George Clanton Doesn't Disappoint on 'Ooh Rap I Ya'

The vaporwave king is back, and he's matured with plenty of new genre tricks up the sleeve.

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July saw the release of two of my most anticipated electronic records this year, and the payoff couldn’t be more different. I was looking forward to Living Like There’s No Tomorrow, But Killing Yourself In The Process by UK house maestro Laurence Guy, so much so that I nominated it as my pick for the 5-9’s Album of the Month podcast. We taped the episode yesterday, and though you’ll have to listen when it’s out in the next few days, none of us are fond of it, with a list of grievances about as long as that album title.

The opposite is true for Ooh Rap I Ya, by the king of vaporwave, George Clanton. Whether performing under his own name or Mirror Kisses, ESPRIT 空想, or Kid’s Garden, Clanton is the preeminent vaporwave and chillwave producer for those niche scenes. Between his music and founding 100% Electronica, the label that houses so many other great genre acts, there’s no denying that vaporwave wouldn’t thrive far beyond its expected short shelf life.

If you haven’t heard of George Clanton, here’s a quick dip into his world as he presents Ooh Rap I Ya as one of those late-night nineties compilation ads like Pure Moods and Now That’s What I Call Music!:

One of the many reasons that Ooh Rap I Ya is so anticipated is that we haven’t had a proper George Clanton record since Slide in 2018, a genre-defining record and one of the best albums of the 2010s. Clanton’s work with 311’s Nick Hexum worked out brilliantly for their 2020 self-titled collab, which ended up as my third favorite record of that year when the newsletter was getting off the ground. This baby has been stewing so long that we heard its first single, “Fucking Up My Life,” an ode to the road, all the way back in 2021.

Now that it’s here, it’s safe to say that Ooh Rap I Ya meets the moment and then some. The album builds upon Slide, which saw Clanton experimenting with moving beyond vaporwave’s clichés. Clanton was always well ahead of the nineties revival, but this record hits that authentic nostalgia for trip-hop and the baggy Madchester scene unlike anything else (if you are one of the many readers who dug last week’s Pure Music by Strange Ranger, you have to give this a spin) we’ve heard.

While Laurence Guy’s latest outing is overlong and unfocused, Ooh Rap I Ya is the complete opposite. These nine songs are some of the fastest thirty-eight minutes of the year, thanks to the album essentially being divided into two halves while maintaining momentum. “Everything I Want” explodes out of the gate, full of big-time synths and genuine trip-hop beats, while previously released singles “Justify Your Life” and “I Been Young” (song of the year contender) team up with “Punching Down” for one of the most fun opening runs I’ve heard in some time.

All four of these songs are single-worthy bops, but if you’re into Clanton’s more atmospheric instrumental works like myself, the back half of Ooh Rap I Ya is where it’s at. “You Hold the Key and I Found It” is a slow-moving psychedelic number with Clanton’s vocals buried in the groove. Self-proclaimed “VaporKing / Subreal” is a true duality that plays on the genre cliches before moving into the album’s trip-hop themes. The title track and “For You I Will” close things out perfectly, with the latter featuring Hatchie’s vocals to take you to the outer planets.

Ooh Rap I Ya is available on 100% Electronica.