I don't listen to much vaporwave anymore because, let's face it, it's all derivative ass-sucking crap these days. But I still make time for Cat System Corp. for his "mallsoft" classic Palm Mall, some of the best interweaving of that vaunted 80's aesthetic and vaporwave/ocean funk/whatever beats (and straight up dreamy ambience). This one, which I believe translates to Family. Work. Shop., is the soundtrack to an 80-minute VHS CatCorp released compiled of footage shot by the dude himself on business trips, family outings, and so on. I don't have the tape but the soundtrack is all right - unfortunately for me more "soft" than "mall" which is to say less ambience and field recording and more beats, some of which are downright rump-shaking and funky at times. What's undeniable is that CatCorp has clearly grown as a musician, or a producer, or whatever you'd like to call him, far beyond what this genre usually lends itself to.
I keep up with Sunburned only intermittently these days, they seem to be taking a more rock-ist approach lately. Like this one. Each track is about 4-5 minutes of pretty ramshackle, jammy, funky, boogie rock...almost spoiled by the throaty, beery vocals shouted over the top of each one of these tunes with nonsensical platitudes. I almost shut it off after a couple tracks but I stuck it out and kinda came around on some level. I was oddly reminded of My War era Black Flag sludge punk. The band sez "these Holy Grail fueled recordings are a mix of iphone and zoom recordings run through garageband, reaper and some plug-ins. We're still working on the much more listener-friendly Black Dirt session..." and point taken, listener friendly this ain't.
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