Blank Banshee | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Patrick Driscoll |
Born | Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada | June 28, 1987
Genres | |
Years active | 2009–present |
Labels | Hologram Bay |
Website | blankbanshee |
Patrick Driscoll (born June 28, 1987), known professionally as Blank Banshee, is a Canadian artist, musician and producer from Saint John, New Brunswick. He rose to popularity in 2012 with his album Blank Banshee 0 , which combined traditional elements of vaporwave with trap music, a style now known as vaportrap. Blank Banshee's music has been described as a "balance of abstract ambience and dance-able trap". [1]
In 2010, Patrick Driscoll and vocalist Curtis “Cormorant” Ferguson (who had both previously been members of the band Shinjuku Mad) began performing live as "Blank Banshees". [2] In April 2011, Blank Banshees were featured performers on the Electro East Stage of the annual Canadian East Coast Music Awards. [2] By 2012 the duo had become a solo act, with Driscoll continuing to release instrumental music under the pseudonym “Blank Banshee” and Ferguson appearing as a recurrent guest vocalist.
In the summer of 2012, Driscoll left his Maritimes hometown, relocating to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, [3] where he released his debut solo album Blank Banshee 0 shortly thereafter. [4] [5] The production style of Blank Banshee 0 dubbed "vaportrap" helped bring vaporwave to prominence in the 2010s. [6]
The track "Teen Pregnancy" appeared in the 29/02/2016 viral video named "S U N D A Y S C H O O L" posted by "Lucien Hugues" associated with Simpsonwave [7] and again in a 2020 TikTok trend. [8]
Following the release of Blank Banshee 0, Driscoll began work on his second album, Blank Banshee 1 , released October 20, 2013. [9]
The Fader called Blank Banshee 1 "a masterwork of the new digital psychedelia" [9] and a "definitive document of the vaporwave era". [10]
A 2016 Esquire article cited Blank Banshee's musical style on Blank Banshee 1 as an example of the "direction that vaporwave has moved in, where the trap beat is emphasized and the political edge blunted". [4]
Six computer animated music videos (collectively known as 'Paradise Disc') were released in support of the album via the official Blank Banshee YouTube channel. [11]
In 2014, Driscoll began work on his third studio album, Mega , in Vancouver where he is based as of 2016. [12] The album was released October 20, 2016. [13] COMPLEX named Mega the "best release from the [Blank Banshee] project yet". [14]
In 2017 he embarked on "The MEGA Tour" a 34 date tour spanning Europe and North America. [15]
After announcing new music in January 2019, [16] Driscoll returned to Europe in May for "The Metamorphosis Tour", [17] which was followed by the release of an 18-minute "extended single" called Metamorphosis on June 20, 2019. [18] Metamorphosis was released on all major streaming platforms and received a limited run on cassette tape.
In addition to its original format, a download-only version featuring 15 individual tracks called Metamorphosis: Extracted was released. [19] The same 15 tracks were also released as a collection of MIDI files called 'MIDImorphosis'. [20]
On January 1, 2020, the upcoming release of a 4th studio album was confirmed by Driscoll via Twitter. [21]
On October 20, he tweeted a short promotional video [22] subsequently confirming Gaia's November 30 release date. [23] [24] The album was released on vinyl, cassette and all major streaming platforms on November 30, 2020 along with a dedicated web page containing additional promotional media. [25]
Gaia was supported by Chaos Disc, a series of six computer-animated music videos released throughout 2021. [26]
A new Blank Banshee project entitled Music for Menus was released February 22, 2022. [27]
On July 1, 2023, the blankbanshee.com website was updated sending visitors to a page containing a snippet of the track Time Thief, and displayed an automated toll-free phone number that played additional snippets when dialed. On August 1, 2023, Driscoll announced the release of the album 4D on August 20, 2023 along with a accompanying 4D Tour beginning in early October of that year.
Albums
EPs
Non-album tracks ("MISSINGNOs")
Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music and a subgenre of hauntology, a visual art style, and an Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s, and became well-known in 2015. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, 1970s elevator music, R&B, and lounge music from the 1980s and 1990s. The surrounding subculture is sometimes associated with an ambiguous or satirical take on consumer capitalism and pop culture, and tends to be characterized by a nostalgic or surrealist engagement with the popular entertainment, technology and advertising of previous decades. Visually, it incorporates early Internet imagery, late 1990s web design, glitch art, anime, stylized Greek sculptures, 3D-rendered objects, and cyberpunk tropes in its cover artwork and music videos.
Ramona Andra Langley is an American electronic musician from Portland, Oregon. She has released music under her primary Vektroid alias, as well as others, such as dstnt, Laserdisc Visions, New Dreams Ltd., Virtual Information Desk, and PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises. Langley played a prominent role in the popularization of the vaporwave subgenre with the release of her ninth studio album, Floral Shoppe, under the alias Macintosh Plus. The album helped popularize the vaporwave genre throughout the Internet. Since then, she has continued to release music through Bandcamp and other online platforms.
