satellite cult 29.29

content / descent, [PlayStation], virtual queer bar, web art

May 26, 2023

welcome to this week’s satellite cult dispatch. i’m so glad you’re here. i hope the artifacts i present you with will blind you with the light of 10,000 pairs of Poo-chi eyes glowing in the dark beside your bed. they just want to watch you sleep.

please be aware that the void dive section below contains flashing gifs. if you’re viewing this on the website, forgive the way Substack formats some Bandcamp embeds.

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[PlayStation] jungle.psx

liquid funk (sometimes called liquid drum and bass or liquid jungle) experienced peak popularity in the first half of the 2000s after its origin in the late 90s, a period of time that coincided with the lifespan of the PlayStation 2, the best-selling home game console to date. this concept EP by US Golf 95 gives us a taste of both; PlayStation is the perfect aesthetic partner for the ongoing revival of 90s and Y2K era electronic genres, which sonically reflect the techno-utopian futurism embodied by the aesthetics of the time.

[PlayStation] jungle.psx conjures images of RPG cut scenes, 3D rendered snow and water, and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, all with a vaporwave feel.

content / descent

blending a mallsoft foundation with classic vapor and broken transmission, this album by NΔVELGΔZER$ ¡n†’l., released by cassette label DMP, will sound familiar; vaporwave is a genre built on plunderphonics after all, and this album plunders from a variety of places, including existing mallsoft and vaporwave. it’s a collage of liminality, and in the context of the decade-in-the-making decline of American shopping malls, it’s incredibly fitting that it takes the listener on a guided walk through the backrooms.

the album also has three limited edition physical media releases: 25 editions on cassette, 12 editions on microcassette, and five editions on floppy disk.

ミS o d i u m T a p eミ

this vaportrap album by Fijian IP practically screams welcome to the plaza with its 2006-2010 inspired utopian virtual elements, plundering familiar sounds from PCs and early smartphones, the web, television commercials, hip-hop, and classic eccojams, all while addressing green capitalism and what corporations have done to the planet.

₸ʰ∄Y DR∄AM OF ∪S AND ∨∨∄ APP∄AR

witch house’s peak popularity coincided with the vaporwave explosion in the early 2010s, and like other micro genres of its time, while witch house has maintained a steady base of producers, listeners, and true believers, it’s often thought of as a short-lived movement that lost steam when the hype died. but given the way trend cycles work, it won’t be long before someone with a big enough platform tells their audience they miss witch house, prompting a resurgence in interest.

while i listened to my fair share of oOoOO and Salem a decade ago, witch house never quite hit me the way vaporwave did. but i think this album by ₩нΔ† Jø¥ †нэяэ î$ îи Lîvîиg, out on Borenail Records, blends the two and makes a strong case for why i should give it another try.

i wish this world wasnt real

this five track EP by FlowerBoyDeMii gradually introduces the listener to a new time and place with dreamy, ambient, bitcrushed synth. at first welcoming, then melancholy, then an anxious burst of breakbeats that transition into a type of confidence before it slows back down and cools you off, i wish this world wasnt real may be short, but it’s certainly impactful.

space bar

queer bars are community strongholds in real life, but sometimes they can exist online, too. i’m not talking about a metaverse property with giant Svedka ads plastered on the walls—in this case it’s a community spread among Neocities, SpaceHey, and an old school forum.

calling itself “an online homage to all brick and mortar LGBTQ+ bars, clubs, pop-up dance parties, pride events, and underground spaces in the world: past, present and future,” Space Bar is a gathering place for queers who are invested in the old web.

it’s only been around since April, so the community is still growing, but it might be a welcome alternative to queer Discord servers and whatever your FYP’s been shoving down your throat.

MelonLand

if you’re active in web revival spaces online, you may already know who Melon is. but if you’re not familiar with him, his project MelonLand is an “online arts community that celebrates homepages, virtual worlds, the world-wide-web and the digital lives that all netizins share, here at the dawn of the digital age.” it’s a cool place to check out if you think that personal web pages also count as art.