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| Palm Mall | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 2 October 2014 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 44:48 | |||
| Label | No Problema Tapes | |||
| Producer | Jornt Elzinga | |||
| Cat System Corp. chronology | ||||
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| Audio | ||||
"Palm Mall" | ||||
Palm Mall is the sixth studio album by Cat System Corp., the alias of Dutch electronic musician Jornt Elzinga. Released on 2 October 2014, its nine tracks use samples of elevator music to explore shopping malls. Following the success of Hiraeth (2014), Elzinga drew inspiration from the "vaporwave vibe" he felt in the video game Grand Theft Auto V (2013), and produced Palm Mall as his first "serious try" at a mallsoft release.[1] It was a turning point for Elzinga's music and is his favorite release of the Cat System Corp. discography, featuring participation of several other vaporwave musicians.
The first track comprises 20 minutes of music, sampling a range of material and being characterised by an ambient style. Tracks 2–9 are shorter and feature other types of samples. All tracks reflect the ambiance of a mall, as well as themes of capitalism and consumerism. Elzinga later continued with the concept of Palm Mall in Shopping @ Helsinki (2016) and Palm Mall Mars (2018). The record was featured on an article about a "vaporwave mall",[2] and its repetition of source material was compared by Elzinga to the Wilhelm scream.
Palm Mall received generally favorable reviews from critics; its ambiance and themes led many to describe it as ambiguous in its portrayal of consumerism. Considered Elzinga's most successful release, Palm Mall peaked as one of the best-selling vaporwave albums on Bandcamp. It has been called the "definitive mallsoft release" by multiple writers, and is generally considered an influence in the development of the vaporwave scene.