Vapor Mache

"Killer sense of riddim and bass, each song has a unique personality lead by the interesting sounds." - XLR8R Magazine, ForwardEver Blog

"Vapor machine serves a glitchy long player fluently served on sharp edged slow beats. surely its far more that a sentence could describe. Mellow worlds apprearing and disappearing in your ignited mindtrip where lofi glitch meets romantic electronica. Sweet!" - c0pland.blogspot.com

"Outstanding! No one track supersedes another as each composition possesses a unique listening experience that, while identifiably is dubstep or glitch, reaches well beyond the expected sonic textures and treatments that distinguish those genres. Synthed choruses, melodic spikes and melancholy basslines rise and fall with individuated story lines that compose a dreamy, whumpy vibe for 2011!" - www.thegroovegarden.com

reviewed by : Alex Kourelis
genre : glitch, downtempo, trip hop, IDM,
experimental

Spencer Putnam is an extremely talented electronic musician. Under the monachre of Vapor Maché, the release of People is a showcase of interesting pieces connecting glitchy ambience with dubstep and cinematic themes. While we have surprisingly little info regarding the artist (his site contains a very basic personal workup and links offsite to MySpace and other accounts) what we can discern is that he’s originally from Omaha, Nebraska and his influences range from Aphex Twin to Thievery Corporation. If those influences sound a bit... disconnected shall we say...you’d be surprised how close they sound to a description of the music in People. Upon a first listen, the opening track “Yano” gives a feel of this epic production space in which sound builds into a wall. By the time the twitters and breakbeats get laid down you’re already captivated by a smooth groove, which even includes a steel Jamaican-style drums by the time of the track’s completion. It’s something that certainly deserves at least one listen and if you take my recommendation you’ll probably give it more than one. Moving forward to the next track, “Quivering Joy” sees an altogether different light with keys and reverb bringing the tempo down. Further into the album these themes present themselves time and again bringing together a really cohesive and unique sound. If you’re a fan of Venetian Snares, Two Lone Swordsmen, Amon Tobin and other thematic glitch acts you’ll really enjoy this album. My only real complaint apart from the apparent lack of information available about Vapor Maché is that at times the glitch can get a bit distracting. The powerful themes present along with chord progressions are enough in themselves without a constant reminder that yes, the artist can cut audio into a billion pieces and pan them around left to right. Altogether though this was a terrific album and it is available as a free download from his site, www.vapormache.net.

grade : overall 8 - music 8 - recording quality 7 - Auxiliary Magazine

I remember five or six years ago when the kids came down in a huge pack from San Francisco. They were a bunch of Heads with some Drum’n'Bass, laptops and connections to M-Audio in their back pockets. I am not sure why they came to the east side of Los Angeles or when they all assembled into the movement they created in Voltron-like fashion, but I do know that it wasn’t a moment too soon. I had been starving in LA from the lack of any good electronic music.

The last time I had experienced it was when The Viper Room was still doing its ill-fated and totally kick ass Drum’n'Bass Tuesdays with people like Goldie and Warren G throwing down for hours on end. But it had been at least a couple of years.

My friend Girlie8, an alien android with witchy powers and Fremen-blue eyes was my in to this immigrant circuit that included people like Anon, 8fm and edIT. I would get invites from echolocation and other mailing lists to events that manifested everywhere from architectural art galleries to abandoned warehouses in Fresno. The circuit was super-mellow and felt like family in and among one another.

I kept my eyes on them as time went on and inevitably had to direct my time in other parts of the world but when I got back some of them (Josh “Ooah” Mayer, Justin Boreta, Matthew “Kraddy” Kratz, and Edward “edIT” Ma) had formed into the monstrous collaboration known as The Glitch Mob. I could almost boast that I saw the evolution of glitch in front of my very eyes.

Despite my own history making ambient music influenced by FSOL, Can and Pete Namlook, I claim absolutely no contribution to this movement, but I can say I was there. I think it had something to do with people who had the tools, the pedigree and the fact that they were making jingles, and so had hundreds if not thousands of bits of audio that they reassembled into micro-edited music-concrete. But the difference here, that made it something beyond experimental noise for the “advanced music appreciationist” was that it SLAMMED. This stuff was groovy, sexy and could stand up by anything the Neptunes could throw at you.

Which brings me to today’s MZ indie artist profile. Vapor Mache is making glitch and he’s doing it right. He confessed to being addicted to Glitch Mob’s latest podcast mix and wondered if I knew a way to link him up with them.

All I can say is, Vapor Mache won’t need my help. Keep going at it like you are, and they will find you.

-Ighuaran
Editor-In-Chief
MusicZeitgeist.com

- www.musiczeitgeist.com