Timeless

I’ve been deep in the vaporwave thing for a while now. City-pop, future funk, whatever you want to call that aesthetic—Japanese music from the eighties remixed and rearranged by producers in bedrooms all over the world. Chilled beats, emotional synths, all of it arranged to make you feel like you’re inside some imaginary Tokyo from an imaginary future. A gray spring day disappears when you’re listening. You’re somewhere else entirely.

Desired works in this space seriously. Russian artist based in Yekaterinburg, and for years he’s been remixing J-pop records in a way that doesn’t feel like remixing at all—it feels like discovery. His work appeals to people obsessed with Japanese culture and music, yeah, but also to anyone looking for something that isn’t algorithm-approved. He clearly loves it. You can hear it in the earnestness of every track, in the way there’s no irony, no winking at the listener, just genuine affection for the source material.

The new album is called Timeless. Songs like Sunshine City and Video Girl Yukiko and Into the Unknown do what they’re supposed to do. They get in your head. They place you in that neon hypothetical disco from a future that never existed but should have. Available on vinyl, cassette, digital—everything you could want. The cassette thing still makes sense, even in 2018. People care about cassettes.

What stays with me is the lack of irony. Desired isn’t leaning on retro novelty or performing nostalgia. He’s just making music he believes in, for people who want it. That’s rarer than it should be.