I haven’t heard the Simpsons opening theme in years. The last time I got even close to a hint of it was playing the Simpsons arcade game at some shitty retro arcade downtown, and the speakers probably didn’t work right because of all of the spilled Red Bull Vodka (email me for recipe) and sludge from a bar wash rag.
Despite this, I can still whistle and visualize the entire theme from memory. If I volunteered to try to blink after a meeting with the guillotine like Charlotte Corday, I would try to lip sync this opener instead.
The Simpsons have now been thrust into my music tastes in day to day life to take more of the form of Homer’s Insanity Pepper Chili balls-trip episode. This new manifestation of ‘lo-fi’ styling is breeding in the talent-incubator of YouTube, and it has a king by the name of RyanCelsius.
I stumbled upon Simpsonwave and RyanCelsius during a night-school software development course when a classmate, A.K.A. ‘Pizza guy learning to code’ tossed out a playlist on his laptop that was quickly starting to decay from “new tech smell” to “stuck to a bowling alley bar” patina. I imagine that laptop is fried and dead in a pawn shop somewhere. R.I.P.
This sad laptop was the perfect vessel to first experience Simpsonwave. It belched out that will finally be the Last Great Music Pillar of the sad, sad Marsh Music Pantheon.
I hadn’t seen any visuals yet, and wasn’t privy to the sound. It was a weird and new groove, and I loved it. It was an unforgiving homage to the chopped and screwed generation from the early 2000’s dirty south rap blended with too-smooth lounge jazz music and plenty of 808 hitting behind modern trap lyrics. It was trying to stuff every bit of drug culture music from the last 20 years into my ant brain.
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From Matthews Kitchen: Make a one-pot Simpsonwave Track:
Here’s a quick-hit recipe you can try at home! You’ll need a tool to chop and screw, but any ol’ thing will do.
Ingredients:
¼ drug-infused trap music blended (more drippy and referential the better)
1 Handful of mid-90’s rap (preferably biggie, but west coast will do)
A few sticky CBD edibles (your cousin swears they don’t have THC in them)
1 Can Cranberry Sprite
3 pcs. Jolly Rancher Hard Candy
To Prepare:
mix all ingredients in a double cup.
Master the bass levels, sprinkle over a video of a bus driving in Tokyo at night, and premiere it on YouTube immediately to the delight of professional vapers the world over.
Set concoction aside. While that simmers, find favorite 5-8 seconds of aged Simpsons loops or the most urban drawing of Homer possible (often portrayed as a drunk, or as Biggie). Add trippy kaleidoscope background.
Can be enjoyed with uppers or downers and always with a strong sense of place (you can and will get lost). On occasion, mix in epic end sequence of fake credits and crazy anime loop as garnish.
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I stopped and asked what the fuck we were listening to. I assumed it was another half-clever producer on some horrific Rap-goes-Jazz one-off, not the new center of my musical Venn diagram. Is was more insidious with its plan, not appearing to be after any sort of financial gain; Celsius can’t be seen in concert, and doesn’t sell merch. Maybe he’s too young to understand, or maybe too brilliant to care.
This was 10 months ago, when RyanCelsius was releasing his 7th compilation of the more krunk variety of his mixes called Trappin in Japan 7. He generally drops a full new remix album monthly, but all of his remixes can be found constantly playing on a loop on YouTube. If you’re new to Simpsonwave and the ‘lo-fi’ hip hop revolution, start here and parse down into separate remixes or single songs on SoundCloud.
