HKE vaporwave politics December 2015

Clearing up further misconceptions about me, hardvapour, wosX and everything else (self.vaporwavepolitics)
submitted an hour ago by dreamcatalogue
Unfortunately due to being temporarily banned from /r/vaporwave for trying to defend Cocainejesus and OESB, I have to post this here & hopefully the mods won't mind someone linking it to the /r/vaporwave sub so everyone can read
There's a lot of misconceptions about my intentions lately and I just want to set the record straight because it's getting on my nerves. I thought the interview with Marcel might help, but seemingly it has opened up another can of worms. This is probably my fault, as a lot of what has happened has taken place on Twitter where it's hard to fully articulate yourself, and my 'Vaporwave Is Dead' album was chock full of hard to decipher messages that seemingly went over a lot of people's heads or were never heard in the first place.
There have been two main sources of annoyance and frustration with me, which I will list below
I. Misconceptions of EOWR and the "Hardvapour" retaliation to it
This is where everything began and it started with a small group of people on Twitter criticising wosX's 'Kroko Krew' project for it's supposedly negative portrayal of Ukraine. While on the surface this may look to be the case (i.e. judging a book by its cover), the fact is the 'Kroko Krew' project had a lot of depth to it.
In case you don't know the full story: wosX invented a crew of fictional Ukranian drug dealer characters who happened to have stumbled upon the genre of "vaporwave" online, decided that it was for "soft" pussies and decided to start their own new vaporwave movement, "hardvapour".
On the surface, this may sound like the criticisms from the above mentioned Twitter users were justified, but in reality the story lasted for about 3 months, was ever changing and had 7-8 fully fleshed out characters that belonged to this fictional crew of Ukranian drug dealers. The story took negative stereotypes and did a 180 with the characters, revealing them to all have their own unique traits and personalities, much like the novel Trainspotting did with its portrayal of Scottish drug culture in the 90's. What I keep saying about wosX's ingenuity in this project, was the fact that 80% of the story took place in Twitter DM groups. If you were a part of these groups between the months of September-December, you probably talked to one of these Ukranian characters and got to know their characters, became friends with them and had in depth conversations with them. These characters all had their own backstories and narratives, and many people actually believed them to be real for some time, but the whole time it was wosX portraying them, completely committed to this project that was underway and creating this entire world out of the story he had created, growing day by day.
This is why I have referred to EOWR as revolutionary, or an "atomic bomb that vaporwave needed" - not only did it do away with what has become the repetitive mindless cliches in the vaporwave scene (myself also guilty with some projects), but it really raised the bar on concept in music. Yeah, concept in music isn't new and it certainly isn't new in vaporwave, but I have never seen anything done to this level before - especially not orchestrated all by one guy from his computer. And not only was it pure dedication, but the story was so enveloping and enthralling that it really proved to me what an amazing artist Wolf was. Sadly, most people won't know the whole story except for a lucky few who stuck with it from beginning to end.
What angered me, was the short-sightedness of the critics who decided, without even knowing the full extent of what was going on, that this was all some kind of "racist" portrayal of Ukranians. The lowest point of all was when one of the minor characters, Kristijian (an insecure teenager pretending to be a jacked up "neo-nazi" thug online) released the infamous "hardvapour nazi album". This album was evidently a satirical joke to anyone with a brain, yet Wolf's critics (who had formed into a hivemind/witch hunt mentality by this point) decided that Wolf was actually a nazi (despite the fact he is Jewish), and a racist, and have endeavoured to portray him as such ever since.
While I and probably also Wolf will admit that it was impossible to know all of the goings on unless you were a part of the Twitter groups, I still think there was enough on the "surface level" to show that this project had a rich backstory. The short story that accompanied the album and all of the Bandcamp releases from the Kroko Krew members alluded to a much bigger world than meets the eye, and anyone who was interested to investigate could dig much deeper beyond the surface.
