Phong Tran Presents THE COMPUTER ROOM Album Review — Digital Sublime

The first few seconds of Phong Tran’s Slime Tree are a scratchy, loud cacophony of electronic sound. In this writer’s opinion it almost turns one off the song. But as the melody takes over and a light piano rhythm begins to peek through, the song becomes relaxing, almost as if one is floating with the rhythm. The electronic sounds are extended, like they are simply passing by, saying their piece and moving on.

Phong Tran is a Brooklyn based electronic composer and musician who makes up one half of the synth and violin duo, MEDIAQUEER. Having dropped on November 19th, 2021, The Computer Room is his second solo album and utilizes the genre of vaporwave, a micro-genre of electronic music that involves heavily-edited tracks and audio effects. Tran describes this album was inspired by the time he spent in front of a computer screen, playing games in his youth.

Phong Tran Uses Distorted and Recognizable Video Game Sounds to Invoke Emotions

The Computer Room contains no lyrics-- the music is entirely instrumental. Many songs, such as Peer2peer, De Dust2, and Build Order, use similar techniques of long drawn-out sounds and echoing effects in order to create what feels like sound in a void. Despite the sharp electronic and computerized sounds, the songs feel soft, relaxing.

However, there are some deviations from this pattern. One of the most significant is in the song titled Guild. While there are still no traditional lyrics in this song, the song does have two voices. Both distinguished by levels of distortion found in that of a multiplayer game with two players speaking to each other. The conversation is mostly muffled with word one can make out here and there here and there. All the while chip tune-like music, reminiscent of games such as the Legend of Zelda, plays overtop. This persists throughout the whole song until the end when the first, louder and deeper voice on the track comes in and says the first clear thing:

“Just wanted to make you laugh for an extra two seconds.”

Anyone who loves electronic music, is looking for something experimental, or is nostalgic for vintage games should listen to The Computer Room.

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For more information, go to the New Amsterdam Records website.

Images and screen grabs courtesy of Phong Tran