Hong Kong Express - This

Perhaps it is because I find myself more and more nocturnal, with my life seemingly spent basking in the constant glow of some sort of screen or interface, but I find myself becoming one with the [ v a p o r ] ((( a  e  s  t  h  e  t  i  c ))). Yes, this is the only logical reason I can think for my sudden interested in what is referred to as vaporwave. I am still a little bit unsure if it is actually a legit genre of music, or just a strange meme of some sort.

Either way, Hong Kong Express is here and This is very fucking real (sentence construction entirely intended). Hong Kong Express is easily one of the more ethereal and ambiance-based vaporwave artists I have come across. It is almost as if this entire thing was designed to be consumed in the small hours; it is simultaneously relaxing yet uplifting to hear. Strongly recommended listening!

Shpongle - Museum Of Consciousness

For me, Shpongle is the perfect music for the expansion of mind, body and soul; the perfect background noise for the ingestion of opiates, fungal hallucinogenics and dimethyltryptamine. However, even though I don't sit around fires chugging bowls of ayahuasca that often, I do feel that sometimes I am halfway there, thanks to Shpongle's ethereal "psytrance" (yes, that's a real genre) and its ability to take me other worlds. 

Museum Of Consciousness is apparently the final Shpongle album. If you are familiar with the group's earlier works, then what you can expect here is more of the same - in the greatest way possible. We're talking 9, 10, 11 minute trips into twisting, turning, lush musical worlds that are dripping in gorgeous instrumentation and driven by stoned yet purposeful beat programming. We're talking flutes, lutes, harps, synths, sitars. We're talking blips, blops, bleeps; whirls and whizzes. We are talking total clarity and immersion into the Museum Of Consciousness. 

The highlights for me are the two longest tracks; "How The Jellyfish Jumped Up The Mountain" and "The Aquatic Garden Of Celestial Delights". The former is a pacy, fluid journey through an audible hallucination, whereas the latter is a lurching, plodding epic of cataclysmal chill out proportion. Things get even weirder by "The Epiphany Of Mrs. Kugla", where the Shpongolians tread into territory that can only be described as a bombastic film score. I can conjure up swooping montages of a villain's lair; a damsel in distress, or a world gone to shit. And who is here to save us? Simon Posford and Raja Ram, most definitely. 

This thing is longer than 4 DMT trips. Think about that before you press play. 

Portishead - Portishead

I would probably have never listened to Portishead if it wasn't for the fact that their first two albums were already on my old computer when I bought it, back in 2009. They always seemed like something my mother would listen to, what with their shit band name and music video circulations on the Sky ClassicFM music channel. It wasn't until my appreciation for electronic music developed to such a degree that I could hear Portishead in a different way, and then, one day, with the iPod on random, I fell in love.

This is so laid back and chilled, yet so epic at the same time it really is a bit of an enigma. How is that even possible? Well, Portishead managed it. Ticking, soft trip-hop beats and sparse instrumentation is pretty much all that's going on here, complimented by one of the best female voices I've heard a long time. As a blue print for an entire record, this approach is extremely basic, but this self-titled record fails to bore me at any given moment. It is simply a magical record. The final track includes some fleeting male vocal contributions, but that's about as far as breaking the template goes!

I got this on vinyl for £12, from the Head chain in Bristol. Turn ting up!

Venetian Snares - Fool The Detector

I got this nice little EP when HMV still sold vinyl at decent, affordable prices. I think it was fiver, so you can't argue with that (April 2013 Edit: I actually got this from Spillers Records on my birthday last year. Sometimes it's hard keeping track of where I get all this crap). As far as Venetian Snares goes this record is pretty tame, there is a lot more ambiance and nice synth sounds than usual. The spazz-happy beats are still here, but seem a lot more laid back than the usual brain-melting fair of snare rushes and irregular bass drum palpitations.

It reminds me a lot of The Aphex Twin in parts. I know this will get Snares purists' panties all twisted but it really, really does sound rather similar. The way this was put out is also a bit weird. It seems that Aaron Funk has started his own label (on which this is released) called Timesig, but Planet Mu controls it behind the scenes. It seems a similar set up to the deal Bill Steer and Jeff Walker had with Earache Records.

Burial - Truant / Rough Sleeper

Welcome to what is quite possibly one of the most chilled out things in the world. I'm not talking that lovey-dovey "ambient" chill out shit that comes in box sets of 5 CDs, I'm talking about modern, chillax-to-the-max experimental dub. After being recommended Burial by about 40,000 different people I decided to actually check out some of his tunes on Spotify and I was an instant convert. One thing I don't agree with here though is the insistence on the dubstep tag; sure this will appeal to thousands of dubstep fans but I do not think that it really falls in with the genre. It is simply too laid back and experimental. 

"Truant" is a 12 minute masterpiece of sonic sub-bass bliss that simultaenously shakes my house and gives my brain the cerebral break it so desperately needs. What more can you want from music? Switch it on, switch yourself off. Job done. The B side, "Rough Sleeper", is a bit different. It is a bit longer, clocking in at just under 15 minutes, but it seems to be comprised of several songs (or should I say "vibes") mashed together rather than one 15 minute long trip. It's still goddamn awesome though!

This 12" was put out December past by Hyperdub. Check it out in the link below (although it won't do the sub-bass justice)