''Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1'' is an album by American

electronic musician ''Electronic Musician'' is a monthly magazine published by Future US featuring articles on synthesizers, music production and electronic musicians. History and profile ''Electronic Musician'' began as ''Polyphony'' magazine in 1975, publis ...

Daniel Lopatin Daniel Lopatin (born July 25, 1982), best known as Oneohtrix Point Never or OPN, is an American Experimental music, experimental electronic music producer, composer, singer and songwriter. His music has experimented with wikt:trope, tropes from ...

under the pseudonym Chuck Person. A

plunderphonics Plunderphonics is a music genre in which tracks are constructed by sampling recognizable musical works. The term was coined by composer John Oswald in 1985 in his essay "Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative", and even ...

and

chopped and screwed Chopped and screwed (also called screwed and chopped or slowed and throwed) is a music genre and technique of remixing music that involves slowing down the tempo and deejaying. It developed in the Houston hip hop scene in the early 1990s by DJ ...

album, ''Eccojams Vol. 1'' features songs that consist of looped samples from popular songs from the 1980s and 1990s, with effects such as

pitch shifting Pitch shifting is a sound recording technique in which the original pitch of a sound is raised or lowered. Effects units that raise or lower pitch by a pre-designated musical interval ( transposition) are called pitch shifters. Pitch and ti ...

being applied. The album has an overall mournful tone and often takes melancholic lyrics from the songs it samples. Prior to ''Eccojams Vol. 1'' release, Lopatin posted a series of videos he called "eccojams" to a YouTube channel named "sunsetcorp". The album was released under the label The Curatorial Club on August 8, 2010, with a run of 100 cassette tapes. An official remastered version was released for digital download in November 2016. Though obscure, it was used as a template for the genre of

vaporwave Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, visual art style, and Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, elevator music, elevator, contemporary ...

and is thus widely considered to be influential to said genre. By the 2016 remaster's release, recognition for ''Eccojams Vol. 1'' had grown, with the original tapes being sold off of

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

for hundreds of dollars.

Background and release

Prior to the release of ''Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1'',

ran the YouTube channel Sunsetcorp. Lopatin's videos on Sunsetcorp, uploaded in 2009, consisted of what Lopatin called "eccojams", which are collages of slowed-down loops of reverberated 1980s' music excerpts and video clips taken from YouTube. Lopatin started creating the eccojams years prior to posting them on sunsetcorp because it was the type of music he could make while working at an office job. "Nobody Here" combines a looped sample from Chris de Burgh's " The Lady in Red" with a vintage computer-animated graphic called "Rainbow Road". Other examples include

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the line-up for their epony ...

's " Only Over You" for "Angel" and

Roger Troutman Roger Troutman (November 29, 1951 – April 25, 1999), also known as Roger, was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist and the founder of the band Zapp who helped spearhead the funk movement and heavily influenc ...

's "

Emotions Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. ...

" for "END OF LIFE ENTERTAINMENT SCENARIO #1". Some of these eccojams were collected and released as part of the 2009 audiovisual project ''

Memory Vague ''Memory Vague'' is a 2009 audio-visual project by Oneohtrix Point Never, the alias of electronic musician Daniel Lopatin. It was released as a limited-edition DVD-R by Root Strata on June 1, 2009. Background ''Memory Vague'' compiles found foo ...

'' under Lopatin's alias Oneohtrix Point Never. ''Eccojams Vol. 1'' served as an "elaboration on this ccojamstechnique". It was released under the label The Curatorial Club on cassette on August 8, 2010, with a limited run of 100 tapes. Its artwork incorporates fragments of the cover art for the 1992 video game ''

Ecco the Dolphin ''Ecco the Dolphin'' is a series of action-adventure video games developed by Appaloosa Interactive (previously known as Novotrade International) and published by Sega. They were originally developed for the Mega Drive/Genesis and Dreamcast video ...

'' such as "a distorted view of a rocky shoreline and a pixelated shark." Lopatin released an official remaster for digital download from his website on November 22, 2016, being available in

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

and

FLAC FLAC (; Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an audio coding format for lossless compression of digital audio, developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, and is also the name of the free software project producing the FLAC tools, the reference software p ...

formats. It was eventually removed, likely because of copyright.

Composition

''Eccojams Vol. 1'' has been described as

, and

. The tone of the album has been described as "dystopian", "unnerving, often mournful", "vast and mysterious", and "somber-yet-tropical". The songs consist of looped samples of popular songs from the 1980s and 1990s with added effects such as

and

reverb Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abso ...

, a technique derived

DJ Screw Robert Earl Davis Jr. (July 20, 1971 – November 16, 2000), better known by his stage name DJ Screw, was an American hip hop DJ based in Houston, Texas, and best known as the creator of the now-famous chopped and screwed DJ technique. He ...

's chopped and screwed technique and likened to a "candy-coloured variation" of

William Basinski William Basinski (born June 25, 1958) is an American avant-garde composer Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of innovation in its field, with the term "avant-garde" implying a critique of existing aesthetic c ...

