"A tribute to the artists who supported Hairs aBlazin' during its debut year as a label throughout the entirety of 2018. This compilation is a celebration of you. Because without you, Hairs aBlazin' would not be what it has become. Godspeed." - Lee Larson
All tracks property of their respective artists. Mixed and mastered by Emmanuel Hoachlander.
THE ARTISTS
"For me, creating music is mostly accidental. I've got a vauge idea of what i'm aiming for, but usually the creative direction is steered in a different path. Making music is a joy, and mostly accidents. That's why I make it the way I do." - _entity / slvshthree
slvshthree.bandcamp.com
slvshthree.bandcamp.com
slvshthree.bandcamp.com
"[...] I'm nostalgic by nature. Vaporwave took me by surprise. I already loved greek statues, everything about the 80's, and Japanese culture, so the aesthetics made me want to make music like this. I like seeing every release of this genre like a door to a different dimension or time. You can be in a dreampunk suburb in Tokyo, in a man made island connected by internet, dancing in a club in 1985, everywhere you'd like! I love psychedelia and the elastic boundaries of vaporwave and its brother genre, hypnagogic pop, really makes me feel satisfaction making this music. [...] Music itself [has been] my passion since I was 13. There's nothing more I'd like to do, but vaporwave is different. I love to make it because of its infinite possibilities." - Eccodroid
eccodroid.bandcamp.com
eccodroid.bandcamp.com
eccodroid.bandcamp.com
"I had a job in college at a movie store, & one of my managers called me trendy. I recall being oddly offended by this. In retrospect, I think there’s a lot of truth to that description, & this is consistently reflective in my work. This is not the most unique trait, but I’ve always tried to spot trends in music, stocks, fashion, art, etc. While sometimes this approach runs the risk of being too derivative, other times I can get lucky with some evasion or subtlety with my influences.
Vaporwave was my first introduction into the music scene. Honestly, it’s because vapowave was so easy to make especially when sampling entire tracks, sometimes adding some drums or synths on top (i.e. ごめい p r e m i u m ESC & ヘア ZNC metals). The biggest hurdle for me the past few years was learning how to produce original electronic music. So I tried to continue the vapowave thing without sampling. The struggle became evident once I started writing- it took much longer to actually write music. The Finlii stuff was just that: a mixture of childhood memories & upsampled ambient vapowave. The problem I found after those albums was more about the actual vaporwave scene. It felt like it was dead. I know this expression is sort of a meme, but this time it really seemed long gone. I’m sure there are some great releases coming out, but the listener base just isn’t present like it once was.
The interesting thing I find about ‘Office Riffs’ is that it doesn’t heavily stem from any other genre. It’s just an album that is derived from itself & my office. Most of these tracks I wrote on my lunch break in the work environment. The cover art is also a drawing from scratch of my office. Yet again, I find myself latching onto another music trend (especially with ‘Selected House Tracks for 2055 vol. 1’ & my recent house EP with E95). House/IDM seem to be the direction of my music right now. That being said ‘Office Riffs’ may be the last album that still has a small amount of that Finlii sound." - David Busch / Finlii
davidbusch.bandcamp.com
davidbusch.bandcamp.com
davidbusch.bandcamp.com
“What inspires me as a musician is many things really. Space always interested me and when I started making music I wanted to imagine what space would sound like, which led me naturally to Ambient, nostalgia and a love of Retro-Futuristic Sci-Fi led me to Synthwave/Vaporwave, a love of Fantasy led me to Downtempo, but most of all I’ve always wanted to tell these stories in worlds that I’ve been imagining for years, with Kaiseki Digital I got that chance with Nomad, and now I’m working on more of that. I want to tell stories, I want people to enjoy those stories, I want the worlds to be enticing and the music to amplify, but mostly I want people to enjoy it all more than anything.” - Saros-FM
saros.bandcamp.com
saros.bandcamp.com
saros.bandcamp.com
Nu_Polygon
nupolygon.bandcamp.com
nupolygon.bandcamp.com
nupolygon.bandcamp.com
Alpha DreamDrift X
alphadreamdriftx.bandcamp.com
alphadreamdriftx.bandcamp.com
alphadreamdriftx.bandcamp.com
