(ENDE296) *pastel boi - Edina, Minnesota

today is ENDE Records 7th Birthday! What better way to kick off our birthday celebrations but by releasing a new album from ENDE's longterm contributor Scott Dryman and his latest project "*pastel boi"

*pastel boi delves further into Dryman's exploration of vaporwave and a darker form of illbient infused trap music.

On "Edina Minnesota" he has created a lengthy DJ mix of original vaporwave/trap/illbient IDM/ambient compositions mixed sometimes awkwardly and sometimes flawlessly into classic, 90s electronica, alternative pop and 80s new romantic, post-punk and goth anthems.

At times beautifully downtempo beats and others disturbing ethereal, beatless noise. It's kind of like when you get invited to a party by a lonely scenester who tells you it will be the bestest event ever and it turns out to be him and his bemused girlfriend getting baked in their living room, while taking turns "DJing" from his study desk with his Sanyo Home Stereo System set up as a "sound system" facing the living room and being patroned only by his local weed customers, his polite friends and of course....you.

As the evening gets later, you realise not only can this guy not DJ when mixing grindcore 7 inches into pitch dropped broken beat records but he didn't have quite the extensive scene contact base he claimed he did on social media and internet forums....if the mostly empty house can testify to.

So you sit on a couch in the corner awkwardly listening and smiling and try to figure out how you can escape this socially inept travesty. Out the window? too obvious. Wait til he needs to piss? Wait this is the guy who once posted, bragging that he recorded a 12 hour set in his bedroom in Prahran without pissing because he just kept eating more mushrooms.

Fuck it. just wait til midnight and wave politely while running out the door for the last tram.

It's like the soundtrack to that party.

Although true to Scott's style. He just lets his creativity wander and you end up realising that The Cure actually does suit this Doja Cat type beat.

Unlike the aforementioned socially inept stereo DJ at a 4 man attended party. Dryman can actually produce great electronic music.

His love of current 21st century synth explorative styles and downtempo ghettotronics comes through on "Edina, Minnesota" in his lush production and occasionally masterful accapella cuts.

It does include moments of beatless melancholy and morosity the likes of his most well known project Crippling Self Doubt - but really that's just a bonus ;)

LINKS:
scottdrymanforever.bandcamp.com/album/pastel-boi-rip-mf-doom

ABOUT *pastel boi
Sleazy Vaporwave, greasy handed funk and Sad Boi ambiguous trap music. Pastel Boi is a project by Scott Dryman he of Crippling Self Doubt. Sort of like The Jackofficers or The Residents for the Xanax Generation.

*pastel boi LIVE AT AFTER MIDNIGHT 3 IN AUGUST 2020
archive.org/details/pastel-boi-live-at-after-midnight-3