A kaleidoscopic wash of flashes and colors that scorch into the mind memories and emotions only experienced in dreams. A photo of a cat with a blush filter on it. Jarringly juxtaposed are the aesthetics of talented artists razordracula and #⠀⠀ ; "for what purpose?" you might ask in a british accent. A common thread slices through the incongruency of both images, and it's their source: internet culture. I believe both artists sum to form a more nuanced understanding of art coparented by the internet. In this essay, each artist represents a facet of the online tendency to dissociate from reality. Even if planted by accident, this subtext found within their work fashions a compelling layer of commentary around their artistry.
RAZORDRACULA
Scrolling through this promising new producer's page can be described in one word: vision. In just one year he's cemented a clear identity for himself. His music is wrapped in the dressings of draincore and cyber-fairy aesthetic, and his page gleams with senses of the strange and mystical only felt within the rules of cyberspace. Before even hitting play, the listener is baptized into an anomalous, unknowable world as the setpiece for their imminent sonic adventure.
The music inhabiting Razordracula's carefully crafted backdrop is best compared to the soundtracks of late '90s and early 2000s video games, which he cites as inspiration. Each track provokes memories of stages in a game so vague in the mind and obscured by time it might as well be fiction but nonetheless bares a nostalgic haze. Vast soundscapes gently accompany chaotic breakbeats or punching grooves, or they simply cry into space like a siren. Imitations of '80s goth and '90s grunge are interpolated through artificial guitar and bass as if ripped straight from a Playstation CD. The amalgam of Razordracula's look and sound casts the listener into a dissociative lull of internet-flavored sentimentality; his music feels like shifting, in the best way possible. [[embed:https://www.audiotool.com/track/wro0kbub7lg/]] [[embed:https://www.audiotool.com/track/x744elvgi/]]
# / VELINOR
As a foil to Razordracula's nostalgia-fueled escapism, Velinor's profile brims with ironic chaos instead. Their URL name is "comedy" and their discography houses a roughly month-long period in which they released 7 tracks all named "bored" almost in a row. Cat images in various mediums and screenshots of random media visually sort Velinor's tracks with a shitposty aura. One look at their page may overwhelm some, and playing their music may kill you on impact.
The fact is Velinor's music requires no decorative outer layer; they are blatantly amazing at what they do. But similarly to Razordracula, their aesthetic can't help but compliment the borderline-overstimulating tracks they produce. One of my favorites spends a minute and seventeen seconds winding up until crackling and gushing a gory splatter of distorted drum breaks and screams. But Velinor is just as equipped for intoxicatingly fun or poignantly beautiful palettes of overstimulation. They deliver excellence with a shrug as if to parody their own skill. Their body of work simultaneously bursts with earnesty and laughs at the listener's audacity to take any of this seriously. Velinor's music is like watching a Ghibli film that's been filtered through layers of abstraction and irony until rendered completely indecipherable--yet still feeling compelled to cry over its beauty once the credits roll. [[embed:https://www.audiotool.com/track/97dg82jwrcjj/]] [[embed:https://www.audiotool.com/track/mc3eaeuip7]] What is TINYGAIN?: Connect >> Chitchat >> TINYGAIN: an Audiotool Magazine
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any sort of appreciation regarding velinor is a huge massive win in my book, bless you for making this post- you describe the bloke in a better way than i ever could attempt hmhnjthmj :'>>>>>>>