's ''

The Disintegration Loops ''The Disintegration Loops'' is a series of four albums by the American avant-garde composer William Basinski, released in 2002 and 2003. The albums comprise tape loop recordings played for extended time, with noise and cracks increasing as the ta ...

''. Most of the lyrics isolated in these loops are lyrics that differ from "overall tone and sentiment" of the original songs and often express negative feelings. An example would be "B4", which isolates the lyric "There's nobody here" from "The Lady in Red" to convey

existentialism Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...

, which differs from the romantic tone of the original song. "A1", which stretches and loops the lyric "Hurry boy, she’s waiting there for you" from Toto's "

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

", serves as the introduction. "A2" uses a phaser effect on "Only Over You". "A3" is a pitched-down looped sample of

JoJo Jojo, JoJo or Jo Jo is a given name, surname, nickname or stage name used by several people and fictional characters, including: People with the given name, nickname or stage name Musicians *JoJo (singer) (born 1990), American R&B singer, songwri ...

's "

Too Little Too Late "Too Little Too Late" is a song by American singer JoJo from her second studio album, '' The High Road'' (2006). It was written by Billy Steinberg, Josh Alexander and Ruth-Anne Cunningham, and produced by the former two with Da Family Records fou ...

", creating "dense, compressed, overdubbed harmonies". "A4" samples a lyric from

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

's "

Morphine Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...

" expressing horror at someone taking

demerol Pethidine, also known as meperidine and sold under the brand name Demerol among others, is a synthetic opioid pain medication of the phenylpiperidine class. Synthesized in 1938 as a potential anticholinergic agent by the German chemist Otto Eisl ...

. The lyric is warped, creating the impression that the listener is intoxicated, before a

flanging Flanging is an audio effect produced by mixing two identical signals together, one signal delayed by a small and (usually) gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces a swept comb filter effect: peaks and not ...

effect is eventually applied. "A5", which samples a song by

the Byrds The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole cons ...

, is described by ''Spectrum Culture'' as "a creepy little skit so blurred in effects as to be unrecognizable". "A6" is taken from

Janet Jackson Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. She is noted for her innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows. Her sound and choreog ...

's " Lonely". "A7" is taken from

Aphrodite's Child Aphrodite's Child was a Greek rock and pop band formed in 1967, by Vangelis Papathanassiou (keyboards, flutes), Demis Roussos (bass, acoustic and electric guitar, vocals), Loukas Sideras (drums and vocals), and Silver Koulouris (guitar). They i ...

's "

The Four Horsemen The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures in the Christian scriptures, first appearing in the Book of Revelation, a piece of apocalypse literature written by John of Patmos. Revelation 6 tells of a book or scroll in God's right hand th ...

", "injecting a bit of apocalyptic dread". "A8", after an R&B loop, ends with a harsh noise, akin to a blizzard. "B1" has a bleak tone, similar to a twisted dream, before transitioning to an uplifting loop of

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...

's voice from " Don't Give Up". "B2" is a "drunken, off-key" and slowed-down loop of "

Gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

". "B5" samples

2Pac Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the b ...

's "Me Against the World". The final song, "B7", is a loop of "

Woman in Chains "Woman in Chains" is a song by English band Tears for Fears, released as the second single from their third studio album, ''The Seeds of Love'' (1989). It has been described as a "feminist anthem". It was an international success, reaching the t ...

" by

Tears for Fears Tears for Fears are an English pop rock band formed in Bath, England, in 1981 by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, Tears for Fears were associated with the new wav ...

that has shimmering effect "approaching and receding" that eventually "overtakes the words" before the song fades out.

Reception and legacy

Though ''Eccojams Vol. 1'' was released "with little fanfare", the videos that Lopatin posted on YouTube became relatively popular, with "Nobody Here" amassing 30 thousand views over several months. Music critic

Simon Reynolds Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his professional career on the staff of ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He has since gone on to freelance and publish a number of full-length books on music ...

highlighted the videos' "conceptual framework" as "relat ngto

cultural memory Because memory is not just an individual, private experience but is also part of the collective domain, cultural memory has become a topic in both historiography (Pierre Nora, Richard Terdiman) and cultural studies (e.g., Susan Stewart). These e ...

and the buried utopianism within

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...

commodities, especially those related to consumer technology in the computing and audio/video entertainment area".

Anthony Fantano Anthony Fantano ( ; born October 28, 1985) is an American music critic and YouTuber who runs the YouTube channel The Needle Drop and its tie-in website. He discusses and reviews music from a variety of genres in his YouTube videos and on his we ...

mentioned ''Eccojams Vol. 1'' in his 2012 review of

Macintosh Plus The Macintosh Plus computer is the third model in the Macintosh line, introduced on January 16, 1986, two years after the original Macintosh and a little more than a year after the Macintosh 512K, with a price tag of US$2,599. As an evolutiona ...

