With his debut solo EP, Memes, Portland-based artist Mike Vorpal peels back the slick surface of modernity to reveal something far more visceral. Across six searing tracks, Vorpal blends post-punk, grunge, darkwave, and shoegaze into a sonic soup of distortion, dread, and poetic disillusionment. This isn’t just music for your headphones. Memes feel like a descent into your subconscious on a rainy night with nothing but glitchy memories to guide you.
The opener “Manhunter” pounces with serrated guitars and a creeping sense of menace, while “House of Capricorn” dives into occult-tinged introspection, wrapping gothic lyricism in shimmering dissonance. “Overboard” shimmers like early Interpol but leans harder into abstraction, echoing themes of emotional dislocation and digital overstimulation. Each track feels like a short film: moody, immersive, and loaded with symbolism.
Vorpal’s strength lies in his ability to craft layered sonic textures without sacrificing raw emotion. His vocals are detached yet charged, like a narrator watching the world unravel through a cracked screen. Memes aren’t about clarity; they’re about feeling lost and finding strange comfort in that space. In an era dominated by irony, Mike Vorpal dares to feel deeply. This EP is a haunting, intelligent debut worth sitting with.