DREAM CATALOGUE, REVIEWED
(at the bottom) DREAM CATALOGUE, RANKED (at the bottom
슈퍼마켓Yes! We're Open - 식료품groceries
This model is a perfect auditory description of a plaza. I assure you, reader, that I can travel somewhere that's basically in my city, I can take a flight across the ocean to go shop, but in a Chinese food restaurant, just in the center of this Pennsylvanian city, it works perfectly fine. The first time I flicked it on it was much more cheerful than I had expected. I will admit, though, I've heard much more attractive and interesting albums than this. If you happen to be into this record, you'll surely notice the vibe of products, pure comfort, and easy access. Currently I'm thinking about the rage and hate for the Man and his system that the artist might have, but it is also quite a comforting feeling that they were likely feeling. The artist portrays the sound of a happy utopian market very easily. I can imagine walking down the aisles of some kind of floating, cubic golden market, transparent walls, the whole CG shtick. There remains the irony of past classic style and mallsoft releases, yet also introducing a feeling of bliss and nostalgia. I'm surprised it took me so long to hear this, given I'll certainly spin this everyday from now! A special offer not to be passed up.
i n t e r s t e l l a r l o v e - t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 / Vincent Remember
To start this off, I was pretty much hypnotized by this fantastic album. Living the luxury life, rich men taking a vacation to some exotic but urban land, (perhaps, a space vacation). This corporate split will make you get up and work. I was on the bed and expecting that the calmer sound would help me to sleep but instead i n t e r s t e l l a r l o v e made me start working on my art. There's a certain charm to the way that tired phaser loops its samples, and though certain tracks are much much too long for even Dream Catalogue it still presents itself perfectly. Naturally the mind reader had only released two or three albums before this, so I guess, he kept on doing it and it worked out fine. And yet no matter how inaccessibly long this album is I still find myself wanting more as t e l e p a t h makes me always want something better and it's the title track and opener that I loop: every three minutes it repeats in my mind. It's so nice no matter how short it is - though of course anything less than 5 minutes from t e l e p a t h is short comparatively, I should instead applaud it for its splendidly quick shuffle - but from that very starting point I didn't stop listening until the album was over (though I did walk away from it a couple times but still listened to it that counts right) and though almost 2 hours of music seems like a lot to take in, the contents make it so worth it. I'm sure I will listen to this even more.
Up to my knees in the A side, it's time to attempt talking about the B side. Everything that me and you love about the jazzy undertones of classic vapor jams is done so well - by who other than Vincent Remember, the Business Casual artist that managed to write himself into the t e l e p a t h's discography, creating layers of beauty on top of each other. Hard to talk about this. Well, vaporwave is hard to talk about in general as I'm sure you've noticed from my plentifully strange sentences. Only half the people I know even enjoyed Vincent's side at all which is honestly shocking given that the consistently convincing contradicting songs he has in store are some of the best I've known, or at least some of the best on Dream Catalogue! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED <
5 Stars - Penthouse Apartment
We are three albums in and I have just what I want to say about this fantastic album. I thought "Who is Penthouse Apartment? Are they the true classic vapor master that I was promised would come?" Unsurprisingly, they were certainly one of them. In the winter of 2017, I am exploring 2014's winter, as previous labels I've looked at are so much more different than what the Catalogue was. It all changed after Breathless by Immune, but here this might be the first place I really want to stop and talk about. "You may make some of the same music people like me make sometimes but you're still unique." (Of course, the first five people to be on this label made many albums and aliases.) Penthouse Apartment's album sounds just like a business card recieved on a summer day! The previous artist featured HKE is much known for the newer things, but Penthouse Apartment is known for the older.
Listen to 5 Stars to hear what you hear and you'll either agree or disagree with the reviews. When the artist released the album, Trump, it seemed to be that everyone hated it because it was something they had to hate for the so-called Trump propaganda. I confirm that I don't see anyone give 5 stars to the album and I do not want to be the only one talking about this too positively, but it can be very high-quality with luxurious TV noise during it. "Pour Me Another" was one of the first wonderful cuts I've heard from this label, which sounds just like a working day where you dissolve into the pager and technology around you as phones ring and footsteps echo on. It feels like everyone knows me only for my strange tastes in music and way of putting sentences together, but I'm so much more. The label Dream Catalogue made such a harsh turn later on, but that's what they did and I can't change it. It's really just something we will never be able to change. Penthouse Apartment is not too popular compared to others, so listen, listen and see what you think!
