Nostalgia is a feeling that most people feel at some point in their lives. It’s a feeling that can’t really be described but when you feel it, you know. What if there was a genre of music that invoked this feeling of nostalgia in the listener? Thankfully there is, and that genre is Vaporwave.
Vaporwave at its very core is quite simple, you take some 70s or 80s pop samples and you slow them down and add some reverb. For a while that’s all it was. It took a few years for artists to come along and expand upon this. One of the first artists to do so was an artist by the name of Telepath.
Telepath’s beginnings were humble, he would do the same things that every other artist was doing at the time without too much innovation. It took him a few records for him to really form his sound. He would take his samples and create simple loops and satisfying progressions. The reverb he added allowed for the music to become immersive.
Where Telepath really perfected this sound was on his 2015 album, Another Night Together. The record is only composed of two tracks, both of which are 44 minutes and 44 seconds long. They are simple loops played for the whole time but with a satisfying progression that captivates the listener the whole way through.
The first half of the album, “Never Ending Love,” is a dreamy dance between two lovers. Slowed and pitched down vocals play throughout most of the track while you hear bells flooded with reverb that guide you. The drums are slow and allow for its slow progression to truly be satisfying.
Everything is so slow moving and you feel as if you yourself are in the album. You can picture the scene of two lovers dancing together in that cafe. As you put yourself in their shoes you realize the purpose of the track’s slow moving nature: if you were one of those people the world would be moving in slow motion.
As you dance together you savor the moment and you block everything out. This realization only comes to make the album more powerful. The music of the cafe begins to reach its climax slowly and you are there in the moment. Nothing else matters but you and this special person, and as the progression comes to an end, this night together is over.
The music slowly fades away as the next part of the story begins. It’s a slow start but you hear the sounds of the ocean as the song starts. After around 5 minutes the track really kicks off with a dreamy groove. The vocals take a much more active role in driving the track and it pays off.
The listener drowns in the vocals and the depth; the layers of reverb make you get lost in the sound. While “Never Ending Love” is a hazy slow burner, “Seaside Lover” is much more active. The former feels much more like a retrospection of a relationship that has ceased while the latter is an escapist fantasy.
It’s much easier to imagine yourself in this relationship than to accept that it’s gone. That’s what “Seaside Lover” is: the blissful fantasy of someone coping with the loss of their lover. While none of this is real, it brings them comfort which is why it sounds much brighter in contrast.
Cracks begin to form whenever the vocals stop as an eerie presence fills the space. When they eventually come back the track feels different. They are much more powerful and take a commanding force over everything else as the chorus repeats.
You become lost in the atmosphere and the highlight keeps playing over and over until it is ingrained into your head. Eventually it dies down as the dream fades. They are facing reality again but they are still set on holding onto this fantasy. Not all things last however, and at some point they’re gonna have to let go.
For me this is the best album that Vaporwave has to offer. It is cohesive and pulls the listener in with its atmosphere. The progressions land perfectly and it’s great to listen to, both passively and actively. Telepath’s Another Night Together is easily a 10/10 record in my opinion.
