Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon For the month of April we’re talking about record labels of all kinds. In our first episode, we check out two albums from Ill-Advised Records, a record label focused on dark lo-fi and similarly dark-themed subgenres of haunted music. Join us as we celebrate Halloween in April! Albums Discussed Dated - Lofi Halloween Annual Vol. 2 Dated - Lofi Halloween Annual V...

New Music: Magn​é​toscope and Aquatic Galleria Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon On this month’s new music episode we’re checking out some excellent new vaporwave albums: Magn​é​toscope by ab97 and Aquatic Galleria by platinum towers, ホテル shampoo, & midnight première. Come join us and check out some great vaporwave! Albums Discussed Magn​é​toscope by ab97 Aquatic Galleria by platinum towers,...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we’re digging into Utopia District’s 2023 Year In Review, a feature highlighting some of the best vaporwave (and associated genres) albums of 2023 as suggested by the community. Including our own Ross Payton! This kind of curation and highlighting the work of artists is so important. We had a blast checking out the 17 albums on the list that we...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we’re starting our 2024 project of trying to focus more on new releases. There’s no overarching theme or over intellectualizing, just talking about two albums from the past month or so that we really enjoyed. For our inaugural discussion, we’re talking about Dated New Aesthetic by Windows96 and KEYGEN🔐 by Crystal Eternal. Albums Discussed Date...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon We’re back! We spent January delving into the content dungeons and we’ve returned with two great dungeon synth albums. In this episode, we’re exploring the music of Cryo Crypt, the dark fantasy/dungeon synth sister label of Cryo Chamber. We discuss the first two albums on the label and share our thoughts on the current state of the genre. Stay awhile and listen...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon On our last episode of the year, we spend far too much time opining about Christmas and not nearly enough time discussing these amazing Vaporwave Christmas Compilations. Thankfully, they are all linked below so once we’re done talking you can start listening! We can’t wait to see what everyone puts out this year. Thanks again to everyone out there for another y...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon It’s a well known fact that we love signalwave, not just because it’s great music, but because it also provides unique insight into how other artists process their own media and nostalgia. In this episode, we’re exploring signalwave produced by artists in Japan with the help of 直子coed. We’re checking out one of her albums along with another from her list of r...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon The community members on our Patreon Discord are constantly posting suggestions and recommendations for great albums of all genres. We’ve gotten into the habit of digging through them every six months or so and seeing what’s there. We cover everything from vaporwave to dark ambient to hip hop to jazz. We aren’t able to talk about everything, so check the wall o...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon We love the concept of lost media that never existed. In this episode, we’re checking out two albums that present themselves as soundtracks or music to movies that never were. One album is the “restored” soundtrack to a lost horror movie, while the other skates by on a technicality because I love SWANS and never thought we would get to talk about them. Albums D...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we’re getting into Spooky Month proper by digging into genres of darksynth and horrorsynth. These are genres that neither of us are very familiar with, so as is tradition on the show we ended up picking two very different albums. Join us as we explore the range these genres offer from primal metal to cinema-inspired synths. Albums Discussed Zyt...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we’re checking out Hearts of Space, a long-running ambient radio program hosted by Stephen Hill. We talk about our personal experience listening to the show, discuss the wide range of music played over the past fifty years, and the importance of curation and sharing of niche genres of art. Music Sampled Ojas – “Light Dreams” from "HEARTS OF SPA...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we’re heading into Fall with some easy listening vaporwave from artists we discovered on our Vaporwave Up and Comers 2023 episode. Join us as we check out the music of Notorious Secret and Cinematic Sequences. Both albums are killer examples of the evocative power of late night lo-fi. Music Discussed Secrets of The Night by Notorious Secret Una...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we’re heading into the end of summer with two recent releases from artists we love. Join us as we check out the latest albums from Blank Banshee and 2 Mello. No clever meta commentary. Just great music. Music Discussed PHD - PORTABLE HEADPHONE DANCEFLOOR by 2 Mello 4D by Blank Banshee Additional Links 2 Mello - PHD - PORTABLE HEADPHONE DANCEFLO...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon Accidental record label month both continues and concludes with the music of VILL4IN Records, a record label that focuses on releasing independent and experimental vaporwave-adjacent music from barber beats to sovietwave to slushy and cosmic ambient. In this episode, we highlight two albums that demonstrate the eclectic range of music available on VILL4IN Recor...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we’re digging into the music of Eighth Tower Records, a record label that focuses on “dark music and fiction.” We selected albums that were inspired by influential horror artists, Zdzisław Beksiński and Lucio Fulci. While they worked with very different mediums their art shares a similar abstract nightmare aesthetic and pessimistic worldview. C...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon We’ve often lamented that it can be difficult to keep up with everything happening in a scene, especially one that is as actively evolving as vaporwave. Thankfully, Halcyon Tapes just released their “Vaporwave Up & Comers 2023” compilation. We spend this episode working through all ninety minutes of this jam-packed album featuring dozens of amazing artists. Gra...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we’re exploring the world of Folktronica, a genre that unsurprisingly features traditional folk instrumentation set against the rhythms and timbre of synth-driven electronica. To top it all off, it’s a genre that we know nothing about! So join us as we dig into two amazing albums and try to educate ourselves on this elusive and eclectic genre....

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon The K-Mart tapes are a collection of 56 cassette tapes that were used to provide in-store music and announcements in the late 80s and early 90s. They were kept and archived by K-Mart employee Mark Davis who uploaded them to archive.org in 2015. These tapes provided a treasure trove of muzak and corporate samples for plunderphonics artists to dig into. In this e...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon Summertime is for summer jams, so in this episode we’re checking out two recent albums from podcast favorites luxury elite and Limousine. Both albums, while being very different stylistically, capture particular emotional resonances that we both strongly associate with the summer experience. Join us in checking out these albums. We hope they land as strongly wi...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we’re revisiting Signalwave, one of our favorite subgenres of haunted music. Specifically, we’re discussing the evolution of the genre as more new releases focus on the music and media of the late-90s/early-00s. Join us as we compare an absolute classic 2017 album to an equally excellent 2023 release and discuss their evolving aesthetics. Music...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon Virtual reality, despite its recent success, has been a perennial retro technology for the majority of our lives. It represents a technological future that may never arrive and a past that never really happened. The hauntological nature of virtual reality makes it a perfect companion to vaporwave! In this episode, we explore this connection and discuss work by...

The Music of Terror Vision Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon The folks at Terror Vision, a boutique shop focused on preserving obscure genre films, recently released Copperhead, an early direct-to-video film made by Ross’s parents, on blu-ray. This release includes a restored version of the original soundtrack on LP and Cassette. To celebrate, we’re discussing the music of Copperhead and Neon M...

Architectural Horror and Vaporwave Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we delve into the topic of architectural horror and its connection to vaporwave and other genres of haunted music. We explore the shared themes of disorientation, nostalgia, and the uncanny in both genres, uncovering the ways in which they use visual language, liminal spaces, and atmosphere to evoke powerful e...

Spring 2023 Discord Recommendations Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon It’s that time of year again. It’s our biannual Discord extravaganza. We selected almost 20 pieces of music recommended by our patrons on the Night Clerk Radio Discord over the past few months and spent this episode going over them. We cover everything from vaporwave to jazz rock to black metal covers, so join us and check ou...

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon This week, we’re digging into the music of Realm and Ritual, an anti-fascist record label from Boston that focuses on cassette and other physical media releases of dungeon synth and black metal. For this episode, we focused on two dungeon synth albums that range in mood from somber isolation to harsh noisy discomfort. Connect with Realm and Ritual Realm and Rit...