To the vaporwave scene, nothing seems to be more important to artists and labels than hyping a new album up. This is not difficult in the least for Bedlam Tapes founder Maxfield Davidson, who has created a concise algorithm that is successful in anticipatory reach to members of the scene and outsiders alike. Bedlam’s most recent release is Throatless by Argiflex, the tangible music offspring of Cleveland (Mississippi, not Ohio) based producer Curtis Lehr. And just the simple fact that this monster of a LP was released under the Bedlam name had me convinced nearly immediately that I was to brace myself for auditory impact.
Throatless was released on November 10, 2016, with two variants of a limited edition cassette and a CD digipak. This is Argiflex’s fifth full-length release, and is currently being supported by a United States tour by them and other musicians and producers in different cities along the way. The artwork for the album was created by Keith Rankin, founder of Orange Milk Records, and alchemist of visual masterpieces that are very reminiscent of 80’s airbrushed graphic design. Rankin is also the creative catalyst behind the Giant Claw project, an initiative dedicated to creating collages of sounds both pleasant and harsh.
Among the original songs on the album, remixes from various—and prominent—producers in the vaporwave community are also featured, as well as a live performance from earlier this year in June. Lehr’s breakbeat trance-inducers are drenched in sludge before being catapulted into twelfth gear; this is especially evident in the second track, “HYPERWAVE ROADKILL”, a seven-minute undertaking of pure, unadulterated electronic hysteria. Bit-crushing effects badger the melody mercilessly, and the end result is a breakbeat with a hemorrhage.
I had the privilege of speaking with Lehr themselves about being a genderqueer member of the vaporwave community, as well as to what direction they see their music going. When I asked how their experience has been in terms of interactions and treatments by cisgendered folks, it was refreshing to hear that they have had a “surprisingly positive” experience, especially on their current tour backing Throatless. However, they also noted that they have been very lucky thus far, and that not everyone’s experience as a transgender person is similar. With that being said, I brought up the topic of hardvapour.
Within the recent year, there was an advent of a micro-genre that seemed like the pure antithesis of vaporwave. Where vaporwave adorns a utopian aesthetic of consumerist perfection in the mid-to-late twentieth century, hardvapour appropriates the oppressive aesthetics of eastern Europe during that same time period. With visual qualities aside, hardvapour was defined primarily by the discouraged use of sampling, something that helped establish vaporwave in the early 2010s.
There have also been members of the vaporwave community that may have allowed the hardvapour canon to mask for dormant prejudices, one of which being against transgender people. With one of the most prominent musicians of the vaporwave community being Vektroid, a trans woman, it was disheartening to see such hatred spawn from the scene.
“Hardvapour seemed to be a knee-jerk reaction to vaporwave being, essentially, created by a trans woman,” Lehr says in response to this. “I like how I am taking that oppressive element of hardvapour and turning it on its head, to making it more inclusive. It’s kind of my ‘fuck you’ to oppression. I don’t like oppression at all.” And with that, they were able to consolidate my two cents on the hardvapour dogma into a coherent message.
“I get hardvapour,” Lehr goes on to say. “I love music that is hard and difficult to listen to. I love making music that is hard and difficult to listen to.” They also noted that their music tends not to stay under lock and key by a single genre, and describes their audio mosaics as “noisy breakbeat acid techno”.
Argiflex is open for booking and intends to play more shows once the tour promoting Throatless has ended. Contact information, as well as a cornucopia of projects created by Curtis Lehr, can be found here on their website. It should also be noted that they have started W210 Labs, a studio currently looking for clients.
