Diskette Park – Radiant Covenant
Radiant Covenant
Diskette Park
Album
Signalwave
Liam Murphy
November 20, 2024
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July 29, 2024
Tracks in this feature
Tracks in this release
There was a time when the computer was seen as a shining gateway to knowledge. The large grey boxes themselves – as well as the burgeoning internet accessible within them – was a fertile land ready to be filled with interactive educational experiences. Knowledge could be brought to life on the screen. Interfaces were shaped, illustrated and rendered to look real. Screens with a glossy and abundant texture like running water, icons looking as if embossed on elementary wooden blocks, the pages of a digital book may be worn and well-used, as if to indicate the reams of facts and studies that lay before the user. Designers seemed to reiterate the technology’s promise through its look, as if to say “yes, this is real”.
Virtua renders this sort of style in sonic form, a 6-track release from trndytrndy flies by in a 15-minute duration. It’s so brief it’d fit into your pocket, but each moment has that distinct feeling of realness. It’s a gorgeous journey through a dazzling and vibrant educational program akin to the discontinued Microsoft multimedia project Encarta. trndytrndy’s popular project fits neatly into the perennially interesting utopian scholastic offshoot of vaporwave. It sounds like digital skeuomorphism, vibrant and welcoming, in service of a radiant educational environment.
How does one make a gargantuan stream of learning resources and information feel real? What in our world feels endless and boundless? Pangea (Wide Open Sea) provides our answer as determined and slick retro synths glide over metres and metres of open ocean. A deep blue body of knowledge. Splashy cymbals hit against our vessel rhythmically as crisp vibraphone notes offer a feeling of a faraway adventure, before launching into a determined and grand melodic drive.
World Map, though only lasting a few dozen seconds, plays out like the unfurling and marking of its navigational namesake. A deep thrumming rhythm fringed with tuneful drumbeats, the variety of textures emerging from the paper like the many lands open to the listener. Again, that deep rush of movement, the promise of danger but of intellectual fulfilment as well. This sort of feeling is displayed beautifully in the album artwork, which features a compression of art, history, geology and other subjects in a recognisable collage-style, a calling card of utopian scholasticism.
As the daunting melodic phases throughout the Virtua indicate, educational prowess and growth isn’t an easily-garnered thing, requiring challenges and effort to bear results. Information Superhighway spreads outwards with its rushed and multi-layered road. Obstacles and distractions, all as interesting as the facts and information we are seeking, shine either side as we speed along, heated guitar, pristine drum machines. These elements – rooted in the action-packed maximalist style of a pre-millenium era – are augmented by warping technological yawns and bleating modern dial-up sounds when the drums pull back.
However, in this lively and edutaining world, there are still softer moments. Moments where we are able to carve out our own personal space. Popping up at the very end, Your Notebook is a touching lullaby-like venture. Resonant melancholy bells are held in place by a steady beat – save for new age noodling, utopian scholasticism keeps well within technological boundaries. Even its chord change is touching but has that on-rails feeling synonymous with early computer-aided composition. Joined after a while by a harmonica sound that is striking in its MIDI bends and evident synthetic nature, the track is beautiful, and presents a personal side to this world. As an uplifting scale runs into hallowed breathless notes at the very end of the journey, our digital world fades to black, ready to be explored at any time the user sees fit.
Computers allowed us a new way of exploring parts of our history and evolution as a species. Designers used real-looking textures and graphics to dazzle the user. This world is more real than a book, it is interactive, and it is bold and vibrant. Virtua captures this essence perfectly through its excitable maximalist MIDI style, its constantly uplifting tone and a genuine love for this once cutting-edge aesthetic.
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