Throughout the 2010s, vaporwave was all the rage, using abstracted and slowed down samples of jazz, lounge, and obscure Japanese pop music along with TV commercials and advertisements to evoke an otherworldly and surreal sense of nostalgia. Due to its plunderphonic nature, a lot of vaporwave music possesses a certain tongue-in-cheek edge that could often be construed as a satire of capitalism and materialism’s hollowness.

There’s nothing satirical or hollow, though, about Rain Temple, the third album from 2814, a collaboration between two of vaporwave’s leading lights: HKE and Telepath テレパシー能力者. Whereas many of their contemporaries produce music that’s primarily enjoyable for its kitschy aspect, 2814 eschews a reliance on obvious samples in order to create original ambient music that’s deeper, darker, and more intriguing than most of what can be found in the genre.

There’s something almost spiritual about Rain Temple, like something Blade Runner’s replicants might listen to whilst seeking a transcendent experience as they meander through the gloomy, rain-slick streets of 2019 Los Angeles. As HKE put it in a 2016 interview with Bandcamp, the duo’s goal was to evoke “a sacred place away from our current reality… a reality we can’t perceive with our limited senses.” Listening to songs like “Before the Rain,” “Eyes of the Temple,” and especially the climactic closing track “Inside the Sphere,” there are moments where you’re positive you’ve glimpsed just such a place, even if for only a moment.