御幸 & TV2 - Dream Signalwave Woman ALBUM REVIEW

 

7.5/10

Signalwave producers TV2 and 御幸 come together to release a fantastically distant and nostalgic signalwave album.

Signalwave (or Broken Transmission) is a genre I haven't fully touched on here - which is strange given just how interesting of a style it is to me. Things like 80s commercials, or old weather forecasts or just... anything to do with 80s/90s television really are all such great starting points for vaporwave albums. There's countless phenomenal albums coming under this tag such as Meteorological Agency's relaxing and nocturnal "Night Coverage", Nmesh's grand and expansive "Dream Sequins®", 猫 シ Corp's haunting and brilliant concept album "NEWS AT 11", and so many others. This all brings us today, where I'm talking about "Dream Signalwave Woman", the newest release from signalwave artists TV2 and 御幸.

Released on the 29th of January this year, "Dream Signalwave Woman" is a very good signalwave release - and while there is a lot of room for improvement here, this project is definitely worth a listen or two.

When the album's at its best, it ends up evoking distant memories of routines you've since broken off from, or people you used to know. A lot of the track titles here especially seem to establish some sort of romantic story - with titles like "Somewhere Far Away", "Dinner by the Sea", "Stars Tonight", and "We Danced" getting that idea across very well.

A lot of the songs here are very dreamy as well, especially on the a-side. Tracks like "Daily Forecast", "Dinner by the Sea", "Mild Sensation", "Figure" and a few others are all so nice to listen to, with gorgeous melodies and hazy VHS static leading the way.

TV2's side here tends to embrace the glitchy-ness present in a lot of signalwave releases, with tracks quite frequently trailing off into loud and intrusive sounds, before the track turns into something else altogether. This stuff can be a little annoying and on-the-nose for me, but it's used pretty sparingly here - one thing I will say though is that the intro from "Live from Miyazu Gardens" could have been extended a lot.

The strongest track from their side is definitely "Figure", which sounds so vivid and beautiful - it sounds like something out of an 80's space documentary.

On the other hand though, 御幸's side is a little more traditional in terms of its production style - personally I think this side is a bit more consistent than TV2's, but both artists did pretty well here.

御幸's side is also home to "Midnight Radio", which is probably my least favourite song here - It doesn't fit very well and I'm not a big fan of the sample choice. Another highlight from their side is definitely "Late Night Program" - I love this song, and how minimal it is. With only a dreary saxophone melody for pretty much the whole song, it works very well at being one of the album's quieter and more nocturnal moments which I think really works.

And I think I'm going to wrap it up there. This is a very good signalwave effort, but it does some room for improvement. The album also really overstays its welcome at 30 minutes - maybe it could get away with a runtime like that if the ideas here were developed more, and if there was more variety - but I can see this project working very very well if it was maybe 5-10 minutes shorter.

But yeah. There's lots to love here - and I definitely wouldn't be surprised if it ended up on some people's year-end lists. Really enjoying this album - that's pretty much all there is to say. Thanks for reading.

7.5/10

Fav Tracks: Daily Forecast, Important Announcement, Dinner by the Sea, Ephemera, Mild Sensation, Late Night Program, Stars Tonight, CRT Romance, Please stand by, Figure, Dream Signalwave Woman

Least Fav Track: Midnight Radio