Windows 96
It's nostalgic and seems like it was made decades ago but nothing from decades ago sounds like it.
Windows 96 is an electronic music project by Brazilian composer and producer Gabriel Eduardo. He's generally labeled as "Vaporwave" despite his sound evolving away from the typical Vaporwave a e s t h e t i c. Though, one could argue that his sound helped Vaporwave itself evolve away from its Plunderphonic roots to more original compositions that evoke the same vibes.
Gabriel's first Windows 96 album, "Loner Waves", came out in 2014 and was pretty typical vaporwave with heavy influence from the Macintosh Plus album “Floral Shoppe”. By his 2016 release, "†Nematophy", you can hear compositional hints at what would become his signature sound.
The following year (2017) he released his seminal album "One Hundred Mornings", which was one of those moments when everything — both sound & visual — all came together perfectly, synergistically even. Speaking of visuals, Gabriel also creates all the album artwork himself.
The album seems like it belongs somewhere, you just don't know where, what scene or genre from what time.
He's been steadily releasing Windows 96 albums (along with his various other music projects) since then, but none of them have been as densely packed with earworms as “100 Mornings”… and, personally, I think all post-100M material could be reduced to one really great album. That said, Glass Prism will always be one of my favorite songs and I'm not even sure why exactly. I'm kinda shocked that it still hasn't hit a million plays on Spotify... I figured I've listened to it that much on my own.
EDIT: How To See Through Walls came out a few months after posting this — at least 5 of the tracks would have been featured here, so I’m adding them to the Spotify playlist (it’s some of his best work, imo).
HOW DID I MISS THIS? Brilliant, just brilliant.