It’s been a little while since it came out, but there’s something beneath Violet Systems’ HOUSE OF STYLE EP that I like. Somewhere between the faulty gif compression of footwork and the capitalist desire of vaporwave, the producer has built an unhinged blend of upbeat muzak and blistering footwork, an uncanny valley in the double-time chasm between 80 and 160bpm. What could easily be slammed as a simple combination of two of-the-moment trends (well, sorta), the result is something weird — not quite that hard DJ Nate homicide, not quite the capitalist shrine of SURFING’s “Sky High”, HOUSE OF STYLE is an ambivalent accelerationism for sure, but it’s bigger than that. It’s the dizzyingly current Hypebeast denim junkies, the CDG fakes that line 5th Avenue, the kids killed for Jordans in their own communities — it’s bizarrely current, heartbreakingly real Rap-Game Consumerism — purging capital with stiff video game samples and the uncanny ambivalence of 808 snares and racing hi-hats. It’s feigned smile from the bottom, a soulful break between the last dance and the laconic celebration afterward.
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