(life cycle) 生命週期 - b e g o t t e n 自杀 SIDE A

Instructions

Had to split the album into 2 parts for Scratch. This is the first part. Second part coming soon. Absolutely wonderful album from b e g o t t e n 自杀, a vaporwave artist on the label Geometric Lullaby most famously known for their story-based albums. ORIGINAL BANDCAMP DESCRIPTION: "Lay me down and close my eyes. Send me off into the night." In the final days of fall, I created a thread on a vaporwave forum in efforts to find new artists for my label: Geometric Lullaby. As quickly as it was created, it was closed. I received quite a few responses but one in particular stood out among the rest. I immediately deleted the post after that. An email from someone claiming to be from Azerbaijan, a small country just north of Iran, caught my eye for a few reasons. It seems the artist had already set up their own bandcamp with all of the covers and album names. Each without the actual music, only the text that I received in their description. You can see it here: begottens*****e.bandcamp.com The first reason this all caught my eye is that that I was sent 6 full albums, all at once, each linked in the initial email. Secondly, the imagery and the music videos. Each of the albums had paired with it, multiple music videos. These videos were eerie, haunting, dreamy, and still somehow beautiful. How this artist managed to make them so relaxing but still put me on edge baffles me to this day. Third, the text sent with the emails was so bizarre, I just didn't know what to make of it. Each album had the title listed and track names (all of which included chinese) and a block of chinese text. I am still unable to understand the meaning of this text, or the reason for the chinese language if they truly are from Azerbaijan. Some of it translates to almost a s*****e note, while other parts sound like a story that I can't quite piece together. If you can decipher any of it that may help me understand, please, email me at the label address. But also included was some of the most heart-wrenching poetry that I've ever read. If you go to the artist's bandcamp, you can read each of them right now, along with the album covers and titles. A lot of them are hard to read. They sound like someone who is in a dark place in their life. All of this intrigued me without hearing any of the albums in full, but that was when I got excited. The last reason, and most important, was the music itself. Take away all of the imagery, the poetry, and the bizarre song titles, and you still will find an amazing collection of albums. This music is dreamy and atmospheric. It is haunting and yet relaxing. It is eerie but beautiful all at the same time. But most of all, it is extremely sad. I found myself listening to every album, all 6, from front to back twice as soon as I started them. And to this moment, these have become some of my favorite vaporwave albums of all time. I even sent some of my friends a private link to listen and they got angry when I took it down a month later as they said they often went back to it for listening. The samples selected tell a dark and depressive story, set against the backdrop of unbearable loneliness. And not only are the sounds and the chords selected and manipulated with perfection (the part choices, pitching, and speed all work together so well), the lyrics that were chosen are spot on. I get chills just thinking about this collection of albums. As they go, they evolve and change, some more haunting while others like a dream of a love that never was. And so I knew I had to be the one to release them. After three full months of attempting to contact the artist with my layout ideas for their albums and such, I finally got reply. It read, "Please release. Send me address." I immediately compiled everything I needed and sent the first album off for dubbing. When I got it back, I've got to say, it turned out wonderful. Best sounding cassette I have heard in a while. My doubts about their location lessened when a mysterious package arrived in my mailbox, addressed from, where else, but Azerbaijan. The box contained only 25 copies of a J-card, each with the word "Death" scribbled on the front. I will be sending these with the first album only. I am unsure if I will ever receive anything else from this artist, so if you want one, make sure not to wait too long. Are these albums an intricate call for help? I just sincerely hope that this person is okay. They have created something unique and have a perspective on things that I can really connect with. I feel selfish, but I want more albums and expression from this individual. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I. So here is the text released with the first album, (life cycle) - 生命週期: