Count the labels, not the records. In 2012 the Frekvenci archive had 80 labels releasing synthwave-adjacent music, in 2013 it had 112, and in 2014 it has 173. The records followed: 706 listed releases dated 2014, up 65% on 2013 and from 473 artists. The scene stopped being a few labels with a long tail and became a crowd of small ones.
A year of bursts
Some labels in the 2014 table are young, some are old, and the difference is in how much of their catalogue falls in one year.
| Label | Releases in 2014 | Listed overall |
|---|---|---|
| Dream Catalogue | 28 | 42 |
| Werkstatt Recordings | 22 | 136 |
| Future City Records | 16 | 70 |
| business casual | 16 | 167 |
| DMT Tapes FL | 12 | 1,192 |
| Future 80's Records | 8 | 50 |
| Night Plaza | 7 | 7 |
| Telefuture | 7 | 19 |
Night Plaza released everything it has in the archive in 2014, and Wave Runner Records has 4 of its 5 here. Dream Catalogue has two-thirds of its listing in this year. DMT Tapes FL is the other extreme: 12 releases now, 1,192 by the end of the archive. 2014 was its early year. Its label profile follows what came next.
Dream Catalogue's first year
Wikipedia's dreampunk entry says Dream Catalogue launched in January 2014 under David Russo, who records as HKE.[2] Bandcamp Daily's later profile describes mostly anonymous artists chasing a "lucid dream" feeling.[1] In our data it is the busiest label of 2014. That is the dreamier, stranger side of the scene organising itself at the same time as the synthwave labels did. If the style interests you, the What is dreampunk? Vaporwave's dark, cinematic dream picks it up.
The family by tags
SHOW THE NUMBERS
| Year | Releases |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 33 |
| 2010 | 47 |
| 2011 | 46 |
| 2012 | 133 |
| 2013 | 191 |
| 2014 | 318 |
| 2015 | 441 |
| 2016 | 639 |
| 2017 | 819 |
By family, synthwave leads with 318 releases and vaporwave follows on 241; popwave has 83, darksynth 44 and dreamwave 20. Vaporwave grew faster in relative terms (up 79% against 66% for synthwave). Among single tags, synthwave appears on 275 releases, vaporwave on 140, synth-pop on 54, future funk on 44, darkwave on 37 and eccojams on 19.
Future funk is the number to watch. It went from 1 release in 2012 to 11 in 2013 and 44 in 2014. The style leans on Japanese pop and city pop samples,[4] and Japan shows up in the country table with 16 releases. The Future funk: vaporwave's dance floor, explained explains how it works and where it went next.
Country counts, with a warning
Country is known for 67% of the year. The United States has 155 releases, France 58, the United Kingdom 44, Canada 32 and Sweden 21. Argentina is on the list with 14, and 13 of those come from two artists, cyberlust and BBRAINZ. A few prolific producers can carry a whole country on a table like this, so read these counts as a guide to who was prolific, not a census of scenes.
Two dated events
In April, the label Invada Records, run by Geoff Barrow of Portishead, issued the Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon score by Power Glove as a neon-pink double vinyl, limited to 1,000 copies, for Record Store Day on 19 April.[3] A game soundtrack was getting a collector's edition. More of that story is in If you like Power Glove: artists to try next.
Meanwhile the Dutch producer Timecop1983 was making his own start: he has five releases dated 2014, and in a July 2015 interview he says he turned to 1980s-style music after hearing Mitch Murder and the Drive soundtrack.[5] Fans of that sound can follow it through If you like Timecop1983: artists to try next.
The busiest names
Of the year's artists, 351 appear in the archive for the first time. Spacious Sweep, from France, has 16 releases in 2014, the most by a wide margin. Next come four acts with seven each: 猫 シ Corp. from the Netherlands, Robert Parker from Sweden, cyberlust from Argentina and Idknesxwfk, whose country is not listed. Then bl00dwave, BBRAINZ, El Pedro Vidrio and Satellite Young have six. Timecop1983 has five. 181 releases are self-released. Formats: 344 LPs, 182 EPs and 123 singles.
Ten records from 2014
One record per label or name, chosen to spread across the year's families.
- Arc Neon · 2014 · Werkstatt Recordings · LPA Werkstatt Recordings album, one of the busiest labels in each of 2012, 2013 and 2014.
- Jordan F · 2014 · Rosso Corsa Records · LPA Rosso Corsa Records album, one of the year's synthwave-tagged LPs.
- Botnit · 2014 · Future City Records · LPFuture City Records, synthwave-tagged, from a label with 16 releases in the year.
- Droid Bishop · 2014 · 80s Ladies Records · LPAn album on 80s Ladies Records, filed under synth-pop.
- Evanton · 2014 · Werkstatt Recordings · LPWerkstatt Recordings again, with the title naming its subject: italo disco.
- BLUNTSIDE · 2014 · business casual · EPAn EP on business casual, the label behind the year's future funk tags.
- YAYA Instrumentals · 2014 · business casual · LPTagged vaportrap, a vaporwave offshoot that appears 10 times in the year.
- GLOOMCVLT · 2014 · Night Plaza · LPFrom Night Plaza, a label with a one-year burst of seven releases.
- Minuit Machine · 2014 · Synth Religion · LPTagged darkwave: the older gothic-leaning style, not darksynth.
Sources
- Label Profile: Dream Catalogue · Bandcamp Daily, 20 Jun 2016
- Dreampunk (used as a map to its references) · Wikipedia
- Invada to release Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon soundtrack for Record Store Day · FACT Magazine, 13 Mar 2014
- Yung Bae: Meet the Introvert Producer Taking Future Funk Mainstream · Bandcamp Daily, 24 Apr 2019
- What Does the Future Hold for Timecop1983? · Vehlinggo, 1 Jul 2015