh Plus - "anyone could do this" ?

btw I did manage to get one of the Floral Shoppe vinyls - took like six months to arrive but I got it. I'm not particularly fond of the album but it felt like a very cool thing to have.

On the other hand she feels like someone who could drop something insane and revolutionary at any time.

Yeah. I personally don't care much for video/3d art and would much prefer new audio material from her, but I can see why she'd want to venture into new terrain. And perhaps while her music is very much appreciated being a curator of music rather than composer - as you put eloquently - it's just not that satisfying to keep on doing? Idk.

oh dear, here's a version of that interview that's more readable

https://www.wweek.com/music/2018/10/18/vaporwave-pioneer-vektroid-can-do-so-much-more-than-music/

i think it's good that she's taking a step back and developing in new directions, she's obviously very talented but it's easy to hit a dead end in that kind of creative work (i would say eno, for instance, who also characterizes himself as not a musician, has hit a creative dead end).

the show tomorrow sounds interesting but i probably am not going to go

im sure i ordered one of the floral shoppe records but have no idea if itll ever come haha

I would love to see her live, just for the vibes. But I doubt she’ll ever “tour”

from a FB post. looks like a lot of new stuff is coming...next year

4) Beyond all that,
I just wanted to give a huge thank you to everybody for being so patient while I bring all of those upcoming Vektroid projects up to the level of polish they deserve. That's ultimately the biggest reason you didn't see a new album from me in 2018, and I cannot express how excited I am about the state of this new material as we move into the new year. That means Midnight Run 2, No Earth, the 'Neo Cali sequel', four 'secret' albums, the EP followup to Seed & Synthetic Earth, and a few experimental projects as well. It'll most likely be Midnight Run 2 or the EP that arrives first. Either way, don't count me out too soon y'all. 🙃✌️

still weighing whether or not I wanna dump $40 on the vinyl copy of Shader. I feel like it's a really cool thing to own but that's a lot of money for a record album

Looking forward to it. Has anyone seen her twitch stream?

I did check in once and she was playing this bizarre 3-D platformer where you were a chicken

haha good prep for untitled goose game!

and good news to that, ordered a copy of floral shoppe what must have been nearly a year ago and no sign of it haha

someone actually tracked down a bunch of the Sleepline samples, wow

https://www.whosampled.com/album/New-Dreams-Ltd./Sleepline/

this album is such a cool trip. first time I heard it was on a long drive and I honestly thought it was only like 25 minutes (maybe confused it with Eden)...I remember checking and being like, "damn, I'm only on track 7?!?"

My favorite V sample is probably the bridge to “Too Shy” by kajagoogoo, which became “Timecop” on Initiation Tape

I caught a bunch of her twitch stream last night. She was playing a bunch of semi obscure PS1 games. she doesn’t narrate, but she did occasionally pause the game to write in the chat to tell watchers who broached business (like “where’s my t shirt”) that the stream was not the place to discuss that stuff.

She has a very cool stream layout though. The centerpiece is this endlessly rotating translucent statue of David with a pig in place of a face.

She takes volcano hits like other people snack on chips

Last nights stream was cool, she broke into the car chase in LA while working in ableton

i finished the ambient album

— Vektroid (@Vektroid) May 15, 2020

didn't even know one was in the works

kind of excited for the new Mac Plus album. everything she's demoed from it has sounded rad and apparently it's going to be super long. and since she's using the name it'll get a lot of attention. could be a big break I hope

cosign!

she said the ambient album is not really ambient...and from what she's played on the stream that's truth...

I like her (original) work to some extent these days ok but she's SO GOOD at plunderphonics. I wish she'd go back in that direction but I doubt she will ever again. Like she just went through all the Kmart stuff...I mean there's hours of gold there. Telepath is another one...his screwed and chopped stuff is the best out there imho -- but now he's morphed into being a new age composer. ok...

I'd be in favor of more hybrid-type stuff like Shader or Color Ocean Road. her straight plunderphonic stuff seems like it hit a wall recently. I cannot really make heads or tails of that Peace Forever Eternal album, there are some good parts but as a whole it's just a mess. I like that she's finding her voice as a composer.

