Liner Notes 18.Aug.2022

Oregon, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and more

Photo: Flashbak.com

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Note: This year, I’ve been challenged to review 100 new (or new to me) records. This is the latest in that series.

XWaves- Peak Internet

The promo blurb for XWaves latest release, Peak Internet, reads:

In Peak Internet, I want you to return to your home in the glory days of the internet. When everything was new and non regulated, where you could explore content beyond your wildest dreams.
That's why I want you to return home, where your dreams are still the present.

Okay, then.

Welcome back to Peak Internet.

I suppose that term will mean different things to everyone. To my mind, that means a trip in the time machine to a plan of 500bd modems, bulletin boards, and non-existent graphics. And even that new ground was only a few years removed from Oregon Trial (the original version-and the only one that counts, thankyouverymuch) and LOGO.

For younger readers, LOGO was a program where after entering string entries, a turtle would do something like draw an “L.” Fun!

So does the latest from XWaves, aka Leonard Worling take me back to that era? Not quite, though there are plenty of bleeps & bloops on the record.

It takes me to the later stage internet, or early Web2, when being online shifted to a more immersive experience and became a gateway to new horizons.

Vaporwave almost always feels like “vacation” to me, and this record is no exception, especially on tracks like “The Sun Goes Down” (both versions).

There is an energy here that bears strong similarities to BrotherTiger’s Fundamentals series and feels like a hot summer night.

Will it take you back to the days of string entries and Apple IIEs? Probably not. But the early internet’s superpower was the gift of escape. And on that, Peak Internet delivers.

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Below the jump for paid subscribers:

More reviews—including the latest by Superchunk, what I’ve been listening to this week, the best rock docs of all time, a popular record hits middle age, news and notes from around the industry, and the absurdity that is Twitter.

Check it out!