's ''

Floral Shoppe is the ninth studio album by the American electronic musician Vektroid under the alias Macintosh Plus, released on December 9, 2011 by the independent record label Beer on the Rug. It is her ninth full-length album and was one of the first rel ...

'' as an album that he found to be "more bold with its editing and its looping and its stretching" of music samples. According to ''

Tiny Mix Tapes ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' (also ''TMT'' or ''tinymixtapes'') is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, a ...

'', ''Eccojams Vol 1'' would lead to Lopatin's 2011

Oneohtrix Point Never Daniel Lopatin (born July 25, 1982), best known as Oneohtrix Point Never or OPN, is an American experimental electronic music producer, composer, singer and songwriter. His music has experimented with tropes from various music genres and eras, s ...

album ''

Replica A 1:1 replica is an exact copy of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without claiming to be identical. Al ...

''. In 2012, Lopatin released a box set of four

7" single In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separate ...

s titled ''Chuck Persons A.D.D.'', consisting of 30 eccojams. Each disc is designed to have grooves that would make them play infinitely. On the 2015 Oneohtrix Point Never album ''

Garden of Delete ''Garden of Delete'' is the seventh studio album by the American electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never, released on November 13, 2015, by the Warp record label. The album, radically stylistically different from his previous releases, was prece ...

'', the song "ECCOJAMC1" was included as a tribute to ''Eccojams Vol. 1''. In a 2013

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

Ask Me Anything (AMA), when inquired about a follow-up album to ''Eccojams Vol. 1'', Lopatin revealed that he had many multple eccojams in a "cryotank set to defrost in the distant future." Retrospectively, ''Eccojams Vol. 1'' is widely considered influential in

, a music genre characterized by slowing down samples from 1980s and 1990s' music. Released before the rise in popularity of vaporwave in 2012, the album would serve as a template for artists such as

Vektroid Ramona Andra Xavier (born August 19, 1992) 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 Informati ...

to produce what would become vaporwave music. According to ''

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several award ...

'' Miles Bowe, vaporware artists "mash the chopped and screwed plunderphonics of Dan Lopatin...with the nihilistic easy-listening of

James Ferraro James Ferraro (born November 6, 1986) is an American experimental musician, producer, composer and contemporary artist. He has been credited as a pioneer of the 21st century genres hypnagogic pop and vaporwave, with his work exploring themes relat ...

’s Muzak-hellscapes on ''

Far Side Virtual ''Far Side Virtual'' is a studio album by American electronic musician James Ferraro, released on October 25, 2011 by Hippos in Tanks. Conceived as a series of ringtones, the album marked Ferraro's transition from his previous lo-fi recording appr ...

''". In 2013, the music blog Girls Blood described ''Eccojams Vol. 1'', along with ''Far Side Virtual'' and Skeleton's ''Holograms'', as "Proto Vaporwave" in a post about "Vaporwave Essentials". Regarding the influx of vaporwave producers that came after ''Eccojams Vol. 1'', Lopatin expressed in a 2017 AMA:

well - the entire point of eccojams was that it was a DIY practice that didnt involve any specialized music tech knowledge and for me it was a direct way of dealing with audio in a mutable, philosophical way that had very little to do with music and everything to do with FEELINGS and im happy to see that it actually turned out to be true, that people make the stuff and find connection and meaning through that PRACTICE is all i could ever hope for. its
folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
now.

Though "relatively unacknowledged", by the time of the 2016 re-release, the original copies of ''Eccojams Vol. 1'' were being sold on

for a median cost of $250 and had grown in reputation. Kirk Bowman of

SputnikMusic Sputnikmusic is an American music community website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites. The format of the website is unusual in that it includes both professional and amateur c ...

rated ''Eccojams Vol. 1'' highly for its poignancy and found it to be a rare example of a repetitive album that he wanted to listen to repeatedly. ''Spectrum Culture'' lauded the album for "feel ngso vast and mysterious". Marvin Lin of ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' described the album as "plundering the depths of pop music and uncovering short musical segments or particularly

existential Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...

lyrical moments" to create "a simple yet wholly ecstatic listening experience". ''

Fact A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scient ...

'' listed "A3" as among the best songs by Lopatin, Fantano ranked ''Eccojams Vol. 1'' at number 153 on his list of best albums of the 2010s, and ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' named ''Eccojams Vol. 1'' the number 1 album of the 2010s; Pat Beane stated it was because, "we at ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' couldn’t get enough of music. And ''Eccojams'', of music, begat more music". In 2020, the

33⅓ (Thirty-Three and a Third) is a series of books, each about a single music album. The series title refers to the rotation speed of a vinyl LP, RPM. History Originally published by Continuum, the series was founded by editor David Barker in ...

series published a book of essays titled ''The 33 1⁄3 B-Sides'', which included a piece on ''Eccojams Vol. 1'' written by Lin.

Track listing

Adapted from the original cassette release. Samples adapted from lyrics.

Release history

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

* * {{Authority control 2010 albums Oneohtrix Point Never albums Vaporwave albums Plunderphonics albums Collage film