She’s now using a modified animoji type avatar and has pitch-shifted her voice higher so it sounds like she’s just coming down from a hit of helium. Awesome

https://i.imgur.com/ihFM7qi.jpg

pic.twitter.com/fkhmfPdJtK

— R (@VektroidLive) October 3, 2020

https://i.imgur.com/EgRByti.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/9ZQO2s2.jpg

She debuted a typically insane/hilarious video project last night

https://t.co/v0Z2Y7dJjj pic.twitter.com/KydXUGA5IE

— RaRa (@VektroidLive) January 1, 2021

Here it is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB4kgFtFU0I

https://i.imgur.com/TChaxyX.jpg

She keeps teasing initiation tape volume 2 and it’s driving me mad

getting the suspicion that "initiation tape volume 2" is gonna have to be titled something more like "initiation tape volumes 2-4" at this rate lol

— RaRa (@VektroidLive) February 5, 2021

She’s teased sequels to Neo Cali and Fuji Grid too, in addition to two triple albums. Plus some ambient album. Wonder when any of this is coming out? Is she just gonna dump it all in a weekend like old times?

“Need to rock you, and hold you all night long”

So, my partner and I are in a really bad situation with rent. On Oct 1st we're both getting evicted if we can't come up with $5700. Been totally starving ourselves to stay afloat, so we're setting the goal at $8K to cover bills and food. Anything helps.♥https://t.co/6gBzaJYTBW

— RaRa (@VektroidLive) September 17, 2021

HELLO!
Today is a really special day for me.
I am unbelievably hyped to finally present:

"THE OFFICIAL VEKTROID PATREON"https://t.co/bnGiBFmUgb

I'm going to be sharing so much stuff on here it's actually ridiculous. You'll really want to consider pledging at tier 3 or higher. pic.twitter.com/Kk0H0x14wt

— Vektroid (@Vektroid) November 13, 2021

https://i.imgur.com/s9AB2sN.png

well, she finally put out something new - a sequel to Fuji Grid TV. intended as a video project but you can download the MP3s at her bandcamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ccD-soZ4gM

similar to the first one and probably something she did a while ago but still seems like an indication that 2022 is gonna be *the year* if you know what I mean

i fully believe in the cultural criticism and hauntology surrounding vaporwave (recommended reading: babbling corpse by grafton tanner - zero books), but i'm starting to feel like the VHS pastiche slowed down thing has really had its day, now... i want vaporwave that deconstructs modern telecoms.

When she announced that a sequel to a 2011 project would be dropping, I was really hoping it would be Initiation Tape…

Time is running out

That was fun. And good for her releasing something!

I got news for you

whu happen? I haven't watched a Twitch stream in a while.

I wish I knew what whu means

ノ！ノ！ボ-イ！

Right

When she announced that a sequel to a 2011 project would be dropping, I was really hoping it would be Initiation Tape…

I guess it's nice to hear her destructive and very scatterbrained brand of editing again but I wasn't too into this, until the last 8 minutes where some crazy shit starts happening. if that's indicative of her new album it's gonna be nuts.

https://i.imgur.com/7WmgPci.jpg

https://vektroid.bandcamp.com/album/crash-1

the paradox is that it makes me think of peace, and calm, and warmth

i've lived, off and on, in this chaos vortex thing

everywhere at the end of time is interesting but there are things more interesting to me than cognitive decline

i imagine i imagine vektroid traveling back in time to 1985 and playing marty mcfly this

and marty mcfly thinking she's the terminator

and maybe she is but really all she wants is for marty mcfly to start taking estrogen

i'm almost anxious and upset for a second but there isn't actually anything to get upset about

this is what we do instead of dying

this is the world they made for us, this is what it sounds like

this is how we're fixing our hearts

have only listened to bits and pieces but it sounds like barely musical chaos to me. will have to grit my teeth and bear it though because I definitely think everything she does deserves your full attention...at least once

not sure how I feel about her next several albums being released in "beta" versions which will be continually updated - I don't really like the idea of releasing music that way. for one I don't want her to be working on these things forever. for two I feel like the majority of listeners are just gonna stick with the first version. like the next Mac Plus album is a decade-plus out from Floral Shoppe, whatever gets released will instantly have a ton of instant hype, so like that's the version people are gonna listen to. if you make a 'better' version in 6 months are people gonna go back and get reacquianted? I dunno, maybe. I just don't really think it's a great idea.

i really like this!

'the next Mac plus album' came out in 2019

New album and mix

https://vektroid.bandcamp.com/album/777-pig-danger

https://vektroid.bandcamp.com/album/crash-2-mac

oooh thanks for the update i'll have to listen to this

Crash 2 sounds like Crash 1, kind of fascinating but idk how much I actually want to listen to it

Pig Danger probably worth a close listen, its not very musical but there's a lot of cool stuff in there

Sounds like the first song on 777 samples “forever?” from initiation tape