フライトを楽しむ (Enjoy Your Flight!) - 日本航空株式会社 ✈ Japan Airlines
I don't think there are that many airport-themed albums in vapor. There are five really good albums I've heard. This is one. The last time I had to go to the baggage belt, I thought "Why am I visiting the airport? To see my family?" Since September 11, 2000, after people all over the world thought they saw a plane, and it crashed, every airport never felt like it felt in the 90s due to the fact that there was so much fright for children and innocent plane riders. That was that. I remember asking why it happened. I remember saying I would stay in the right place as long as I didn't get hurt by them. Eating Cinnabon and simulating the air in some parts of the airport, hearing an album like this play out. It feels like a night on the airplane with your family, watching a movie from somewhere in between the two Windows computers '95 and '98. Remembering what everyone would say. This is where Japan Airlines comes in, as Dream Catalogue only spends time on artists who have very different songs and very different names and who can re-create the genre. This is the second album published in the Dream Catalogue and it's actually something that I can safely call one of the 20 best records on DC they've made so far.
I think half of these titles have nothing to do with the airport, and they end up making the album lose its airport feeling. The first thing you have to hear: "Halo Rain" is one of the songs that holds the CD together with the winged beasts of the modern age being clearly heard and impossible to hate compared to the other songs. There is a song that makes Hong Kong Express seem like he's hiding somewhere in this album. In particular, this "Flight Attendant" track seems to be either from "Romantic Dreamer" or "Hong Kong Express". I never knew anything about this monster of an album being created by HKE until recently, but I'm sure フライトを楽しむ (Enjoy Your Flight!) doesn't care. Even within the first five albums, the label was clearly destined for fame from the beginning, I thought it was. There are very few bad songs in DREAM_002. Electric guitars and chiming vocals play over beautiful synths, serene lines and atmospheric Japanese feeling, loud goodness, beauty, ambient lo-fi audio and, a slowed down version of We Built This City I guess??
浪漫的夢想 [Romantic Dreamer] - Hong Kong Express
Oh, Hong Kong Express can convey so many feelings at once. This is the first album on Dream Catalogue ... You could call it the grand opening ... and at the same time the first album from founder HKE, formerly known as Hong Kong Express. This is a wonderful and romantic journey shorter than a movie that Hong Kong Express released in early 2014 and happened to somewhat be a restoration of the vaporwave genre. This shows the sound of vaporwave before 2014 and yet also opens the door to a more complex style. Despite the name being in Chinese, this is an English album and artist.
Here, I feel a lot of music has a partially Asian atmosphere, not fully. I won't try to explain the appearance of the urban landscape it makes in my head, for in reality, it only concerns adapting the sounds to an Asian feel, emulating, and simulating the sounds. Compared to Little China in London, there aren't many Hong Kong vibes. It does remind of music from 1980-onwards, using sound effects, trumpets, and a synthesizer all quite well, and every track sounds similar to the one before it in the consistent way. You won't hear any original music here, instead samples from a different culture, and a different heritage. It matches the meaning, the philosophies and the general aesthetic of vaporwave.
When Hong Kong Express started his label, he was thinking of tracks like 'Girl in the Lexus Showroom' getting on it. Just the name of the album that started his camp in early 2014 sounds sexual and great, again as the words 浪漫的夢想 [Romantic Dreamer] are murmured again, this tastily nocturnal album comes to life~ Most people I know loved this luxurious album, but Dream Catalogue took it down with 浪漫的夢想 being almost lost to time, but at least people still spread it around saying "I love to listen to this one, I want to get all his albums" though it's old - The unbridled beauty of this non-translated album is part of what makes it so great, and after one listen, DREAM_001 became my favorite album for quite a while.
Then again there's a lot of music from the artist but at the same time this was a great debut, and I tend to block out thoughts of its meanings and what the ambient soundscapes are of, so I can't think of things. True, it's so true that no matter what you think there is no purpose and the music was just made to be set down in a list of music. Inspired by the idea of "l☯ve", this fantastic experiment was what really appeared to stand out from the rest. Out of so many albums on the label this is still worth putting on once at least. The artist should be proud of this piece. I would certainly be.
HKE reveals his own love story on these ten tracks. The production is simple but makes you feel like you're in a Dream given it's from Dream Catalogue and is only something you could Dream of. .. I think I've been a bit vague during this one. My main point is I hope that the album from HKE will be distributed even after he stops the music. So far, this good tape can be overcome and has been overshadowed, but it shows the beginning of the Catalogue.