Where to start with Vaporwave

Vaporwave is a genre from Online (Turntable.fm, Bandcamp, Reddit, 4chan), 2009–2016. Its principal artists include Macintosh Plus (Ramona Langley), Daniel Lopatin (Chuck Person / Oneohtrix Point Never), James Ferraro and Internet Club (Robin Burnett). This issue covers 8 essential albums and 18 dated events.

Start here

1
Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1
Chuck Person (Daniel Lopatin) · 2010
Original release: The Curatorial Club · TCC011 · Cassette · US 2010
It gave vaporwave its founding technique of looping and slowing forgotten music into something haunted.
2
Floral Shoppe
Macintosh Plus (Ramona Langley) · 2011
Original release: Beer on the Rug · BOTR009 · Digital Media · Worldwide 2011
It became vaporwave's accidental manifesto, with cover art and sound that defined the genre's identity.
3
Far Side Virtual
James Ferraro · 2011
Original release: Hippos in Tanks · HIT013 · Digital Media · US 2011
It shows vaporwave's other pole, built entirely from corporate muzak and product-demonstration sounds nobody called music.

Go deeper

4
New Dreams Ltd.
Laserdisc Visions (Ramona Langley) · 2011
Original release: Beer on the Rug · BOTR006 · Digital Media · Worldwide 2011
Released in July 2011 under Ramona Langley's Laserdisc Visions alias, months ahead of Floral Shoppe, New Dreams Ltd.
5
Blank Banshee 0
Blank Banshee · 2012
Released in September 2012, Blank Banshee 0 folded trap music influences into vaporwave's toolkit and pushed the genre past pure sample manipulation: 808 drums, hi-hat rolls, bass built to hit…
6
Sailorwave series
Macross 82-99 · 2013
Starting in 2013, the Sailorwave series pioneered future funk by taking vaporwave's sample-based approach into upbeat, French-house-leaning territory.

For the obsessed

7
Memory Vague
Daniel Lopatin · 2009
Memory Vague is an audio-visual work from 2009 built from clips Lopatin uploaded to YouTube under the name sunsetcorp starting that June — among the earliest proto-vaporwave experiments, made months…
8
Flamingo Breeze
Matrix Metals · 2009
Original release: Olde English Spelling Bee · OESB44 · Digital Media · Worldwide 2009
Released in the summer of 2009, around the same time as Lopatin's earliest sunsetcorp uploads, Flamingo Breeze stands among the earliest hypnagogic pop records to anticipate vaporwave.

The stories behind every record are in Vaporwave, a members' issue.