George Clanton’s past making eccentric vaporwave as ESPRIT Fantasy informs his pop songs in interesting ways. He may sing and arrange his songs into verses and choruses now, but vaporwave’s neon shades plaster themselves all over just as they did before. He developed a great ear for that glittery pastel side of eighties synths on the part-composed, part-sampled ESPRIT album virtua.zip, and that stays his strong point here. His tones resemble sea creatures jumping from digitized sea in euphoria; it’s a hugely endearing effect.
George’s vocal style gets overbearing on occasion, but he does bring a lot of energy to these songs. As on Brothertiger’s new EP, it’s refreshing to hear a ‘chillwave’ vocalist this dramatic. Instead of drifting along a shore, he reaches for the stars, bringing this album to metaphysical peaks even at a slower pace (“Wonder Gently”).
By far my favorite is “It Makes The Babies Want To Cry”, where adorable peaks of synth propel his easygoing melodies into pure bliss. The momentum he builds toward the first hit of the chorus makes it so much more exciting.
For this post I’ve enlisted musician, Vulpiano Records founder and Rate Your Music/Sonemic social manager Marilyn Roxie. As you’d expect, Marilyn’s has a flexible taste that includes both leftfield electronic experiments and kitschy sixties pop, so I’m sure this won’t be their only post for MAM.
Knowing their roots in playing Nintendo 64, I asked Marilyn to list some favorite video game OSTs with lower exposure and/or undeserved obscurity. Being a fellow VGM fan, I know I’ve had my share of examples. I haven’t gotten to the writing yet, but I plan to post my own top 5 in the near-future as well.
The game (also known as Mischief Makers) is a cult 2D platformer for the Nintendo 64 and a childhood favorite of mine. It holds up as challenging and unique to this day. I think the soundtrack gets overlooked by those who haven’t played the game and decide to dip into it for one big reason: it starts with orchestral versions of a couple of the game’s tracks (“Esperance” and “Adieux”) very different to the rest. If you don’t dig such grandiose sounds, you may not go on, and you’ll miss out on some incredible music.
This reminds me most of Stewart Copeland’s soundtrack The Equalizer & Other Cliff Hangers (Spotify); they share a frantic, robotic energy crossed with quirkiness. Even the textures are similar.. The music does a fantastic job of evoking and enhancing the game’s futuristic atmosphere; “Mischief Makers is the story of Professor Theo, a space-travelling Mad Scientist, and Marina Liteyears, his robot creation and assistant, marooned on the strange planet of Clancer. Agents of a mysterious “empire” kidnap the Professor for unknown reasons, and it’s up to Marina to rescue him.“ (TV Tropes) However, you don’t need to play the game to appreciate the industrial thumping of “Volcanic” and the creepy “Obakesong” (a bit of a departure from the usual sound), and lots more. Highly recommended.
This is a case of a great OST for a game that I actually haven’t played yet. Doshin the Giant was a Japan and Europe-only ‘god game’, where you play “Doshin…an embodiment of the sun, a giant who oversees the inhabitants on Barudo Island, a tropical paradise not found on any maps. The player is given a choice of helping the inhabitants expand their villages and found new ones as Doshin, the love giant; or they can also become the hate giant, Jashin, and rain down death and destruction.” (TV Tropes)
I wound up listening because a Vinesauce video used “Paradise Zone” was as background music. The OST is chock-full of the tropical chill-out you’d expect from the premise. At turns soothing or more free-wheeling and veering into colorful exotica territory, Asano stirs up a great range of emotions throughout. “The Island Of Memory” is my personal favorite. A stunning and sweet OST that makes me want to play the game.
Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon is another N64 game that sometimes falls by the wayside, though it has gotten much more attention than Mischief Makers due to it’s part in a long-running series and an English-localized sequel (Goemon’s Great Adventure).
This one may start on an awkward note for someone who hasn’t played the game, with a wacky vocal theme song (a rarity for N64 titles). What you get in the bulk of the soundtrack are several tunes inspired by Japanese traditional music, inflected with a touch of surrealism and electronic weirdness when appropriate, fitting the setting of the game: “The story follows Goemon’s struggles to prevent the Peach Mountain Shoguns gang from turning Japan into a Westernized fine arts theater.” (Wikipedia; really, I’m amazed this was translated into English at all).
