Spectreview: Felidæ – 傷を覚えて (Remember The Wound)

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Whether or not vaporwave is already killed in the grave, it remains one of the most fascinating developments in contemporary music in part because it’s a direct product of very recent upheavals in music consumption. Reportedly borne in the early 2010’s from under the radar releases like Macintosh Plus’ Floral Shoppe and Black Banshee’s Black Banshee 0, its popularity remains rampant on unfiltered user-submitted sites like Bandcamp, where many are still willing to tackle the genre’s omnivorous, loss-obsessed aesthetic from different angles. But vaporwave doesn’t commonly sound like what Seattle producer Felidæ has been putting out since early last month, a nonstop flow of creepy, depression-inducing songs that take the genre’s covert sense of loss quite literally. It feels like a project devoted to deconstructing vaporwave’s myriad ingredients, from 心の中 (In My Heart)’s romantic dissolution to 明るい笑顔 (Bright Smile)’s shattered, nightmarish radio pop collage. These pieces are academic, darkly humorous interpretations of a genre that’s finds its deepest, darkest point yet in 傷を覚えて (Remember the Wound). With just ominous cover art and loose translations from Japanese track titles to go on, the collection delves headfirst into a pitch-black abyss of implied PTSD-induced suffering made all the more effective by its distinctly human element. Which genocidal event is this album referencing? Is it all of them? 

It should be noted that each track here is merely a 400% screwed-down version of a pre-existing vaporware track that may or may not have been constructed by the artist. Is it unabashed laziness or intentional self-cannibalism? Technically that’s part and parcel with a genre like vaporwave, and knowing where the songs come from doesn’t really diminish their overall effect, even taking into account how dour songs normally sound when they’ve been slowed down to oblivion. There are scant beauteous moments here, but they exist, in the liquid gloom of “皮脂腺” (“Sebaceous Gland”) and the trip into Silent Hill on “リストア” (“Restore”). Otherwise the album chugs along in its filth, death and hurt hovering above like fog, in a sick simulacrum of vaporware’s hypnagogic reflection. It’s pointed, but perhaps also pointless, music created with no effort at all that nonetheless provokes a subtle emotional response, and considering today’s focus on thought-deprived pleasure vibes, it’s heartening to see works like this that take an openly challenging stance for its field. Or it just be depressive music from a depressive person that exists for no other reason than some desperate form of release, but what’s ever been wrong with that?

Recommended for laughing. He is laughing from right below you.