This all comes back to the argument of supposed "cultural appropriation" and this modern idea that people, especially artists, aren't allowed to take inspiration, borrow or even emulate other cultures from other parts of the world. It's an absolutely divisive and racist mindset, despite it's supposed anti-racist intentions and this kind of thought policing going on - especially from other artists - is at the root of what is killing this scene from continuing to evolve into something much more intelligent and creative as it could be.
I and many others loved what Wolf did with these characters even though he isn't Ukranian himself, many of whom are influential & highly intelligent people. He took a fascination in the culture, did his research and created his own fully fleshed world from it, full of depth, twists and turns and it was a highly enjoyable project. If this is supposedly "offensive", then 95% of all vaporwave releases in the past 4 years have also been offensive, perhaps much more offensive, including many releases from artists who criticised Wolf for his actions.
Ask yourself this: if Wolf is "racist" for his Kroko Krew, then are Wu-Tang Clan also "racist" for all the ideas and culture they took from Chinese Kung Fu culture in how they have portrayed themselves over the years?
Once we get to a point of artists telling other artists what they can and can't do, we've really hit a brick wall. And this is all exactly why me, Wolf, OESB, Cocainejesus and some others have been pushing the "hardvapour" idea with brute force, on Twitter and Reddit.
I will admit some of it has been childish, but it has been a case of meeting what we feel have been ridiculous and unwarranted attacks against us that have come about due to a witch hunt mentality, with something even more ridiculous - as to show how childish and damaging this whole debate is in the first place. I think there is a serious freedom of speech issue going on with the vaporwave scene and "hardvapour" in the way it has manifested in recent weeks has been a retaliation to that, taking on a life outside of wosX's 'Kroko Krew'. Now several artists and thinkers from the VW scene are being banned from the sub for "shitposting", despite the fact most of these supposed "shitposts" were made in order to question the recent authoritarian mindset many people in the VW scene have taken, from policing language and ideas, to resisting the evolution in new musical styles and concepts.
Now one thing that may seem hypocritical: I did get mad at a couple of people who are on my label for bitching about me and Wolf on Twitter. The reason for this is, I have always viewed DC as a collective effort and such in-fighting really sours the overall mood of everyone and causes hostility. I have music on some other labels too, all of whom have people on whose music or character I dislike, but I would never publicly bash them or the label for it. It's just totally uncouth and as we've been saying lately, "soft". I respect people who come to me man to man with a problem they have and after such a discussion we may agree to disagree, but bitchiness at that kind of level (often fuelled by jealousy, which has been admitted to me by some) is just high school politics - and as a 29 year old guy I can't be fucking bothered with it
II. Misconceptions of "Vaporwave Is Dead" and my future intentions for Dream Catalogue
A lot of people think I have been annoyed and frustrated because some people dislike wosX's EOWR project and the album altogether, and the Vaporwave Is Dead album. This is entirely untrue and I think people who follow DC are completely entitled to be criticial if they dislike something. I'm actually quite thick skinned when it comes to criticism and I can handle it, whether it be my own work or music I release on my label and I have certainly been met with criticism for past releases and not had such a backlash to it. What really frustrates me is when people criticise things that are either untrue, or misinterpreted, which has really been the case with "Vaporwave Is Dead".
But am I actually saying "vaporwave is dead"? Well, that's what a lot of people like to think and portray me as some kind of villain out to destroy vaporwave, but it has come to my attention than many of those critics never actually listened to the album in the first place, or understood what it was trying to say.
Yes, the title of the album is intentionally provocative and alarming, but that was an intentional choice in order to get people to consider the ideas within the album's narrative fully when listening, rather than just treating it as another album. I have been criticised for "bad marketing" in this case, but I like to create things that value people's intelligence and ability to understand artistic ideas rather than dumbing things down for the sake of simplicity.
