Review Summary: The climate of nostalgia
Last year Eco Virtual spawned a whirlwind of hype from Vaporwave’s online consensus with
VIRTUAL大気*分析, a breezy and atmospheric take on Weather Channel muzak. The album’s theme resembled what Internet Club was exploring on releases like
Webinar and
Redefining the Workplace, which were complete aesthetic packages (from album title to track titles to cover art) that documented the sound and lifestyle of corporate businesses. However,
VIRTUAL大気*分析 was novel in the fact that it was the first album to explore the aesthetics of something as universal as televised meteorology, by way of Eco Virtual's expertly crafted emulations of its mood music and green-screen visuals on subsequent music videos. Over a year later Eco Virtual is back with
ATMOSPHERES 第2, a pleasant extension of Eco’s philosophy of the Weather Channel as a portal to dreamlike atmospheres and nostalgia that manages to bring a few new scenes along with it.
Opening the broadcast is ‘Sunrise At The Googleplex’, an eco-friendly banger that displays a hybrid of trap and tribal percussion under a cloudy rendition of early Windows start-up sounds. Eco continues to expand upon this combination of contemporary bass and tribal rhythms on ‘Fiji Waterfalls’ as toucan flutes and subaquatic choral synths accent its dreamy design. The mood slows down and resorts to introspective territory on ‘Clear Skies Through The Mall Skylight’, featuring cheesy mid-afternoon piano cycles and overtly melodic tones that evoke memories of rolling eyes as Danny Tanner sits his girls down for a sugary life lesson. Later on the droning pulse of ‘IKEA Ferns’ renders itself to the background of its suggested visit to IKEA, which fails to make an impression as you slowly walk through the endless fluorescent chamber of sleek furniture you can’t afford. ‘Aloe Vera Water’ continues this rather dull trek through fluorescent architecture, perhaps as the memory of a visit to Rainforest Cafe, before it gets interesting as 16 bit synths move their way in and out of the mix, emulating David Wise’s ambient tone throughout his Donkey Kong Country soundtracks.
From here the mood dampens under the grey and billowing clouds of ‘McDonald’s Breakfast’, a dreary and lethargic interpretation of eating fast food breakfast that, while accurate in context, simply doesn’t make for an interesting listen. The mood becomes increasingly darker as impending tornado and thunderstorm warnings howl out of ‘Noctilucent’ while an X-Files-esque melody warns of an even greater threat; extraterrestrials. Subsequently, this alien activity comes in the form of ‘EDEN 仮想’ that regains the energy and vitality of
ATMOSPHERES 第2’s first couple tracks while adding a few layers of pitch-shifted vocals to trim its reflective dance floor in vibrant flashes of neon. Closing out the album is ‘Crepuscular Rays (God’s Rays)’, taking an interesting combination of screwed and chopped vocals and tropical new age textures that ultimately fail to create more than a long, sparse introduction for a thrilling closer than never happens. It’s a shame considering the potential of this juxtaposition of sounds, but unfortunately it demonstrates that
ATMOSPHERES 第2, while interesting as a concept, great in some areas, and overall nowhere near a bad album, is a bit of a letdown considering its potential. However, it’s important to note that this isn’t a case of style over substance, because Eco Virtual’s style
is the substance; it’s the very inspiration, energy, and spirit of the music.
ATMOSPHERES 第2’s flaw is that it simply doesn’t manage to consistently capture that spirit with the enthusiasm and persona Eco Virtual thrives on.
