Aaron David Ross Compiles E-Cigarette-Themed Mixtape for New Museum Vapor Conference

To celebrate Rhizome’s first ever e-cig symposium at the New Museum tomorrow, ADR shares a mixtape of “music to vape to.”

February 21, 2014



FADER PREMIERE

This Saturday at the New Museum, Rhizome is hosting what is presumably the art world's first-ever vaping symposium, cheekily titled This is the ENDD: The E-Cigarette in Context and featuring a series of talks and performances meant to explore the rise of the popular smoking alternative and its various and conflicting guises in the popular imaginary, from nicotine cessation technique to nebulous health hazard, burgeoning economic market to aesthetic muse. There's a "lecture performance" from artists Mat Dryhust and Brian Rogers tracing the history of the technology back to its origins in the lab of a Chinese pharmacist, for instance, and a piece by Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal discussing the e-cig through the prism of Freud's theories on human desire and his nephew Edward Bernays' pioneering of the public relations trade in the 1910s and '20s. To mark the occasion, Gatekeeper's Aaron David Ross, bka ADR, rallied together some of his vaper musician friends to put together the below #VapeCru mixtape, self-described as "an attempt to form a new style of 'music to vape to.'" Stream the compilation below, and read a statement from ADR on the genesis of the project.

Stream: VAPECRU, Cloud Chasing Vol 1

VAPECRU is a community of artists and musicians born from a shared interest in vapor. As a lifestyle, a smoking cessation device, a fashion accessory or a science fiction prop, the e-cigarette has affected the lives of many in our community, and has created powerful ties across genre, methodology and focus. Cloud Chasing Vol. 1 is the first collection of music by vapers, for vapers. I asked contributors to imagine “music to vape to”, and compiled the results into an album release which coincides with Rhizome’s e-cigarette symposium on February 22nd at the New Museum.

The submissions explore both figurative and literal approaches to the prompt; Milk’s “Vaping” describes the lifestyle in detail, Yen Tech’s “Powered Up” alludes to both electric and cultural power, and Loric’s “Top of the Pyramid” equates the movement to low fat food consumption. The instrumental tracks may be suited for relaxing in vape lounges, cloud chasing in the club, or expressing the frustrations of building a sub-ohm coil…

Cloud Chasing Vol 1 begins to codify a sound that spans across demographic and discipline, uniting artists via their unique obsession, forming an intertextual collection of music to be enjoyed inside a dense, sweetly smelling cloud.

Tracklist:
1. Etat de Siege - V2
2. L-Vis 1990 - Clouds
3. Loric - Top of the Pyramid
4. Yen Tech - 쾌락 (Powered Up)
5. ADR feat. Nightfeelings - Resistance is Phutile
6. Mat Dryhurst - PRISM MOD
7. Milk - Vapin
8. Soft Circle - Kemuri Nashi
9. Ohmboys feat. VapeYoda - I got your flava

Aaron David Ross Compiles E-Cigarette-Themed Mixtape for New Museum Vapor Conference