I don't want to go fully in detail about the meaning of every track on the album, because essentially it spoils the fun. I would like people to listen closely and figure out what it is I'm trying to say and consider the questions posed themselves. Yeah, some tracks are there just for the sake of music, otherwise it may as well be a spoken word piece, but the moods of those tracks and their titles help forward a narrative. Perhaps the most important track on the album is "The Architect", but I think the album needs to be listened to in full from beginning to end to fully appreciate the message there.
But essentially for a brief summary, the album deals with the eternal cycle of death and rebirth, a concept that you will find hidden inside a lot of my work. It's a mindset in how I approach life in general, which I went into a bit with my interview with Marcel, so it effects both my music, the label and my personal life as a whole. This way of thinking is an obvious contradiction to the tongue-in-cheek title of the album, because how can anything die forever as the title suggests? It then asks the question, is vaporwave dead, or did it never actually exist in the first place?
One clue you can find in the album is that I use a straight up sine tone a lot in parts - this is intentional as a sine wave is actually a perfect circle and a sine tone is the purest form of undisrupted sound, a blank canvas. The beginning and the end. You'll also find this idea at the end of the 2814 guest track on Oscob/Digital Sex's OVERGROWTH album, as it is an idea that inspires both me and Telepath on spiritual levels as well as artistic.
Just some food for thought if you want to re-listen to the album in another mindset.
Again, I want to repeat that anyone criticising the album's contents for not hitting the mark or anything like that are perfectly reasonable and don't anger me - I take such criticism on board and it's helpful to me as an artist, especially when made in a constructive manner. No album is perfect and no artist is perfect, of course. What gets on my nerves is when people only judge a book by its cover and don't evaluate what is inside, which has been the case with both EOWR and VID by many. After that, witch hunts form as they have done and popular misconceptions become established facts. Thankfully, I've had many artists come and personally apologise to me for lashing out despite not taking the time to listen to the album, so I hope people do eventually take the time to listen and consider what I am trying to say.
Now where is Dream Catalogue going after all this? A big misconception is that Dream Catalogue will be taking a "hardvapour" direction in future, and this is probably my fault for not being entirely clear about things after VID dropped (but like I said, I had hoped people listened to the album fully). But now that I have fully elaborated what "hardvapour" is exactly, hopefully you can understand why this isn't the case.
The direction DC will be going in is the one you have seen over the past year, and that is this constant concept of "dream music" that has always driven the label - narrative-driven, surrealistic and often futuristic electronic music albums. But I think by detaching the word "vaporwave" and looking both inside and outside the VW community for new music, the label will become much more free to explore new ideas and evolve into becoming a bigger and better label overall. I already have a lot of artists lined up from outside of the VW community which are touching upon these concepts without having a "vaporwave" inspiration, and I think they're artists that most in the VW scene will enjoy.
Now I'm going to duck out of online discussions for a long time, maybe forever. I have spent a lot of time this year talking to hundreds of people from the VW scene, helping out a lot of people, discussing ideas and such and it's really putting a huge dent into my time - effecting both my music and my personal life. I've enjoyed meeting all these people from the VW scene over the past two years and I've met some incredible people, but I simply don't have the time to engage with everyone anymore.
But hopefully people can at least see where I'm coming from and the source of recent frustrations and why things unfolded the way they unfolded. Whether or not you agree or disagree with the points I have made is fine and I respect everyone's opinions and right to bash what I say or praise them, but hopefully this sets the record straight now and clears up a lot of the recent misconceptions about me, Wolf and others.
Dream Catalogue will continue under the "dream music" concept that has been there from the very beginning and will evolve as I lift the restrictions of what I feel vaporwave has become from all my projects. That doesn't mean I hate vaporwave, it doesn't mean I hate the VW community, it doesn't mean I won't continue releasing from VW artists, or that I won't be paying attention to everyone in the scene still. But I will be taking a big step back from now on and just let the music doing the talking & hopefully people this scene will continue to enjoy it as I continue to enjoy their output and hope to see everyone grow as artists.