Hardvapour
| Hardvapour | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 2015, cyberculture |
| Typical instruments | |
Hardvapour is an Internet-based microgenre that emerged in late 2015 as a tongue-in-cheek response to vaporwave, departing from the calm, muzak-sampling capitalist utopia concept of the latter in favor of a gabber and punk influenced sound. Canadian music producer Wolfenstein OS X's album End of World Rave (2015) and the Antifur record label are credited with having first defined the hardvapour sound.
On 29 November 2015, Canadian vaporwave producer Wolfenstein OS X released End of World Rave, the earliest notable hardvapour release, via the Bandcamp label Dream Catalogue. The album featured music that intentionally opposed aspects that were typically associated with the vaporwave sound. In December 2015, Wolfenstein OS X formed Antifur, a label responsible for many of the hardvapour records that have been issued; in running the label, he goes under the moniker of a Ukrainian with poor English named Vladyk Predovitch. An unnamed founder of the label HVRF Central Command explained:
In the Fall of 2015 WOLFENSTEIN envisioned these Eastern European thug kids becoming inspired by how 'punk' putting your music on Bandcamp could be—especially all these imaginary vaporwave aliases—except these kids hated all the slowed down shit and thought it was 'for pussies'—so they launched HARDVAPOUR.
On 9 December 2015, producer Hong Kong Express, under the alias Sandtimer, released Vaporwave Is Dead also under Dream Catalogue, which announced the "death" of vaporwave and a "new era." The album features a spoken word track with the lyrics, “Now, in the beginnings of the end of the world, vaporwave is dead. From now on, it will only be… the hardvapour.”
Common elements include thick synthesizer sounds, programmed drums, fast tempos, and influences of acid house, big beat, broken beat, gabber, speedcore, noise music, hard techno, industrial techno, hardstyle and drum 'n' bass. The 56-track compilation album Hardvapour. by DJ VLAD, released worldwide via Antifur's Bandcamp page, showcases elements and influences from a variety of styles, such as techno, industrial music and trap.Hacking For Freedom by Wolfenstein OS X's pseudonym Flash Kostivich was characterised by journalist Matt Broomfield as a "unique sonic space somewhere between early Clicks and Cuts compilations and the Ghost in the Shell soundtrack."
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