Dungeon curation #17 : KJ Valium

If I had to associate the word “punk” with a vaporwave artist, the first name that comes to mind is KJ Valium. An ultra-experimental approach to music, very close to noise, albums lasting hours, performances across the four corners of the United States, and an unconditional love for underground scenes. KJ Valium, also known under the alias PONDERקלערן , is, to me, one of the most honest and genuine artists on the scene. He reminds me a bit of Nyoka Shoje in his straightforward approach to his music and his convictions. KJ isn’t trying to please anyone he’s developing his own aesthetic. I’m glad to see that the scene leaves room for these less conformist, harder-to-grasp artists, and I hope to do my part with Vaporloot.If I had to pick one album by KJ Valium, it would probably be Embrace & Departure. I discovered it during the Bandcamp premiere of the album. It’s an experimental gem, somewhere between drone, soundscape, and harsh noise, especially the track he did with Parker Weston (also known as Stembreo). Lying in my bed, I allowed myself to take a nap while listening to that album, and it put me in a very unique mood. As you’ve probably gathered, KJ isn’t going to offer us a classic selection of vaporwave albums. With him, you’re going to sink into the depths of proto-vaporwave what we could associate with the genre, but came out decades before.

As always these records are making their way into the Dungeon !

Bitcrush – In Distance (2006)
Lyrics don’t have to be legible, programmed drums don’t need to follow a specific sequence, mixing throughout an album does not have to be universal. In Distance is primarily an ambient project by Mike Cadoo that can feel closely related to other post-rock staples, but lives up to the album name by keeping any identifiers of usual crescendo-core tropes in the distance, and instead letting the melody dictate the tempo. For me it always feels too slow in a delightful smooth way. The drums interchange with glitchy effects and filters, never giving a constant beat and instead being part of the layers of ambiance each track brings, and even when the compositions lead up to an all-out jam, the major selling point is still the shrouding reverb that extinguishes every flame it sparks and spreads. A classic example for me at a younger age on how ambient-rock albums should play out, with evidence of excellence in instrument recording and studio production coming together to make the whole composition and always lathered with echoing ambiance and chittering glitch effects regardless of what passage is playing out.

Popol Vuh – In den Gärten Pharaos (1972)
Sequenced ambient tracks are boring. Ambient music can be powerful, overwhelming, and otherworldly beyond our finite comprehension when it is completely unlatched by limitation, and when the musical performance can be felt by every wave of sound being emitted. This is demonstrated at the near very beginning of the first wave of modern ambient works by some acts of the electronic krautrock scene, later to be sterilized by the popular Enoification of today’s ambient works. This album gives a clear ideation of a classic human paradise with its foley work in the beginning and just continues to zoom in further and further into the structure of an atom. I just love the euphoric intensity this album brings, which is unique to the rest of the band’s and leader Florian Fricke’s solo works which are much more soft and serene. (also recommended)

Noise Unit – Voyeur (2005)
A recreation of variety from the EBM legends of Front Line Assembly making itself a predecessor of cyber dystopia dreampunk vibes and doing so with absolute impeccable precision. Each track generates a world of its own and gives us a relatively safe and shrouded angle of all that inhabits it. What this means personally for me is decades of influence of how to create audible storytelling, governed by foley and soundscapes alone, incredible grooves and loops that seamlessly go in and out of ambiance and head boppin beats, and occasional lyrical moments where there is no narrator, just a part of the existence that the instrumental palette has generated. I’m especially a fan of the whispered singing, and whatever the opposite of a jersey beat is in Tighten Up.

Daft Punk – Alive 1997 (2001)
Ending my list with something more friendly to the dance crowd, and a familiar, recognizable band that everyone loves. I’m picking 97 alive as my favorite because of how incredible it is to have this type of music played live to a large receptive audience, it just doesn’t regularly happen anymore. Hard-hitting musical performance from a fully analog setup, smooth transitions between recognizable licks and improvisational jams, a real scratch-kitchen demonstration of how its done. The more popular choice would be the dj mashups of alive 2007, this is the choice for me. With several reel-to-reels, multiple turntables, three TR machines, a linndrum, a juno, and a laptop, the punks made electronic dance music Alive.

Many thanks again to KJ Valium for taking the time to take part in this article! And thank you so much for being part of the Vaporloot Festival I have very fond memories of his appearance at the second edition. Don’t forget to listen his latest album RE://GRAVIDA !
You can follow him on those link :

Website : https://epkbuilder.com/site/kj-valium
Bandcamp : https://kjvalium.bandcamp.com
BlueSky : https://bsky.app/profile/kjvalium.bsky.social