For all wage slaves everywhere, those stuck eking out a living in cramped knowledge work cubicles or forever commuting to and from beige offices in dull grey buildings, this one’s for you. This is a love letter — nay, a secret mixtape — created and composed for all workers dying inside at dead-end jobs that require much, but remunerate very little, leaving nothing but exhausted husks at the end of the day. I, too, was one of you. I know your pain. I’ve lived your life and been laid off, and been tossed out like wilted lettuce at the tail end of a buffet. You are worth more than your job. You are worth more than the world. Lift your head up high, and know that there is hope. I don’t know exactly where it is, but it’s out there.
Corporate/Vapor/Wave is the second installment in a series that seeks to encapsulate the stifling, caged existence of the wage worker within the confines of music. (The first was Corporate Inefficiency Machine)
This is partly a vaporwave album, partly a retrowave 1980s style nostalgic throwback album, partly a collection of sad quiet wordless ballads inspired by the best TV show about office life there is: Severance, and it is partly a funeral dirge for the death of creativity and soul within the workplace. But it is all heartfelt, every note.
What Does It Sound Like?
File this release under: #vaporwave #retrowave #muzak
Sounds like: Air, Boards of Canada, Kmart shopping music, elevator muzak
Behind The Music
Most of this album was composed and put together while watching (more like, bingeing) the AppleTV show, Severance, which is all about having a separate work persona from a life persona. But what I wanted to do with these tracks is compose a dull, bland, beige backdrop for simple melodies leaving an uncluttered soundstage for some basic pop arrangements. For the most part, they’re all slow ballads that sound like they’re slowed down jazz pop tracks (the preferred workflow for many Vaporwave tracks) but are actually not since there are no samples in this album, everything was composed from scratch.
Still, the spirit behind vaporwave music is to create a sense of haunted unease and disengagement while using nostalgic signposts and I think I was successful in creating that.
Happy listening!
Release on Egoscapes
I submitted the album to be released on the Egoscapes netlabel on Bandcamp and they graciously did, even commissioning new non-AI artwork for the album cover by artist Mary Formankova (d4xis on Instagram. (Go see her work at https://www.fiverr.com/d4xisart/make-an-art-for-you and https://www.instagram.com/d4xis/ )