New Releases: April 25th - May 2nd, 2025

Bandcamp Friday is back and tons of folks were hawking new releases and reissues this past week! Not only that, but there was also a festival announcement by My Pet Flamingo and Utopia District: Flamingo Fest 2025. It's going down on August 2nd in beautiful New York City at the same venue that hosted Summer Slushy Fest back in 2023, The Meadows. Get your tickets on Eventbrite and book your flight now! (Don't forget that the i2K Festival is also happening this June in Virginia as well!)

Before we get to the music, I have to shout out a NEW BOOK that is part of the 33&1/3 Series: BUY NOW by Michael Brown. Brown is a Music Curator at the Alexander Turnbull Library in New Zealand (part of their National Library) and is a music scholar who has written about a lot of music from New Zealand. He also hosted a great talk/presentation about Crystal Magic Records that we reported on last year which you can watch here. The book focuses on Eyeliner's iconic album BUY NOW which "epitomizes a new kind of album for the internet age: made DIY-style, all digital, free, licensed under Creative Commons, and released to a 'virtual' community, an online scene without geographic center". Purchase it now through Bloomsbury!

The "Discover" and "Browse" features on Bandcamp's website continue to deteriorate for vaporwavers, partly due to the enshittification of Bandcamp by the new owners but also with tons of AI slop, incorrectly tagged music, bad parody albums, and more "sequels" to other artist's albums. I will give Bandcamp a bit of props for adding new ways of sorting recent releases but the chronology is so out of order.. Anyhow, I trudged through it all to find ten gems for y'all to check out, including some Bandcamp Friday drops:

haircuts for men - 大​理​石​の​フ​ァ​ン​タ​ジ​ー II (Barber Beats)

On Bandcamp Friday there was a few releases from some legends of the scene (more on that later), including a return to Business Casual for the notorious producer and originator of Barber Beats: haircuts for men. His new album 大​理​石​の​フ​ァ​ン​タ​ジ​ー II is the sequel to his quintessential album which translates to Marble Fantasy. The iconic green album art is back, this time with two busts facing off on a wrinkled background reminiscent of the first album. As expected the cassettes sold out very quickly but you can head over to the Business Casual Bandcamp page to exclusively stream and download the album.

Macroblank - absolute:zero (Barber Beats)

Macroblank is continuing his monthly releases over on YouTube and his Patreon. For his new album abolute:zero he's returned to the chilled-out atmosphere and even throws in some classic vapor and late night lo-fi! It's a much more relaxing listen than his previous album but not a very strong showing in the album art/conceptual theming category. It'll probably be out on physical media through Aloe City Wrld by the end of the year but you could probably get it earlier if you join their Vandal Club.

t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 - 君のいない世界でまた一日が過ぎた (Slushwave)

Hot on the heels of his return to the scene, legendary vaporwave artist and slushwave pioneer t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 is back with another new album and vinyl release on Geometric Lullaby. A four-sided vinyl affair, this new album is titled 君のいない世界でまた一日が過ぎた which translates to "Another Day has passed in a World Without You". There are two vinyl variants of the album, which customers will receive at random when they ship on "December 31st, 2025", lol. Well at least we already have the 83 minute+ digital version which will keep you occupied in the meantime!

Zai Kowen - Alive (Future Funk, Nu Disco)

Argentinian producer Zai Kowen has released a new album that's a bit of a lateral move in terms of genre. Known for his banging Future Funk edits, this latest album from Zai Kowen sidesteps the usual samples of the genre for an album of original music that crosses over to nu-disco, danceable synthwave and electronic pop with vocals. The artist and his collaborators use the aural pallette, stomping drums, and chops of Future Funk to spice up these tracks which are inspired by Madeon and Tainy according to the artist's Bandcamp description. There are familiar names throughout the tracklist like Daniel Fowler, Iden Kai, blip_ (who is featured later in our list), Zancole and Oscar Roads.

VANITAS命死 - Terra Forma 夜 (Slushwave)

Belgian producer VANITAS命死 has been continuing to experiment with sample-free versions of vaporwave's most sample-heavy subgenres. His new album Terra Forma 夜 is his return to sample-free slushwave with eight tracks inspired by land art. It's his third release of the year and continues down the path he set out with previous sample-free slushwave albums like 仮想雨林 (𝓥𝓲𝓻𝓽𝓾𝓪𝓵 𝓻𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓽) and 野外博物館 from last year.

Micromecha - Winter Arc III (Vaporbreaks, DnB)

Micromecha first garnered some attention with their Barber Beats that combined stems of multiple different sampled songs with original instrumentation. Their desire to create more originally composed music led to a trilogy of vaporbreaks and atmospheric D'n'B albums entitled Winter Arc I, II, and III. The final part of this trilogy was just released on Bandcamp Friday after some "some tribulations, obstacles and overthinking that this recent time brought to my life" according to the album's Bandcamp page. You can pre-order a cassette of Winter Arc III over on Micromecha's Bandcamp.

blip_ - Neon Odyssey: Crimson Line (Future Funk)

Coraspect Media Group (fka Coraspect Records) dropped two new Future Funk releases for Bandcamp Friday, and I was particularly excited to check out the new album from blip_! Neon Odyssey: Crimson Line has thirteen tracks from the artist themself as well as nine remixes on the backend of the album. blip_ has been dropping tons of singles and collaborations the past few years and is definitely one of the up-and-coming producers you want to watch in the Future Funk scene this year! If you've listened to our Fresh Future Funk playlist on Spotify, then you have definitely heard some tracks from blip_.

midnight première - moonlight soirée (Late Night Lo-fi)

Pacific Northwest producer midnight première has been releasing lots of great Late Night Lo-fi the past few years and their new album, released on April 30th, is a welcome addition to their catalog. This album falls on the seductive and romantic side of the genre with a fitting album title: moonlight soirée.

Various Artists - MyNmR (Compilation)

Netlabel Sunset Grid is always releasing tons of new music from smaller artists in the scene and they frequently release compilations featuring a wide array of sub genres. Their most recent compilation, MyNmR is a benefit for victims of the earthquake in Myanmar, so check it out and consider donating a few bucks!

Digital Sex & OSCOB - OVERGROWTH (Reissue, Vaporwave)

And finally here is a reissue that got me excited this Bandcamp Friday: OVERGROWTH by Digital Sex & OSCOB. Originally released on Dream Catalogue and reissued by Bludhoney, this one has been out-of-print for years. More and more OOP Dream Catalogue releases (or releases banished from the label) have been getting the reissue treatment with splashy packages and vinyl but sadly not much insight into the release or history/significance behind it (which you usually see from respected reissue labels like the Numero Group). Regardless, this was a massive collab between OSCOB, Digital Sex, Chungking Mansions, Artfluids, Remember, Rez (who made one of my favorite vapor EPs of all time), Windows 98の, White Marino and 2814, with artwork by James Webster from Death's Dynamic Shroud. It was really a who's who of mid-2010's Dream Catalogue artists and it was a shining example of a conceptual collaboration album- not just two sides of a record with two different artists who are buddies. The pre-order is still available through Aloe City Wrld's website- make sure you pick the correct geographical storefront to save on shipping!