Black Wick - \​​​\​​​VIDEO​​​/​​​/​​​|​​​\​​​\​​​DRONED​​​/​​​/

Released: September 12

At first glance, I felt like \​​​\​​​VIDEO​​​/​​​/​​​|​​​\​​​\​​​DRONED​​​/​​​/  might be one of those run of the mill vaporwave releases. Enjoyable, chill, and fun with all the right cliches and motifs. But, no. I was quite mistaken. While there are definitely those vapor elements present, this is very much something else. It opens with “COMM1*****#” which feels almost comical in its composition with a kind flat feeling and one-dimensional sounds. But don’t let it fool you, because it all gets very weird from that point. It quickly spirals into strange ambiances and noises, all mired in an old VHS aesthetic that is laid on thick. 

The album itself spans twenty-seven tracks, which is pretty impressive even if many of the tracks clock in at just about two minutes. But over the long course of this album, we are thrown back and forth between the comical, the uncomfortable, and the frightening. As the first track begins on that comical note, the next sixteen tracks throw us into distorted soundscapes that feel strange at their lightest and disturbing at their worst. In this stretch of tracks, nothing made me feel quite as creeped out as “Even More Disturbing… **.” Which is interesting because it is one of the few track in this stretch that has any semblance of rhythm. But when the voice begins to speak, I felt more creeped out than I had in quite some time. Later on, there’s a reappearance of the first track just past the midpoint of the album. It feels just as ridiculous, but now with the context of rest of the album, there’s something strange and creepy about it. For me, this makes the album feel just a bit more unsettling. 

The album has a whole is a weird vibe. After a full listening, I would have to consider this a vaporwave album, but a particularly unsettling one. It feels like Black Wick has managed to take a vaporwave aesthetic into the realm of something like analog horror or even a VHS homage to the Cronenberg classic Videodrome. Whether either of these were the actual inspiration is beside the point. The end result is an intricate blend of nostalgia and horror that isn’t something I have heard a lot of before, if at all.