Review Summary: A strange look into what this album was thinking.
So obviously with the rise of popularity with the genre "Vaporwave", things started to happen in the scene that most people either didn't know what to make of it, or just confused of what it spawned. Now considering you just got into the genre, and you wanted to explore on bandcamp to find new things, some things will be a hidden gem, and some will be a turd on the stain to the genre, this album is a mix of both.
Meet マクãƒ*スMACROSS 82-99, he's a person of the likes of similar artists such as SAINT PEPSI, BLANK BANSHEE, VentureX and others who fall into another part of the vaporwave category where just because you sample old music, doesn't mean it's automatically vaporwave. What I mean by this is that these artists and more make sort of a nu-disco funk music intead of the traditional vaporwave what you would likely hear. Does it mean it's bad? Of course not! I happen to love Blank Banshee and Saint Pepsi as they made some great tunes on their records. Now some people are labeling this type of music as "Future funk", which is okay, but labeling something that isn't the genre just kinda bugs me a little bit.
Now we get to this album. After you know a little backstory on what this whole weird confusing "scene" it spawned, does this album still hold up? Eh, I wouldn't say so. I kinda have a love/hate relationship with this album. First of all, the tracks on this album are compressed to hell with a lot of echo. The production is way too loud. If you tried to listen to this album in a club, it wouldn't be possible, and if the production wasn't so loud, I would've enjoyed this album a little more. The main gripe I have with this album is that there is no effort put into these tracks at all. He basically took other people's work, compressed the hell out of it in audacity, and slapped his name on it. Now you could argue that other Vaporwave artists do that, and I'm not denying that, but look at Macintosh Plus. You can obviously tell some effort was put into it. Even Saint Pepsi, who is the same genre as Macross. Saint Pepsi puts effort into his music, and makes the samples he takes into something new and original. This in my opinion, is just downright plagiarism. Now I can confirm that his newer work has some effort put into it, but I don't know what he was thinking with this album. Even though the tracks have no effort put into them, they are catchy and enjoyable.
In conclusion, if you're looking for funky dance tunes, there are way better artists out there besides this guy. if you are curious though, I would give it a listen and decide for yourself, but if I were you, it would be better to just listen to the original tracks he stole from.
