Vapourware

Vapourdoublebeatsdeluxe
Oracle, 1999

Before MSN there was IRC. It stood for Internet Relay Chat, a multi-user, real-time chat protocol based around 'channels' of interest (#melbourne, #grunge, #sonic_youth, etc) still in use here and there by nostalgic porn addicts and the socially inept. As a teenager in the mid and late 1990s, stuck in the cultural void of Newcastle, my pop music decisions were informed largely by the chatter in #industrial.

The people I met there – three of whom are still close friends ten years later – were a few years older and their tales of Sydney gigs and goth clubs inspired intense jealously. One guy had a band called Vapourware, who gigged at The Iron Duke in Alexandria. On the nights they played, the channel would be empty. I'd sometimes linger there alone or with the few Brisbane kids, listening to tracks people had sent me. At the time, MP3s still took about an hour to download, and much longer through decrepit suburban phone cables and a cheap 33.6k modem. I treasured the Vapourware tracks on my computer as much as rare KMFDM and Nine Inch Nails remixes.

By the time I moved to Redfern in late 2000, one suburb from The Iron Duke, the band had disappeared, leaving behind only two EPs. For all the marks of its time – hidden tracks, Coke vs. Pepsi references, a Quicktime interface for PC users, angst – Vapourdoublebeatsdeluxe didn't age too badly. 'Comfort' mixes a huge rock and roll chorus with a dance beat heavy on computer effects and added static. The explosive 'Biochemical' (at least I think that's what it's called, it's one of the hidden tracks) remains the most jarring. It stuffs an impressive amount of outrage into just 1 minute and 23 seconds. "Hey... I like your STYLE!," is the opening line, followed with a hoarse, uncontrolled rant about pretty, rich people. "I wanna be like you, I wanna look bored!" someone screams over the racket. "I know who you are! I can tell by the clothes that you wear!" Played loud, it sounds like freefalling through noise. I never got to see them live.