satellite cult 40.40

vaporwave comps, more delete, 90s design

Aug 18, 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 lift you high into the air so that a pair of cosmic hands can gently adorn you in the neon windbreaker of legend, granting you the powers of VHS magic and crowning you monarch of the mall.

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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5R64jk2sBDb384jt20qeG

the next evolution of vaporwave might be a dark one. taking cues from barber beats, industrial, and dark wave, this album by スキニーボブ and other music like it are building a niche for those who are too online for Clan of Xymox and who still crave eccojam energy. vaporgoth already has a small but notable presence, but often leans more into existing genres of electronic music like cybergoth, or expresses goth in aesthetic only, with the sound mimicking classic eccojams more than anything. but this release feels like the natural, authentic extension of barber beats. 5R64jk2sBDb384jt20qeG lies at the ambient end of this emerging style, slow and repetitive, a suspenseful lead up to the dungeon behind the door.

AOTV Vol. 2

ranging in genre from slushwave and future funk to barber beats and late night lofi, this compilation from Tulsa-based label 𝔹𝕣𝕠𝕜𝕖𝕃𝕒𝕓𝕤金欠ラボ features some satcult faves like b l u e s c r e e n, non-binary love, and NΔVELGΔZER$ ¡n†’l. if you want a snapshot of vaporwave at this moment in time, it’s here.

𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒯𝑒𝓂𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝟨 𝒱𝒾𝓇𝑔𝒾𝓃𝓈

this album by ATɱιʂ, out on Austrian vaporwave label PHANTOM TAPES, is atmospheric, dark, sharp, and thoughtful, yet gleefully exaggerated and kitsch. it’s vaporhorror, but only in the way Death Becomes Her (1992) qualifies as horror: through the nature of its camp and satire.

parasitic bond

in a parasitic relationship, one organism has power while the other the other not only lacks agency, but often also lacks knowledge of the presence of a parasite. it is not a relationship where two parties fight for dominance, but rather one that breeds a binary-defining state of simultaneous control and chaos, and even then, the parasite isn’t a malicious actor. it’s just doing what it’s programmed to for survival. this experimental hardcore techno by egosystem, aptly named, embodies such an experience of control and chaos, pounding, relentless, and packed with emotion.

∞┈୨ ༺ ˏˋ𝑰𝒏𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝑴𝑷ˎ´ ༻ ୧┈∞

at its core, from the perspective of genre mechanics, sextrance is just hexd hard trace, but there is something much more to it, culturally and aesthetically. the way ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡ blends it with nightcore revival and internet spirituality, hallmarks of the chronically online lovers of anime and adjacent media in the 2000s and early 2010s, doubles down on that ethos. this half-hour long mix begins with a nightcore remix of Destiny’s Child’s “Lose My Breath,” then transitions towards “Teenage Dream,” “Just Dance,” and other pop behemoths. i think “Summer of ‘69” makes it there towards the end. each song is somehow so familiar yet entirely unrecognizable, and every cultural touchpoint becomes less and less placeable the longer the mix goes, these faint fading memories that get lost in layer after layer of time and existence.

deathbed wishes

the first track of this ambient drum and bass album by DJ DEADHORSES has that icy cool quality i chase in my breakcore and jungle, and curiously, it opens by sampling dialogue from It’s a Wonderful Life (1946): “What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey, that’s a pretty good idea. I’ll give you the moon.” at times, it even has a sense of vaporwave about it, in a way i can’t quite place. perhaps, it’s how it makes things that shouldn’t work together mesh so seamlessly.

retro design

available to borrow from the Internet Archive, 1995’s The New Restaurant: Dining Design 2 by Charles Morris Mount is packed with super aesthetic looks at early 90s restaurant interior design, ranging from fine dining to casual spots.

neocities features

this website seemingly only exists to point you towards the Wikipedia page for “library” while expressing some existential dread. it was last updated in 2017. content warning ahead: