Vaporwave has always been primarily a sampler’s genre. There is, however, a sliver of practitioners who do it with the craft of traditional composers, and prolific Orlando artist Breadbarn is one of the newest worth noting.
Just like accomplished fellow local artist Dan Mason, Breadbarn specializes in a sample-free brand of electronic pop that weaves the vaporwave nostalgia all by hand, rather than the plunderphonic approach that’s endemic to the microgenre.
Brent Barnhart — the mind behind Breadbarn — is precise, even academic, in his pursuit of the vaporwave aesthetic. “I want people to think that what they’re hearing actually appeared on the Weather Channel in 1995 or was the background music on the VHS they watched in their middle-school science class,” he says.
Breadbarn’s entire presentation exudes the genre’s hallmarks. Between the sounds, imagery and song titles, it’s all soft focus and synthesizers — and it’s textbook vaporwave. “When one of my songs was one of the most popular posts of the year on /r/vaporwave, I realized I was actually onto something,” says Barnhart.
The fact that Breadbarn’s music is created entirely from scratch, more like chillwave than typical sample-based vaporwave, makes the sense that Barnhart actually comes from a traditional indie-rock background. After years of artistic struggle there, he came to become an accidental electronic-music artist once he finally shed his own biases on the genre.
Now, after a steady stream of smaller releases since 2022, Barnhart is finally emerging with Breadbarn’s first true full-length album. New LP This Could Be Your Dream Vacation is pure retro revival, a fully rendered and instantly transporting fantasy that bottles the sonic zeitgeist of the 1980s with extraordinary fidelity. But this is no pop-radio redux. Breadbarn’s music is less interested in reviving the decade’s Top 40 than romanticizing the backing soundtracks in commercials, TV, movies and malls. In so doing, this album captures not simply the sounds but the very aura of the 1980s.
Moreover, it’s got a distinctly Floridian flavor.
“I grew up in the Panhandle and my parents managed a timeshare resort,” Barnhart says. “Hotels, beaches, escapism and gauche advertising are all themes I try to weave into my music and imagery. I’d like to think that my music is very ‘Florida.’ This album is.”
Even more than just a sonic postcard, though, This Could Be Your Dream Vacation is a plush portal to the past that immerses with stunning specificity. It’s pastiche par excellence, and it now streams everywhere and is available on Bandcamp as a name-your-price download. If you want the full audiovisual experience, check out the perfect throwback music videos on Breadbarn’s YouTube channel.
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