A skyfall playlist

Vaporwave, a sub-genre of electronic music, has stayed committedly under the radar. It's making a 'comeback' now, with retro tunes, distorted visuals built around the climate crisis

- Arshia

Vaporwave, a sub-genre of electronic music, should ideally be both listened to and watched. The audio-visual packages serve as a throwback to the lo-fi 1980s and '90s. The sound is meant to evoke memories of the steely ambience of shopping centres and an era of pixelated Internet interfaces.

The imagery is drawn from the TV aesthetic of this era: neon colours, grainy resolution, VHS-style distortion.

Put together, the effect is of an analog dream in the internet era.

Adding to the sense of a strange, disturbed nostalgia is the theme of the newer music being created in this sub-genre. Much of it now deals with the climate crisis. Before we get to how, a bit on vaporwave itself.

"Musically, vaporwave typically involves slowing down and manipulating smooth jazz, elevator music or muzak. Artists often sample and distort commercial music from the 1980s and early 1990s, creating a dreamlike, almost surreal soundscape sometimes tinged with melancholia," says music critic and columnist Sanjoy Narayan.