| Hardvapour | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 2015,cyberculture |
| Typical instruments | |
Hardvapour is an Internet-basedmicrogenre[1] of music that emerged in late 2015 as a tongue-in-cheek response tovaporwave,[2] departing from the calm,muzak-sampling capitalist utopia concept of the latter in favor of agabber- andpunk-influenced sound. Canadianmusic producer Wolfenstein OS X albumEnd of World Rave (2015) and the Antifurrecord label are credited with having first defined the hardvapour sound.
On 29 November 2015, Canadianvaporwave producer Wolfenstein OS X (or WosX for short) releasedEnd of World Rave, the earliest notable hardvapour release,[1] via theBandcamp label Dream Catalogue.[1][3][4] The album featured music that intentionally opposed aspects that were typically associated with the vaporwave sound.[1] Todd Ledford, founder of the label HVRF Central Command explained:
In the Fall of 2015 Wolfenstein OS X 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.[5]
On 9 December 2015, producer Hong Kong Express, under the alias Sandtimer, releasedVaporwave Is Dead also under Dream Catalogue,[6] which announced the "death" of vaporwave and a "new era."[1] The album features aspoken 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.”[1]
Common elements include thick synthesizer sounds, programmed drums, fast tempos, and influences ofacid house,big beat,broken beat,gabber,speedcore,noise music,hard techno,industrial techno,hardstyle anddrum 'n' bass.[1][5] The 56-track compilation albumHardvapour. by DJ VLAD, released worldwide via Antifur's Bandcamp page, showcases elements and influences from a variety of styles, such astechno,industrial music andtrap.[1]Hacking For Freedom by Wolfenstein OS X's pseudonym Flash Kostivich was characterised by journalist Matt Broomfield as a "unique sonic space somewhere between earlyClicks and Cuts compilations and thesoundtrack to the 1995 animeGhost in the Shell."[1]
Thump contributor Rob Arcand interprets the hardvapour sound as a rebellion against vaporwave that sometimes toys with elements ofpunk music. Examples such as "Humanoid Sound (гуманоид звук)" by Trende borrow thethree-chord song structure of punk, while "Immortal" by DJ Alina features basslines distorted in a similar fashion to the works ofCircle Jerks orDead Kennedys.[5] Arcand views hardvapour as somewhere between vaporwave and a genre journalist Adam Harper callsdistroid, a style that was "hi-fi to the point of actively fetishizing the hi-frequency hisses and twinkles that lo-fi was unable to produce."[5] According to Arcand, in common with vaporwave, hardvapour uses similar music software tools "not out of any special fixation with them, but simply because they're now the cheapest and most accessible tools around."[5]
The hardvapour aesthetic is influenced byEastern European culture and some of its producers are thought to be of Eastern European origin; theJ-card of thehardvapour. compilation album reveals that around a quarter of the producers included and involved were from Russia, Ukraine and Croatia.[5] Other producers like Flash, DJ Alina, and Krokodil Hunter have falsely labeled themselves to be Ukrainian and Russian, which German critic Jens Balzer felt added quirkiness to the hardvapour scene.[5]
wosX has noted that one of the major goals of hardvapour was "globalization" and showcasing the true harsh cultures of not only Eastern European but also other nations.[1] According to Matt Broomfield where vaporwave "exposes the artificiality below the utopic sheen oflate capitalism" hardvapour "throws post-apocalyptic raves in defiance of dystopia."[1]
Thump writer Rob Arcand noted hardvapour'sself-mocking aspect to be another major part of the culture with track titles such as "Long Live Hardvapour" and "Welcome to Hardvapour" that "either directly referencing the movement itself or obliquely mocking how the sound will be interpreted online (or eventually declared "over") though an endless proliferation of bizarre .gifs and nihilistic photos and videos."[5] Elements ofcyberpunk also heavily come into play into the works of hardvapour and their visual aesthetic, such as onHacking For Freedom whoseiconography is inspired by the filmThe Matrix (1999) and the LPsVisions by Chinese Hackers andЖорсткий щойно випав сніг by Bannik Krew that feature aspects of the frequent cyberpunk element ofsurveillance footage.[5]
According toThump's Colin Joyce, "At the forefront of the genre is the absurdly prolific collective and label H.V.R.F. (short for hardvapour Resistance Front). According to their Bandcamp, they're based inPripyat, Ukraine, a ghost town near the border the country shares with Belarus. It seems unlikely, however, that anyone associated with the collective is actually based there, given that the city was evacuated after theChernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986."[7]
Hardvapour was called "exciting" by the publicationsTHUMP,[5] and the British magazineDazed[1] According toDazed, hardvapour garnered criticism from many vaporwave listeners as an "over-worn in-joke" mainly due to the "arcane backstories" that conceptualised most releases of the style.[1] Any discussion of hardvapour is banned from the officialsubreddit for vaporwave.[1] Hong Kong Express responded to this banning: "Some people can't take things with humour in seriously for some reason. It’s closer toDr. Strangelove – a serious message with a dark and humorous slant.”[1]