REVIEW: Saint Pepsi's Hit Vibes (2013)
Before this release, Saint Pepsi had been putting out vaporwave albums all of which oozed a chilled, experimental and interesting nature. Examples of this include Triumph International (released in December 2012) and Studio 54 (released in March 2013)
These excursions into sample based work would ultimately prove to become a basis for Hit Vibes along with numerous disco, funk and city pop records. Combined together, this creates an incredible listening experience filled with joy, funk and just the right amount of downtime with chilled tracks sprinkled in too.
The album opens with a string of disco infused, party ready tracks (Hit Vibes, Have Faith, Better and Cherry Pepsi) which echo the production of early Daft Punk and various releases on labels such as Crydamoure, setting the tone for the album almost instantly with the presence of catchy hooks, funky bass lines and hard hitting drums. All that's needed now is some 80s VHS footage to go along with the tracks and the vaporwave aesthetic has been nailed.
As mentioned earlier, there are also chilled cuts on the album such as "Together" which is placed interestingly just after the first four tracks, all of which echo the party ready nature mentioned above. By placing the odd traditional vaporwave track into the album, it shows that despite the musical evolution Saint Pepsi went through since he released his first albums, the distinct, distant style in his earlier work still slightly remains, which is definitely a good thing.
This leads into the variations in production and sound in the second half of the album.
By switching between styles in the second half of the album, S/P is able to keep the listening experience fresh and exciting no matter how many times you listen, which in an album like this is crucial in order to keep the listener tuned in (which this release has been able to do to me so many times I've practically lost count)
An example of this can be found in track nine "I Tried" which is reminiscent of hip hop music with melancholic samples and warm, compressed drums, along with a significant tempo change compared to the rest of the album's songs. But by the next track "Strawberry Lemonade" we return to the funk filled nature of the album complete with sweet instrumentation, hard hitting disco like drums and distinctive production before returning to the slowed down, vaporwave sound emphasized in his earlier work with the album's twelfth track "Miss You"
In conclusion, this album is awesome and a work of art in the vaporwave scene. Almost 11 years on, it is still a wonderful piece of work by Ryan DeRobertis, who would later go on to get signed to Carpark Records and is now producing fantastic pop music under the name Skylar Spence and great sample based work too.
Rating - 10/10
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