"The impetus behind my work as reef frequent has, much like all my work, a heavy variance on a project-to-project basis. While more recent releases have taken full on conceptual dives into topics surrounding data, generative composition, and navigation of the new information era, my earlier work, including my self-titled debut re-issued on Hairs aBlazin, had a much more narrative and exploratory approach. Reef Frequent was the result of my initial forays into proper composition, and while it retains a lofi edge and wears stamps of its creative process, the result was an important focal point in my collective creative journey, and a distinct early opportunity to define a sonic palette specific to the project itself. The watery drift of Reef Frequent is the feature that for me retains the most value several years on from its creation. Though born of immediacy, the notion of a cohesively mixed collection of songs as an opportunity to paint an immersive experience was first dabbled with here, and that at least has never left my larger working ethos with music. Transformative experiences are central to my craft, and their position as supporting art to physical actions or journeys is at the core of my intentions as an artist. As a designer and architectural theorist, I see my musicianship as an equal part of my larger creative collective, and a greater or at least altered understanding of the positionings of mind, body, and space all intersect constantly throughout." - Reef Frequent
"With my projects I attempt to create an experience in the abstract, or a distraction. With the intent for these abstract experiences to exist in the background of physical experiences. Whether one is attempting to fall asleep, relax, ski, workout, read, etc. I want to give listeners a sonic experience to complement their lifestyle. My sound can also be consumed as a distraction, a form of escapism from physical experience. As an artist I intend to utilize as many styles and composition techniques as I possibly can to create these experiences and distractions." - Leon LS
leonls.bandcamp.com
leonls.bandcamp.com
leonls.bandcamp.com
valyri
valyri.bandcamp.com
valyri.bandcamp.com
valyri.bandcamp.com
Dreyt Nien
dreytnien.bandcamp.com
dreytnien.bandcamp.com
dreytnien.bandcamp.com
"My music is mostly an emotional outlet for me, reflecting my feelings at the current time outwards into sounds. Anytime I feel an overwhelming loneliness, happiness, or something else, you will be able to hear that in my music. So you could say that its my own f[...]ed up head, full of anxiety and fears of abandonment, that drives me to make what I make! Of course, that's not such a bad thing." - Jamie Awakshidar
jamieawakshidar.bandcamp.com
jamieawakshidar.bandcamp.com
jamieawakshidar.bandcamp.com
"My outlook and frame has been evershifting since I started my first EP back in 2012. It's difficult to process the mindset I had back then; all I have now is the hazy memories of 3 am's laden with Audacity motifs and accompanying chills. Vaporwave was some unspoken ideal I felt, and now had finally existed. I wanted to be a part of it, not to ride a wave of clout but to subsume myself in.
Even beyond the approach of vaporwave, there's something that haunts every release I do. At times, I invited the uncanny familiar in and other times ran from it. I'm not sure I could ever make something without an unnerving quality. If General Translator, White Claudia, etc. ever continue, it's hard to imagine any release not having that visage of Amorotica creeping in the corner of my mind. Beauty that's off in some way...familiar and morbid. Perhaps off in the reeds now, far from vaporwave but there's some piece of my outlook there." - General Translator
vsjrp.bandcamp.com
vsjrp.bandcamp.com
vsjrp.bandcamp.com
"In my early teens, my tastes were rather narrow, but I knew what I liked. Video game soundtracks, 80s new wave, and Linkin Park were building blocks in the foundation for my love and fascination of music. My appreciation for it has never stopped growing since. What we hear can have such a powerful impact on us. It can inspire us. It can give us encouragement, energy, goosebumps sometimes. It can remind of us of a simpler time we've grown fond of in our distant memory. It can set the mood for a fleet of starships sweeping across the screen of the movie theater. It oftentimes intertwines with and reflects the diversity of our cultures. When I write music, I become engrossed with a world different from our own, yet an extension of it. I become an alter ego of myself. The same person, but a different reflection of him expressing things he could not without the language of music. I don't know what my life would be like without it." - Lee Larson
