Dungeon curation #19 : ishiiburidai

There are artists who experience rapid growth in our scene, and one that comes to mind is ishiiburidai. I first experienced his work during the URL Beats for a Broken World, when he did the visuals for Mabisyo. And ever since, I keep seeing his work everywhere. He’s naturally established himself as a prominent figure in the vaporwave scene. And for good reason the artist is incredibly prolific, putting out both music and visual work. So I asked him to take on the exercise of selecting the albums that left a mark on him throughout his vaporwave journey. ishiiburidai also wanted to put together a visual mix, which you can check out here: https://youtu.be/welIXngF0Hc?si=4Yi9vz-FRUiBLphz

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

nano神社 (✪㉨✪) – フードコート P O R N O ♡
I´m most attracted to an album when discovering it by chance and having no idea what to expect when I hit play. That´s how I found P O R N O around 2016 (༼ง ͠ຈ ͟ل͜ ͠ຈ༽) and that´s half a joke cuz there are this establishments in Argentina where one rents a room to have sex called Telos (I found no 1:1 translation) that would play exactly this kind of mellow songs, and which name derived from Latin refers to the final cause of a natural organ lol. The digital landscape intro of “トラックOne” lead into a cascade of synths and echoing singing hit me so hard even after ten years of first discovering it. This record maintains its sensual tones without overdoing them, then shifts into warped sounds that I can only describe as robotic ecstasy. I debated between choosing “I´ll Try Living Like This” by death´s dynamic shroud or this one for the same reason: experiencing what is like inside the mind of a machine. Ultimately I chose this one for its collection of samples, which is the aim of my ishiiburidai alias: twist and transform the most out-there shit possible and make it sound enticing. This album undefined the limits for me ♡

Meta メタ World Peace 世界平和 – Blankout Odyssey 1
I wasn’t an active Bandcamp listener until late 2024, so I owe so much to Vapor Memory’s Youtube channel for putting me up to music I wouldn’t have found otherwise. Coated in dark and twisted sampling, sometimes even playing two songs simultaneously like in “Dreamcast In Da House” & “Resonance Widit”, this record is a prime example of the boundlessness and creativeness that’s so particular to Vapor, in this case making you feel like you took above the recommended dosage of LSD and a schizophrenic episode awaits you, with no guide or control of what will happen. The cover lends to this notion by using the classic Moonman cover from “Late Night Delight” by Luxury Elite & Saint Pepsi, but adding a graveyard twist to it, while the DeepDream textures around it and what I can only describe as a two-headed goat feel deeply disconnected from one another, which is the point. Sadly, from what I’ve looked up Meta メタ World Peace 世界平和’s Bandcamp has been inactive since early 2017 and doesn’t have that much support on it which I feel is a shame, so whoever they are I hope these words reach them: Thank you for your particular vision.

Hong Kong Express – 浪漫的夢想 [‘ROMANTIC DREAM’]
There’s a beautiful appeal to listen to dead aliases, like an acquaintance that you now can’t get in contact with. I remember one friend and I played this record on the bus not long after it released and we were so flabbergasted by it we clearly annoyed the rest of the passengers. It seems so difficult to attain that dream-like state now, going back to it wakes all kind of feelings on me. The cover alone is charged with nighttime elegance, something Wong Kar-Wai excels at and is an appropriate choice in this case. Start to finish this feels like cruising down an empty boulevard on a limousine next to your partner, only to realize that this scenario is only playing in your head and they might not even exist, that’s how powerful I find this record and I couldn’t pass on the opportunity that you experience it as well.

ＤＯＮＴ/ BＥ/ 正方形 – 43°
Clean, heavenly vibes doused in geometric shapes going in all directions, there’s this deep notion underneath the surface that hides a plethora of meaning inside it. “43°” achieves just that, easy-going beats like velvety repeated charms that I could listen to for hours on end, specially “正方形” (translates to Square), something you’d listen on the background of a mall that seems to attract you on a personal level. One of my recent releases under a new alias called ∆πδяö๓ε๔α 𝐑ⓗⓨ〶Ⓗⓜ𝓢 has tried to emulate this notion, a chain of rhythms that have variations but keep going back to its main melodies. To put it simply, you can put this record while doing anything else and you’ll feel like time has flown by, and that feeling is rare and has stayed with me for the longest time.

VHSテープリワインダー – Smooth Jazz Online
The dichotomy of a genre that draws so much from the past in futuristic terms is fully realized for me in this album. The sexiest possible array of samples come alive and make you feel as if you’re gliding through an unknown, infinite city. Also the aspect of lost media comes alive on this, for the song “21st Century Lipo Chitosan” appears on YouTube as being part of this album, yet it doesn’t appear on music platforms. Vaporwave cannot be separated from its aesthetic, which in turn infuses the music in sexiness that’s so appealing, and that is what happened to me when I stumbled on this video of “showering together” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp9ZDT4MJwU) and made me look up the whole thing. All in all this album greatly encapsulates the vibes that I look for when I make music: fashion, sentiment and deep grooves.

New Dreams Ltd. – Initiation Tape: Isle of Avalon Edition
It would be a huge omission if I didn’t include the mother of Vaporwave on this list, yet I didn’t want to play it safe and throw Floral Shoppe in, since at the time I didn’t pay much attention to it apart from the meme status it gained. Initiation Tape: Isle of Avalon Edition is a true groundbreaking broken transmission album that’s easily overlooked in her catalogue, but I feel has paved the way for an endless flurry of signalwave producers with its carefully curated samples and stark differences in its tracklist. From the radio announcement chant of “Forever” signaling a new wave, to the mellow feel of “Timecop” & the fantastic ride that is “Aurora 3D” seemingly lulling you to sleep while keeping you in your toes, the old adage really shines through in this ensemble: Contrast creates focus.

p h a n t o m ファントム幻影 2 7 – N = 過剰エネルギークラウド
Ambient, concepts and anonymity are a huge part of what makes Vaporwave so special to me. At the top of this artist’s Bandcamp page, organized like the Tree of Life, this record embodies the first Sephirot: Kether or the Crown, the divine will and initial impulse toward creation. On a side note I read Tarot, precisely Golden Dawn’s Hermetic philosophy based on Kabbalah, so when I found this record (or rather when it found me) we clicked immediately. On Nightmare Disciples’ site (https://www.nightmaredisciples.org) traversing through sites upon sites to uncover what’s behind the veil only to be left with more questions, that’s so uniquely Vapor-coded it’s a practice that might be repeated as time is but a wheel, but it won’t be perfectly replicated. We just happened to be born on the right time to experience it, and that blessing cannot be described only with words. Just go listen to it and determine for yourself what it means to you.

Many thanks to ishiiburidai for this selection and for going the extra mile with the visual mix. I’d also like to give a special shoutout to him for his contribution to Vaporloot Festival 3, where he delivered multiple visual sets.

You can follow him on those link :

Bandcamp : https://ishiiburidai.bandcamp.com
Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/@ishiiburidai/videos
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/ishiiburidai