I’m often drawn to genres like chiptune, or vaporwave. I love how effectively artists manage to incorporate samples from the technology heavy environments they grew up in, reconstructing that personal, private atmosphere. Done properly, it can connect those isolated moments in our past to the experiences of others, creating this kind of ephemeral nostalgia.
In their new release ‘Isolation’, the artist Teams manages to beautifully integrate elements of these genres into a track which still falls firmly on the side of lo-fi. Deep warm vibes in the background support a multitude of handpicked samples, the diversity of which makes this a track which is easy to get lost in. The decision to also include some hi-fi and lo-fi vocal samples is effective, with the hi-fi keeping the track a little more grounded in reality and the lo-fi doing the opposite. Addition of Japanese and almost indecipherably soft sounds also produces that atmosphere of experiences half forgotten.
I feel like music that succeeds in hitting such a contemporary note eventually becomes harder to fully access, just as I can’t entirely appreciate a track like The Who’s ‘My Generation’. ‘Isolation’ is one of those tracks which manages to reproduce a very specific and personal environment.
Grab the cassette over on Bandcamp
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