James Ferraro
Ferraro performing in 2012
Background information
Also known as	Bebetune$, Bodyguard, Edward Flex, K2, Lamborghini Crystal
Born	(1986-11-07) November 7, 1986 Rochester, New York, U.S.
Genres	Experimental[1] electronic hypnagogic pop vaporwave
Instrument(s)	Synthesizer, computer, sampler, piano, vocals
Years active	2004–present
Labels	Hippos in Tanks, Olde English Spelling Bee, New Age Tapes, Holy Mountain (in the past)
Website	James Ferraro on Bandcamp

James Ferraro (born November 7, 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 related to hyperreality and consumer culture. His music has drawn on diverse styles such as 1980s electronic music, easy listening, drone, lo-fi, sound collage, and R&B.

Ferraro began his career in the early 2000s as a member of the Californian noise duo The Skaters, after which he began recording solo work under his name and a wide variety of aliases.^[2][3] He released projects on labels such as Hippos in Tanks and New Age Tapes.^[2] Ferraro received wider recognition when his polarizing 2011 album Far Side Virtual was chosen as Album of the Year by The Wire.^[4]

Biography

Artistry

Ferraro has created music since the mid-2000s, initially with Spencer Clark as The Skaters. His style has ranged from drone music and noise music with a lo-fi ethos^[7] to sound collages.^[13] His works are known for being conceptual in nature and for uniquely expressing specific modern subjects; his albums have incorporated themes of consumerism, cybernetics, emaciation, social experience, hyperreality,^[7] post-9/11 New York,^[13] lo-fi counterculture,^[7] and the collapse of civilization. His 2011 work Far Side Virtual is often credited for helping to spark the development of the internet-based micro-genre vaporwave, although he has not considered himself a part of its history.^[14][15][16]

In a 2009 issue of The Wire, David Keenan characterized Ferraro as an progenitor of an emerging post-noise music style dubbed "hypnagogic pop", in which memory and nostalgia for retro formats (especially 1980s recording technology and culture) acted as a defining characteristic.^[17][18]

Red Bull Music Academy described the concept of Ferraro's albums as regarding the "dark underbelly of masculine culture in the digital age."^[7] Most of Ferraro's records take place in dystopian environments, focusing on the consequences of consumerism.^[6] According to Ferraro, the consumerism concept of his albums came from his interest in "signs" and "symbols" and the fact that they lose their identity due to "excessive repetition."^[6] His works have been compared to theories of French sociologist Jean Baudrillard, who stated that only "symbols" and "signs" have destroyed any sort of real meaning and that human activity is "only a simulation of reality."^[19]

The sounds Ferraro uses are those that humans encounter but are not aware of.^[19] These include television jingles, cell phone ringtones and ATM noises.^[19] Robert Grunenberg of Ssense characterized the sounds as "communicational tools" between humans and electronics that are "informing, warning, or pleasing" humans.^[19] He also writes that "the shelf life of electronic audio rarely surpasses that of your average milk carton. And so, his compilations become a nostalgic sound archive of the near-past."^[19] Overall, Grunenberg analyzed that concepts of Ferraro's sound palette was that "as much as we are living under the dominance of our visual culture, we are greatly affected by the powers of our audio culture as well."^[19] Ferraro symbolized the nostalgia element that comes out of these "near-past" sounds as "the decline of American prosperity, a ghost of a once-superpower that is dying."^[19] In making an album, Ferraro says that he comes up with a "vision" or an imaginary visual picture of what it will be.^[6] He explained in a 2012 interview, "I try not to be overly conceptual about what I’m doing. You can contrive it to a point where it gets too heady. Music wise, I try to be careful."^[8] When interviewed by Bomb magazine on the subject of sampling in 2013, Ferraro said, "I sample my own sources of sounds. I use AT&T Natural Voices and text-to-speech generators so it's all original content."^[6]

Discography

References