"Sad times [are] easier to manage when expressed through art. There is an urgency to create. The feeling that I can do better with each composition. [S]omething which will be heard by future generations. Connection to the 'source'... its an odd thing to say, but sometimes I feel like the music comes from another place, I'm kinda like a channel for it. I just want to make some cool uplifting tunes which take you somewhere else, wherever that is[.] - boycalledcrow
boycalledcrow.bandcamp.com
boycalledcrow.bandcamp.com
boycalledcrow.bandcamp.com
"The music I create is therapeutic for myself, but when the people in my life also enjoy it, that's an added blessing. This is why I keep doing what I do." - Emmanuel Hoachlander, aka Ohm-N-I
ohm-n-i.bandcamp.com
ohm-n-i.bandcamp.com
ohm-n-i.bandcamp.com
Electric Dreams
electric0dreams.bandcamp.com
electric0dreams.bandcamp.com
electric0dreams.bandcamp.com
☒
quadratox.bandcamp.com
quadratox.bandcamp.com
quadratox.bandcamp.com
"I've always been drawn to the progressive rock and complex song structure of bands like 'Yes' and 'King Crimson' and have been trying to replicate it for Vaporwave. My philosophy began as interest, became an obsession, and is now a real appreciation for the genre and the people that mold it -- I've made made friends I never would have without this aesthetic movement. In the future, I want to keep testing the boundaries of the genre by discarding the formula, because I enjoy testing myself and competing with others." - お姉さん M-14
onsanm-14.bandcamp.com
onsanm-14.bandcamp.com
onsanm-14.bandcamp.com
Sangam
sangam.bandcamp.com
sangam.bandcamp.com
sangam.bandcamp.com
"I suppose conveying emotions or a story through music appeals to me as a quiet person. From an early age, video game music had a huge impact on me and I could never study with music on because it would take all my attention. I was always drawing or writing growing up and once I got to college where I was introduced to so much bizarre music, it was a done deal. Something about the art of putting sounds together and the feelings evoked intrigues me to no end to try and do it myself, exploring any genre I can. Dissonance and noise, as well as ambient synths and distorted samples, coming together in a sound collage being the focus of the album Vestiges is a product I suppose of my own inner turmoil and worldview these days. I dunno, that kind of stuff strikes a chord in me." - amberVVaves
ambervvaves.bandcamp.com
ambervvaves.bandcamp.com
ambervvaves.bandcamp.com
"[...] a sample can be manipulated in so many ways [.] [T]here's always a different way to flip a sample[.] [T]he community is so incredibly supportive of the people and artists[.]" - BITOブレスアップ
deadmallgirlz.bandcamp.com
deadmallgirlz.bandcamp.com
deadmallgirlz.bandcamp.com
"Admittedly, having depression and anxiety has made life a f[...]ing b[...]h in more ways than one, so I figured if I made music that it would be what I would want to listen to when I'm sad, then maybe it'll help out some other person. I want to give everyone a collective hug with my music when they put on my tunes for the first time. The people who tell me about how my songs have gotten them through rough times is astonishing. I do this because I don't want anyone to give up on life the way I want to every single day. I love you and hopefully you love me. xoxo" - Princess Commodore 64
princesscommodore64.bandcamp.com
princesscommodore64.bandcamp.com
princesscommodore64.bandcamp.com
"Making music is a way for me to understand some of the less tangible aspects of my brain and mental illness. It allows me to freeze a mood or complicated concurrent set of moods and review them later. It also allows me to express what its like for me to have depression and anxiety through the warping, filtering, and manipulating of sounds. I will always be making music as long as I am living with depression and anxiety, as I will always need this outlet to help me exorcise some of the demons that come along with these mental illnesses." - Cyparissus
cyparissus.bandcamp.com
cyparissus.bandcamp.com
cyparissus.bandcamp.com
"Music making -- for me -- comes from two places, I feel. One is from a place of obligation. I feel compelled to create, as that's where my strength and passion comes from. The other comes from the joy of seeing the synergy between music and people. Community is really important and serves as a great motivator to see my peers all adding a part of themselves to this scene." - b l u e s c r e e n
sunsetgrid.bandcamp.com
sunsetgrid.bandcamp.com
sunsetgrid.bandcamp.com
Love Hotel究極
lovehotelsuperior.bandcamp.com
lovehotelsuperior.bandcamp.com
lovehotelsuperior.bandcamp.com
HAB040
released January 9, 2019
