For the year of 2026, I will be buying a CD from an upcoming artist I have never even heard of, and writing about them on my blog. What credentials do I have to review music? None. So bear with me a little here as I write my first couple of reviews.
I kinda just got the idea for this when I saw an ad on Instagram for this artist Groovy Kaiju—giving away free CDs of his album “Monster Tape Zero” as a “pay whatever you want.”
There are multiple reasons for taking this endeavor, but the biggest being:
- I do not like the business practices employed by streaming services.
- I have been getting more pulled into listening to albums in bite-sized TikTok pieces, and I cannot even remember the last time I genuinely sat down and listened to an album front to back (San Holo’s 2018 album1 comes to mind).
The way I would write these posts is by listening to them on my Macintosh PowerBook G3 which I rescued last year (it has a working CD drive). I got BBEdit, iTunes 4, and a pair of wired Sony headphones. This is the cleanest environment which allows me to listen to the CD front to back, not be distracted by the Internet, and provides one of the NICEST (and clickiest) laptop keyboards to type my thoughts on (it’s also translucent :’) ). I’ll transfer everything I write from this computer to my modern one with a thumb drive.
Personally, I do not know if this format will even work out as I cannot have you listen to most of these albums (for example: this album isn’t even available on any streaming services). I don’t know, yet, if I will transition any of this into YouTube. However, we will never know until we try (and I may try albums in the future which are available on streaming platforms, and not just CD exclusive).
Side A For Bumpin'
This CD seems to be divided into a “Side A for Bumpin’” and a “Side B for Funkin’”. Most of the thoughts that you see me writing down here are as I listen through this album for the first time, so the initial stuff here pertains to Side A.
I am going into this CD expecting nothing. The vibes of the CD are very reminiscent of the likes of most vaporwave albums: think Floral Shoppe by Vektroid, or the Internet Radio Platform Poolsuite (and its sister brand, Vacation). It screams the 80s and 90s in its generous servings of saxophones, elements from jazz & reggae, and funky synths. The first track—Monster Zero—creates a vibe that I can only describe as wanting to drive down the Florida Key West islands in a convertible Mazda MX-5 Miata.
Personally, I am a big fan of Vaporwave (look around this website a little). This album is one of the most tasteful renditions of the general vibe that Vaporwave tries to create. I love the vocal chops of different Japanese samples, alongside the chops that the artist seems to have recorded himself. It does not fail to create a funky happy vibe, despite me writing this from Boston in the middle of winter.
Interestingly, Aaron Turner—the artist behind Groovy Kaiju—has not made this album available on any streaming services, and I respect and love that choice a lot. I bought this CD after listening to a 30 second promo on their Instagram; but I cannot help but feel that a huge reason as to why this album feels like such a genuine homage to its time is because it is available on CD only, and perhaps using a 90s laptop to listen to it adds more to the entire vibe.
The next track—All Cats Are Beautiful—immediately adds a generous serving of synths and saxophones (who can hate saxophones??). I think it might be a cop-out to describe the vibe as groovy, but that is exactly what this album is. Tracks 3 and 4 introduce beautiful vocal chops (and vocals, in general). Since this is my first listen of the album ever, and I have not yet seen any behind the scenes videos, I don’t know if the vocals on this track are the vocals of Aaron himself or if these are samples from popular media: but I am heavily leaning on the side of Aaron himself.
Final Boss Theme is the last song on Side A of the album. If Track 2 was the most jazzy song on this side, Track 5 is the most reggae-inspired one. Every song on this side creates such a fun vibe, it’s genuinely addicting to listen to all of them and not want to rewind anything!! It’s definitely an album that I will be adding to my daily rotation. Despite the drums and general beat being a little more reggae, it’s full of signature vaporwave elements such as chops, loops, and those musical glitches that don’t disappoint at all.
Vaporwave albums tend to mainly manifest in two types in all my listening. There’s the “I don’t care it’s 12PM I am gonna drink dirty martinis and enjoy on the beach” vibe. Floral Shoppe starts this way: the beats are more upbeat, funk, and generally it’s at a faster tempo. Side A feels mostly like that: fast-paced vocal chops, instruments, complex drum loops interspersed with funky bass undertones—all lead to a vibe where I’d love to play these songs with a group of friends on a sunny poolside day.
The other side of Vaporwave music is the “I am driving a car into the sunset after having partied a little too hard in the afternoon”. These are the slightly more chill and easygoing songs. That is Side B of this album.
Side B for Funkin'
She’s Focused on Being in Love became the song that I will most likely use to introduce everyone else to Vaporwave in the coming future, in the first listen itself. The patterns and instrumentation are a little more relaxed compared to Side A here, but this slightly more chill & nostalgic version of funky Vaporwave is what got me into it in the first place. This song transitions into one of the sexiest saxophone solos I have heard in a while, in the most ear-tingling way possible. I will also say the same thing about Track 7’s bass/guitar combo (“I Had A Dream That I Was In A 90s Anime”).
I should also mention that I genuinely love the length of every song played here as well. I think I have started getting used to the sub-2 minutes every song is targeting to bump up their metrics on streaming platforms: but each song on this entire album ranges in the 3-4 minute mark. It’s not too long in a way where the same song might start feeling a little tiring on the ears, but it’s not so short either that it leaves so much to be desired.
If I had to be a little more nitpicky, I believe that I would bump Side B a little more than Side A. But this is personal preference: I am just a bigger fan of Side B compared to Side A, because I love the whole “driving with chill tunes” vibe I just mentioned.
I do think the album lacks a little in the variety department. The sonic palette stays fairly consistent throughout—which is great for maintaining a cohesive mood, but there were moments where I found myself wishing for a curveball. A sudden tempo shift, an unexpected instrument, something to really catch me off guard. The transitions between tracks are smooth, almost too smooth; they blend together so well that on a second listen, I could see myself losing track of where one song ends and another begins. It’s a minor gripe for an album that clearly knows exactly what it wants to be, but a little more sonic risk-taking could elevate this from “great vibe album” to “I need to tell everyone about this immediately.”
I might be hallucinating this a little, but I have a suspicion that each song gets a little more musically complex. In both sides, the first couple of tracks do a great job of introducing you to the rest of the album and create the mood. Each song then adds slightly more complex drums, more vocals, more chops and samples, until the last song!! That’s what Final Boss Theme felt like to me in Side A, and that’s what Track 9—Never Ending Dandy Baby—of Side B also feels like.
Never Ending Dandy Baby was the snippet I heard on Instagram!!! I recognized it halfway through writing the sentence above, but I do believe that this track is more musically complex without deviating too hard from the general vibe and mood that this album creates.
And we beautifully transition into Track 10—Want Some More. This is the softest, mellowest track on this album. This one was a little emotional for me; it’s such a perfect ending for this beautiful musical journey.
Closing Thoughts
9.2/10
This album is a great homage to the entire vaporwave genre. I am a slightly bigger fan of Side B, but I love both of them equally. Groovy Kaiju/Aaron Turner has showcased such an immense talent for music production and tasteful sampling, and I wish them nothing but the best.
This one is going into the rotation!!