Entry 1583 - Macroblank - Tales of the Cypher

Style: vaporwave, barber beats

Thoughts: One upon a time there was a singular artist who made this kind of vaporwave. We all know who it is. For the longest time this was the only representation of barber beats the world had... we didn't even know it was called barber beats back then. It wasn't until a second radiance entered into the field named Macroblank that the style truly started taking off and became the tour de force that it is today within the vaporwave realm.

I have a lot of Macro's albums. So many in fact that I don't know what to do with half of them. There are only a couple left that I would consider essential for the collection - Tales of the Cypher is one of those albums.

I talked with Macro when he first started out years ago, he said that he had hundreds upon hundreds of hours of music ready to go. At the time he had three or four albums, but the rate at which he put albums out showed that this was not a fabrication. 

Granted some of these albums were higher quality than others. Tales of the Cypher is one of the higher quality albums that Macro put out during his legendary run. It leans a bit more into the lounge part of the sound, a little bit less into the jazz side, and a little bit more into the groove side... maybe even a bit of bosa nova thrown into the mix.

The lead instrument on most of these songs is a keyboard. The kind that you would find playing in a smoke filled lounge with a lounge band keeping the patrons company. This keyboard bores its way into my head, takes hold and reverberates within ever crevice I have. 

The backing instruments are equally as fulfilling. Bongos, a bass guitar, and of course more keyboards all fill the air that this music is proclaiming. As simple as it sounds the way this is all put together, I would never have guessed that this is actually plunderphonics. It simply sounds like the individual instruments belong together. 

Macro has many more albums that this, but there are few that sound as good as this. There are a lot of ideas that have been floated by this prolific plunderer, but when it comes down to it his simpler works are often the ones that show the most heart. Tales of the Cypher is indeed simple in its execution, but the result is of the finest quality.