Best Physicals of the Month: April 2021
At the end of each month here on Celadon Plaza, we like to highlight our favorite Vaporwave physical releases. Although each month brings us many top notch releases, we’ll be narrowing it down to the top 3 that we enjoy the most and personally decided to buy.
Another huge month for fans of physical Vaporwave as countless longtime favorites finally found their way to vinyl and cassette. It was especially hard to choose only 3 from April, but we feel we’ve narrowed it down to the best of the best in our eyes.
A quick note before we begin: We’ve decided to only feature items that we have received on this list. There are countless physicals we purchased in April that most definitely would be on this list (슈퍼마켓Yes! We’re Open especially) but, as these items were sold as pre orders, we don’t have the ability to fairly review them until they are physically in our hands. Going forward, the “Top Physicals of Month” criteria will incorporate the following criteria:
1. The item was released between the first and last day of the month
2. The item is physically in our hands at the time of posting
Alright, with that out of the way, let’s take a look at Celadon Plaza’s Best Physical Vaporwave Releases of April!
Flavored - Pop Up!
Business Casual - Vinyl
Flavored is cut, chopped and straight to the point future funk at its finest. I’ve loved Pop Up’s discography for years, but Flavored has always stood out to me over the rest. After missing the original cassette release from Business Casual, many thought they’d be out of luck to own this 2016 gem physically. 5 years later, and seemingly out of nowhere, Business Casual surprised us all with a beautiful vinyl pressing of the unique album on April 2nd . The album was pressed onto rich, pink vinyl that perfectly emulates the color of the refreshing slushie pictured on the album cover. Business Casual truly did a superb job with giving this one another stellar physical release. It looks great and sounds even better. Major thanks to them for hooking up Pop Up fans with his first work on wax, and here’s to hoping more Pop Up vinyl is on the way.
Favorite Song: Hot!
Virtual Utopia Experience - Death’s Dynamic Shroud
100PercentElectronica - Vinyl
George Clanton claimed he wanted to press all of the extensive DDS catalogue onto wax via 100PercentElectronica during a stream last year. He may very well be on the way to doing that. Starting with the legendary "I’ll Try Living Like This” repress in 2020, the label followed up on April 16 with a surprise pressing of the group’s 2014 LP “VIRTUAL UTOPIA EXPERIENCE.” A classic example of DDS’ “Nuwrld” formula, VUE was a welcome addition to the expanding vinyl library of Death’s Dynamic Shroud fans. The album was pressed on stunning “Virtual Sunset” and “Nuwlrd Blue” and featured a huge 24x36 poster as well. Another stellar job by one of the best labels in the business. Bring on the “Heavy Black Heart” repress!
Favorite Song: GIFT SHOP
Final Transmission - 天気予報
Aquablanca - Cassette
Asuntenki is the king of Signalwave as far as I’m concerned, and seeing the finale to their Transmission series get a physical through Aquablanca in April was extremely satisfying. The label had previously put out cassettes for “Sentimental Transmission” and “Redialing Transmission'' in 2020, and on April 2nd, they would give “Final Transmission” a cassette release as well to complete the trilogy. Unlike Asutenki’s usual style of weather music and quick-jumping radio commercial samples, the Transmission series is a serene, ambient experience featuring looping orchestral melodies set with a calming background of radio static and crackles. “Final Transmission” continues the trend with over an hour long journey through a unknown TV channel, transmitting a peaceful late night aura directly to you. The cassette is simply gorgeous, with stellar on body LED printing and a wonderful obi-strip to compliment the album art. Aquablanca has yet to let me down, and collecting all of their Asutenki physicals has been a ton of fun. Check out their Bandcamp page to see if any are in stock still!
Favorite Song: PLAYBACK_REWIND
And that will close out our Top Physicals of April post! Remember to subscribe to our email list to get Weekly Physical Updates along with any Emergency updates as well, and as always, check out our Release Archive to stay up to date on every Vaporwave Cassette and Vinyl release that's happening.
This coming Friday is Bandcamp Friday, so instead of a Weekly Update post tomorrow, expect the Bandcamp Friday complete release guide to be posted instead. This will go live either Monday or Tuesday and will feature, like last month, a constantly updating table with all the big Vaporwave releases for Bandcamp Friday as they are annouced.
Until next time, hope to see you around the Plaza!