Viridi (available on Steam) is a calming life sim game where you grow and care for beautiful succulent plants. Full of soft keyboards and chimes, each music track blends into the next and form a totality of cute, delicate melodies that mesh perfectly with the game’s theme. “Cucurbita” is my fave.
Zen Bound 2 (available on Steam) is a relaxing puzzle game requiring the player to use string of a limited length to wrap differently shaped objects to the best of their ability. The music by Ghost Monkey is far from obtrusive, merging seamlessly with the game with it’s downtempo rhythms and organic effects that emulate tumbling rocks, falling water, or rapping on wood. “Unpaint My Skin” is the stand-out for me.
art pop / chamber pop / folktronica / chamber folk
More like this – Kelsey Lu’s “Shades of Blue”, Goldfrapp’s Tales of Us, Kate Havnevik’s “Unlike Me”, Weyes Blood’s Titanic Rising
As you could guess from a cellist, keyboardist, guitarist and singer who’s worked with Solange and Blood Orange, Kelsey Lu’s solo debut isn’t easy to box. The quiet cello-and-vocal reserve of her Church EP has evolved to a bolder statement with an upfront personality and a much wider palette, the electronics among the most promising. In Lu’s case, though, the album sounds like the natural culmination of what she’s absorbed over time. She isn’t going eclectic for the sake of it. Even when she goes from warm folk (“Too Much”) to a 7-minute synth-enhanced 10cc cover, she unites every sound through the gentle shivers and hums of her flexible vocals, the warm wooden tremble of her cello and a clear-cut sound design.
Blood enters with a pair of striking cello-accented folk songs, the sinister warning of “Rebel” and the uneasy sleepwalk of “Pushin Against The Wind”. In the first big shift, Lu dives into pop-ballad catharsis with “Due West”, setting her decadent vocals to a blanket of synth chords and a harp so fragile someone could’ve sewn it together. When I think it’s over, a cello pluck enters and cross-fades into what sounds like Grouper making ethereal wave in a cathedral (“Kindred”). Unlike the rest of Blood, Lu sounds truly weightless as she sings like the ghost of an opera singer, possessed yet appeased. Not long after, she kicks into 70s disco with “Poor Fake”, where the big beat+bassline threatens to start a party. And we’re only halfway in by that point.
Blood is the most a new artist has impressed me in months. Her awe-inspiring musical scope combined with such clear passion and creativity to match means there’s enough here for me to process for months, but I’m immensely curious to know what sound she’ll pursue next. Will she do more pop, guitar folk, classical cello, will it follow the steps of this album or will she do a 180? Blood tells me any of these and more could work for her.
♥︎ – “Rebel”, “Pushin’ Against The Wind”, “Due West”, “Kindred I”, “Poor Fake”, “Foreign Car”, “I’m Not In Love”
This is my second Netlabel Day release for Vulpiano after Sea Cave / Indigo (available here). Listen and/or download Gemstone Study at the links above.
Imagine my shock when Karen O, one of my favorite singers for ten years, drops a 9-minute song-suite with Danger Mouse in November. Despite a new producer, “Lux Prima” sounded like a sci fi film-theme evolution from her ghostly psych-pop torch song from January, “YO! My Saint”, one of my favorite songs of 2018, so the idea of an entire album piqued my curiosity. Hard to guess how it would sound, but this was part of the excitement.
Beyond the expected indie pop/rock element brought by Karen, Lux Prima revolves around a warm, groovy surrealism in a similar fashion to Italian film scores of the 70s. For example: the filtered strings building on Karen’s underwater balladry in “Reveries”, the smooth bass lines and the uneasy synth+guitar melody in “Nox Lumina”. Like those soundtracks, Lux Prima doesn’t stick to 2-3 common formulas, so we have misty dream-folk in “Ministry”, one minute and twangy disco-pop in “Turn The Light” the next minute. Yeah, that one’s… weird.
As a result, Karen sings like she’s trying on new hats. With a voice as adaptable as hers, capable of riling a punk party and wooing everyone to sleep in the same twelve minutes, most songs gives her space to shine. Her wordless wailing on the title track and her wistful hum in “Ministry” come to mind. However, some of DM’s stylings (while often impressive) aren’t the best fit for Karen, dulling her spark. Other times the melodies aren’t as interesting as the lavish arrangement, like with “Drown”, a great song in theory but melodically plain.
