As a follow-up to the series of releases under New Dreams Ltd., Xavier released ClearSkies™ on April 20th, 2013 under the name PrismCorp Virtual Enterprises. Where Xavier’s previous releases as Macintosh Plus and Fuji Grid TV were primarily sample-based compositions, ClearSkies™ is mainly MIDI-based. The album as a whole is very pleasant to listen to and has a good number of tracks that can stand alone from the album collectively. The familiar sounds of rehashed stock music makes this release very easy and pleasant to listen to.

The first three tracks are very inviting and successfully establish a concept and theme for the album to build off of. The idea of delving into an artificial landscape in favor of reality is an interesting idea. This concept isn’t far from Eco Virtual’s philosophy on vaporwave as a genre: “…it does not matter where it came from or who made it, but rather that it takes you elsewhere, somewhere distant from reality.” The third track, “Menu” is a playful jingle that seems to say “Choose where you want to go!”, inviting the listener to take themselves elsewhere through the music to come. Welcome to the virtual plaza!

One interesting composition is entitled “Larry”, complete with a fake B3 organ, synthetic drums, and synthetic saxophones. This composition is a laid back Sega Genesis blues jam filled with industrial and inviting sounds, making the listener feel like they’re doing a side mission for some character in the junkyard of an old video game. Towards the end of the track, the blues jam breaks into a swing-era jazz band tune.

“Rec Virtua” is another very nice composition. It’s a 43-second jingle reminiscent of those found in in-game stores. At the very end, there’s a digital “ka-ching!” as an added ode to capitalism.

While ClearSkies™ is pleasant to listen to, either as individual tracks or as a whole, some of the compositions tend to blend together and are stylistically very similar. Only a handful of the tracks on this album really stand out. All of the tracks on this album are solid MIDI-based compositions and are a significant step forward from Laserdisc Vision’s New Dreams Ltd.. Amidst the 21 tracks of virtual reality soundtracks, only a select few are MIDI masterpieces.

Favorite Track: Rec Virtua

Honorable Mention: Larry