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PODCAST

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews

Ross Payton, Birk McBirkinson

Birk and Ross plumb the depths of vaporwave, dark ambient, and other haunted genres of music. Discover new music to listen to and find out why we"re drawn to retro aesthetics and dark music.

music music commentary

All Episodes

00:33:23

The Curious Case of the Dungeons and Dragons...

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/09/09

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we dare to enter Ross’s cherished domain: the tabletop role-playing game! We’re checking out “First Quest,” a 1985 promotional cassette released by TSR UK. The cassette features a wide variety of tracks from an eclectic collection of artists. The end result is a fascinating assortment of electronic music that ranges from upbeat and poppy synths to ambient and drony textured soundscapes. So sit down, grab a pre-gen, and join us!Check it out on

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00:43:20

August New Music: Xeeland and Nmesh

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/08/25

Support Night Clerk Radio on PatreonIt’s time for our August new music episode. This time there’s no obvious overarching theme between our picks so no clever episode title, sorry! We’re starting off with Master Builder by Xeeland, an album that takes you on an evocative journey through the horrors of brutalist architecture. Then we’re heading off to Hawaii for The Molokai Compendium by Nmesh, a richly produced and deeply layered plunderphonic adventure inspired by one of the best bad movies of all

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00:34:14

A Dungeon Synth Picnic

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/08/05

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we’re finally breaking out the summer dungeon synth. But first we ask: what even is summer in music when freed from the burden of marketing and publicity? After that mild diversion, we chat about five dungeon synth albums that could, by some definition, evoke feelings appropriate for summer times. Whatever summer is to you we hope you join us and check out this great set of albums.Outro SampleThe Awakening from The Sleeping Green by Lunar

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00:39:10

Summer Dungeon Synth? No, Summer and Dungeon Synth!

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/07/22

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon First of all, sorry for the hecked up timing of recent episode releases. Ross and I have both had family in town which makes sticking to our usual schedule a bit difficult. Things should be back to normal here shortly.Anyways! In this episode, Ross and I set out to find some new summer dungeon synth. That didn’t work out, so by complete chance Ross went with dungeon synth and I went with summer. It doesn’t matter! We ended up finding two super fun albums. Start

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00:34:14

Vibing with The Rat Man in Vermis

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/06/30

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we’re exploring one of our favorite metagenres: haunted media about media that never existed. This time, we’re delving into Vermis, a strategy guide for a game that doesn’t exist. It’s a beautiful and evocative collection of art and worldbuilding from the artist Plastiboo. We also check out the accompanying dungeon synth album by Radagast, released on cassette by HDK. Choose the nature of your flesh and then join us in the well!IMPORTANT UPDATE:

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00:37:52

June New Music: Suburbia After Dark and Vistas

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/06/16

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon It’s time for June new music explorations and in this episode Ross and Birk have once again shown up with two very different albums. We’re discussing Suburbia After Dark, a compelling sample-laden darkwave journey, and Vistas, an upbeat love letter to Frutiger Aero and all the tech you love from the 00’s. Grab yourself a copy of these albums and join us! Birk Shout-OutsNotorious Secret/Solodolo84 Sanctuary 2025Keyloggers, Cryptojacking, Mirror Neurons, Marley

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00:42:16

Seeking More Sanctuary (Sanctuary 2025 Part Two)

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/06/02

## Support TransOhio!In this episode, we’re back to checking out a bunch of great live and URL sets from Sanctuary 2025, a charity show for the TransOhio Emergency Fund organized by Nostalgia Lounge in March of 2025. We go through sets that cover everything from classic vaporwave, to house and techno, breakcore, and beyond. Join us on our musical journey through Sanctuary 2025!Artists! If we have not gotten to your set or if you have a public link to your Sanctuary 2025 set that we missed in either

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00:34:22

May New Music: celadonDREAM Suite and ZIAD!

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/05/12

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon It’s time for us to gather around the Bandcamppole and celebrate the working artists of the world with our May new music episode. We’ve once again (completely unplanned!) have selected albums that represent both the comfort and the anxiety in vaporwave. First, we’re checking out the smooth and lush classic vaporwave of celadonDREAM Suite’s sophomore album. Then we’re going on an adventure with some glitchy and eclectic space ambient courtesy of ZIAD!. We hope

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00:41:52

A Sanctuary Sampler (Sanctuary 2025 Part One)

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/04/28

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon ## Support the TransOhio Emergency FundIn this episode, we’re starting our series covering as many IRL and URL sets as we can get our hands on from Sanctuary 2025. Sanctuary is a charity show put on by Nostalgia Lounge (run by Crystal Eternal) to raise money for the TransOhio Emergency Fund. It was a huge success and featured music from dozens of artists highlighting numerous genres from vaporwave and future funk to industrial and breakcore.Remember: We will be

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00:42:54

Patreon Rerelease: Corporate Art and Vaporwave

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/04/21

Hello! We’re starting a new project this month. We have almost 50 bonus episodes on our Patreon. The goal is to get these older bonus episodes out from behind the paywall. So travel back in time with us for poor recording setups, bad editing, out of date opinions, and so much more!Original Show Notes:Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon Well friends, it seems like nothing gets us into a long conversation like the historical and sociopolitical landscape of corporate art, aesthetics, and marketing. We

