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 was not aware of these guys, who formed in 2010 as a noise duo, and slowly evolved and added more members and turned into a kind of death/blackened doom metal project. They've got ties to other noise acts I don't know (Sutekh Hexen) and other industrial acts I don't know (Only Now). Quite a stew and the band pulls of something that sounds truly different. It's got a tentacle in each of the aforementioned genres but blends them really well. It's quite hard to pin them down in fact. Big, heavy riffs with a production level along the lines of a sludge/black metal record but sharp instrumentation and just a dirty atmosphere...ambient noise passages separate a couple tracks as a nice diversion...very cool

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