- Hardvapour is a reaction to vaporwave's move into fluffy ambient. (More on that here.) Aggressive, heavy and rhythmic, it's everything that vaporwave isn't, but it's not necessarily aimed at the dance floor. While HKE's Dream Catalogue holds down the fort for the ambient-leaning stuff, other outlets have stepped up as platforms for hardvapour, with HVRF Central Command (that stands for Hardvapour Resistance Front) among the best. Following his seven-part 777 series, HKE comes to the label with Heel Aesthetic, a no-holds-barred hardvapour thrashing.
Heel Aesthetic—"heel" is a wrestling term for someone deliberately playing a villain character—begins with a spray of angry percussion called "Fuck Off If You Don't Like It." It then goes on a bloody march. You could compare this music to techno, but whatever it is, it's built with materials and textures that have the feel of unpolished chrome. Everything on "Red Aura" scrapes and scuffs, while "Peach" is stacked with bit-crushed sounds. "Lamb," which would be grating if it wasn't so danceable, has white-hot hi-hats and frantic melodies.
Heel Aesthetic is more than an exercise in hostility, so it doesn't tire over its seven tracks. It's not as abrasive as techno from, say, JK Flesh or Tommy Four Seven, and the rhythms are agile. This EP is an example of the seemingly endless well of creativity bubbling up from the post-vaporwave scene.
Tracklist01. Fuck Off If You Don't Like It
02. Musashi
03. Hard v777.777 feat. Henry Wong
04. Peach
05. Red Aura
06. Lamb
07. Fashion