Floral Shoppe is the ninth studio album by the American electronic musician Ramona Xavier under the alias Macintosh Plus, released on December 9, 2011 by the independent record label Beer on the Rug. It was one of the first releases of the 2010s microgenre known as vaporwave to gain popular recognition on the Internet. Since then, Floral Shoppe has been considered by some critics to be the defining album of the style.
Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1 is a 2010 album of remixes by American electronic musician Daniel Lopatin under the pseudonym Chuck Person. Its tracks consist of chopped, looped samples of various songs—including popular songs from the 1980s and 1990s—processed with effects such as delay, reverb, and pitch shifting; the results highlight mournful or existential moments from the sources. It was used as an initial template for the vaporwave internet microgenre.
2814 is an English-American collaborative ambient and vaporwave project of the electronic musicians Luke Laurila and David Russo, also known as Telepath テレパシー能力者 and HKE, respectively. The duo is best known for its second album, Birth of a New Day (新しい日の誕生), described by Rolling Stone as "a late night cruise through the cyber-future dream highway."
Birth of a New Day is the second studio album by English-American electronic music duo of dreampunk producers Hong Kong Express and Telepath, both collaborating under the alias 2814, released on January 21, 2015, by HKE's record label Dream Catalogue. With the popularity of vaporwave in the early to mid-2010s, the duo experimented with the genre by not using any form of samples to compose the album, thus becoming notable for being one of the first vaporwave releases not to include such production techniques. 2814 stated that they wanted it to "have a strong sense of place"; its themes reflect the dark worldviews of HKE.
Blank Banshee 0 is the debut studio album by Canadian artist and producer Blank Banshee. It was released for free via Bandcamp on September 1, 2012.
Hardvapour is an Internet-based microgenre of music that emerged in late 2015 as a tongue-in-cheek response to vaporwave, departing from the calm, muzak-sampling capitalist utopia concept of the latter in favor of a gabber- and punk-influenced sound. Canadian music producer Wolfenstein OS X album End of World Rave (2015) and the Antifur record label are credited with having first defined the hardvapour sound. It is also related to vaportrap.
Grant Henry, better known by his stage name Stemage, is an American guitarist and composer. He is known for his video game and television soundtracks, including Cartoon Network's animated series Steven Universe. He is also known for his involvement in several video game cover projects, including Metroid Metal and Viking Guitar.
Blank Banshee 1 is the second studio album by Canadian musician and producer Blank Banshee. It was released as a free digital download via Bandcamp on October 20, 2013.
Mega, is the third studio album by Canadian musician and producer Blank Banshee. It was released via Bandcamp on October 10, 2016.
Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks, known professionally as JPEGMafia, is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. Born in New York City and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, he signed with Republic Records to release his debut studio album, Black Ben Carson (2016). He then signed a joint venture deal with Deathbomb Arc to release his second album Veteran (2018), which received widespread critical acclaim. His third album, All My Heroes Are Cornballs (2019) was released independently and entered the Billboard 200, while he returned to Republic for the release of his fourth album LP! (2021); both were met with continued critical acclaim. In 2023, he released his collaborative studio album Scaring the Hoes with fellow alternative rapper Danny Brown.
Rain Temple is the third studio album by English-American electronic music duo of dreampunk musicians Hong Kong Express and Telepath, both collaborating under the alias 2814, released on July 26, 2016, by their record label Dream Catalogue. After the success of Birth of a New Day, one of the members stated that he wanted to "leave 2814 to rest", but he couldn't as he states that the project "just works so well for us both."
Mallsoft is a vaporwave subgenre centered around shopping malls.
Dreampunk is a microgenre of electronic music characterized by its focus on cinematic ambience and field recordings, combined with various traits and techniques from electronic genres such as techno, jungle, electro, and dubstep.
Jornt Elzinga, commonly known as Cat System Corp., is a Dutch musician regarded as a vaporwave figure that originated the mallsoft subgenre. He also previously recorded as Mesektet for his dark ambient releases.
News at 11 is the fourteenth studio album by Cat System Corp., the alias of Dutch electronic musician Jornt Elzinga. Released on September 11, 2016, it samples smooth jazz songs and excerpts from TV talk shows and commercials as a tribute to the victims of the September 11 attacks. Inspired by a vaporwave mix featuring a picture of the burning Twin Towers, Elzinga produced News at 11 as a portrayal of "a parallel universe where it never happened." Initially intended to be a Weather Channel-themed release, the album was produced over the course of nine months, and drew comparisons to the themes of author Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018).
Death's Dynamic Shroud is an American electronic and vaporwave trio consisting of James Webster, Tech Honors, and Keith Rankin. The band releases a large amount of music regularly as sample-driven mixtapes under the .wmv moniker, in addition to releasing more standard mainline albums.
Palm Mall is the sixth studio album by Cat System Corp., the alias of Dutch electronic musician Jornt Elzinga. Released on 2 October 2014, its nine tracks use samples of elevator music to explore shopping malls. Following the success of Hiraeth (2014), Elzinga drew inspiration from the "vaporwave vibe" he felt in the video game Grand Theft Auto V (2013), and produced Palm Mall as his first "serious try" at a mallsoft release. It was a turning point for Elzinga's music and is his favorite release of the Cat System Corp. discography, featuring participation of several other vaporwave musicians.