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00:37:14

An April New Music Sandwich

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/04/14

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon It’s time for our April New Music episode! This time around, we’re breaking the rules a bit by discussing three albums. Your three course meal starts with some classic USPS inspired vaporwave, moving on to an eclectic selection of chill experimental ambient before finishing things off with a moving tribute to the music of Twin Peaks. We hope you join us in checking out these albums and support the artists below!Albums DiscussedU.S. Mail by opal東京Living Rooms

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00:32:05

Listenin’ To listencorp

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/03/31

Support Night Clerk Radio on PatreonIn this episode, we’re checking out listencorp, a long-running magazine that covers vaporwave and electronic music. Each of their six issues features long-form articles, artist interviews, album reviews, and a whole bunch of great art and graphic design. We read through all of them and sat down to discuss our favorite articles. Grab their digital bundle on Etsy and join us! P.S. The ‘plosive suppression on this recording is wilding and sometimes “listencorp”

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00:32:13

Japanese Ambient Explorations

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/03/17

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon You should know that this episode was divinely ordained. The Discogs article below was posted by a listener on our Patreon Discord at the precise moment Birk was listening to a related album and thinking about this episode topic. As a result, you have to listen to us work our way through the landscape of Japanese Ambient in the 80s and 90s. We talk about the music of the time and how it might have arisen from changing material and technological conditions, the

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00:36:10

New Music: Cursed Mall and Blueberries on Mars

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/03/03

Support Night Clerk Radio on PatreonIn this month’s new music episode, we’re exploring the anxiety/comfort duality in vaporwave as it appears across two amazing albums. Join us as we discuss the wonderfully anxiety-inducing Cursed Mall from AWITW and then go on a soothing cosmic voyage with Blueberries on Mars by 猫シ Corp.Shout Outsninja tape by 直子coedforeign transmission by JPEGSTRIPESHands United: Echoes of Equality by Utopia DistrictCRYSTAL PEPSI Employee Training Video (1992)"𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨

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00:30:38

Passionate Plunderphonics

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/02/17

Support Night Clerk Radio on Patreon In this episode, we’re discussing the 2024 album Passion by D.J. VLK. This amazing display of plunderphonics is made entirely using samples from the forgotten paranormal soap opera “Passions.” We talk about the show itself, the plight of memory-holed media, and the exploration of others' memories through art. This is a wonderful and weird album that you should definitely check out.Music DiscussedPassion by D.J. VLKSupplemental LinksHappy 25 Years to the Most

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00:34:06

Solarpunk Exploration

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/02/03

Support Night Clerk Radio on PatreonIn this episode we’re digging into Solarpunk, a multi-media art movement that aims to build a vision of a more optimistic future, free from the crushing doom of environmental collapse. We talk about the movement, some example media, and our thoughts on movements becoming aesthetics. So, come in from your rooftop garden and join us as we take a more hopeful view of the future.Music SampledLight Blending In - Snowy Sunset from Solarpunk: A Possible Future by Various

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00:35:24

New Music: 飑 and Apeiron

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2025/01/13

Support Night Clerk Radio on PatreonIt’s time for our first new music episode of 2025! It’s getting cold and snowy where we live so we picked out some albums that fit our wintery mood. We’re covering an amazing slushwave compilation from Mom and Dad’s Computer & 愛 as well as an evocative dark cinematic album from Dhalia’s Tear.Albums Discussed飑 by Mom and Dad's Computer & "愛"Apeiron by Dahlia's TearShout Outsafter everything by luxury noiseVAPORAISE 2024 sets on Utopia District’s YouTubeConsumer

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00:34:24

Vaporwave Stocking Stuffers

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2024/12/23

Support Night Clerk Radio on PatreonWe’re back! In this episode, we’re easing back into our recording schedule with a discussion of thirteen diverse albums spanning a wide range of Christmastude. From classic vaporwave to modern jazz, dark ambient to goth industrial, we delve into our musical stockings to uncover some new seasonal favorites.Outro SampleNull Device - Baby, It’s No Longer Cold Outside (Because of Climate Change) from GRABYOURCHRISTMASTREE by Elektro Vox Albums DiscussedHoliday

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00:34:06

The Neverending Discord Scroll

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2024/11/11

Support Night Clerk Radio on PatreonAnnouncement: Ross is going on vacation so this will be the only public episode this month. We may also miss one episode in December. Patreon episodes will continue as expected. Thanks for your understanding.In this episode, we’re getting back into some crowd-sourced crate digging. We’re scrolling back in time through our Patreon Discord and checking out albums suggested by our listeners. Join us as we discuss 13 albums that cover everything from classic vaporwave

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00:37:20

Storming the Lego Castle

Night Clerk Radio: Haunted Music Reviews ·

2024/10/28

Support Night Clerk Radio on PatreonIn this episode, we’re tossing the new music format out the Part 4444 2x5x6 Wall with Window so we can focus entirely on Lego Castle (1979-1998) by Dreamcastle™. This phenomenally ambitious concept album/experimental film explores childhood and nostalgia through the lens of Legos, video games, and imagination. A genre-melding experience, covering everything from dungeon synth to vaporwave to video game music and synthwave, it is a wild journey that is best viewed

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