The Lux Prima/Nox Lumina suite has me wishing they engaged more with their space themes, but what’s there is compelling. Lux Prima feels like a proper solo debut and a promising step forward. As much as I miss Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I’m glad to know Karen O is still open to experiment in her solo career.
art pop / darkwave / synth pop / ethereal wave / chamber pop
More like this– Susanne Sundfor’s The Silicone Veil, Goldfrapp, This Mortal Coil’s It’ll End In Tears, The Changelings’ “Season of Mist”, Anna Von Hauswolff’s Ceremony
This new Greek artist taps into so many of my favorite things here. Thalassa sweeps over your ears with dramatic strings as Ioanna swoons like a lost 4AD siren-singer, all backed by a gothic synth pulse. A few cliched electro-beats (as on “Messenger”) dull some of the personality in this delicious fusion, but her choruses and melodies are dense enough to keep out of potential dryness. Shout-out to “New Geometry” for her entrancing chant-singing (“Hesitation / I found the answers in your / Hesitation…”) and the crumbling urgency of “Roseate”.
♥︎ – “New Geometry”, “Roseate”, “Out of Focus”, “Swan”, “Ammonite”
More like this – X.Y.R.’s Reflections, New Atlantis Volume 1, Emerald Web’s Nocturne, Michel Genest – Crystal Fantasy
Secret Earth has many of my favorite new age hallmarks: rich synth pads smearing everything in a calming gauze, traces of the subtlest and prettiest synth bells, the lack of dubious ‘world music’ themes and getting that serene v.s. mysterious balance I love to hear in the genre.
Like Vangelis and Emerald Web, Voyage Futur proves excellent at creating moody nature portraits, suggesting stately mountains and dreamt-up forests frozen in time. The marimba+synth pad combo on “Eternal Dawn” is most appealing for me as a keyboard/mallet fanatic. Although there’s a few dull moments, Secret Earth is an ultimately rich and immersive experience. Recommended if you’re curious about the recent crop o electronic new age.
electronic / video game music / new age / sequencer & MIDI / synth pop
More like this – Eyeliner, New Atlantis Volume 1, Ecco: The Tides of Time SCD soundtrack, “Aquatic Ambience” from Donkey Kong Country, “Dire Dire Docks” from Super Mario 64
One in countless Angel Marcloid creations, Bubble Universe! displays her gift for dense, oceanic synths. Song-wise the album flips between beatless new age glitter and jittery drum+synth suites. The latter nears a chaotic pace, but Angel unites it all through the gleeful virtual sheen of 90s video game music. Imagine such a soundtrack fused with guitar cameos and some modern computer polish (best shown on “Triangular Format”) and BU! is the result.
Some of the best VGM is water-themed, so I applaud Angel for making her own album in this vein. Now I’m wanting to play the made-up water-metropolis fantasy game she’s conjured here.
Here are (most of) my favorite 2019 songs at the halfway mark. I’ve ordered them by their mood, style and/or tempo to make the transitions semi-fitting despite the variety. I’ve limited all but one artist to one song each.
Look out for my favorite albums list coming very soon!
Track list
1. Rainbow Chan – Oblivion
2. Weyes Blood – A Lot’s Gonna Change
3. Tamaryn – Angels of Sweat
4. Adonis – Z Chmur
5. Glass Candy – Naked City
6. Noname – Song 31
7. DAWN – Spaces
8. Kelsey Lu – Due West
9. Kelsey Lu – KINDRED I
10. Elsa Hewitt – Pop Tuna
11. Solange – Beltway
12. Helado Negro – Fantasma Vaga
13. Bibio – Curls
14. Nonlocal Forecast – Triangular Format
15. Ioanna Gika – New Geometry
16. ioannalee – Some Body
17. Hello Seahorse! – Incendio
18. Jai Paul – He
19. Carly Rae Jepsen – Happy Not Knowing
20. Bananarama – It’s Gonna Be Alright
21. Lizzo ft. Missy Elliott – Tempo
22. MC Tha – Clima Quente
23. Brothertiger – Prideland
24. Karen O & Danger Mouse – Nox Lumina
Moons And Melodies 