Outside The Academy blends the superficial vaporwave aesthetic with a truly passionate and darkly charismatic soul to make a deeply compelling yet minimal sound. “Vonnegut You’re Kiding Me” is like glass 16-bit video game leveling-up music; listening to it makes you feel like you’re rising through the air to the next best thing.

The verbose lyrics lead me to believe that Melbourne-based multi instrumentalist Pawel Cholewa wrote the song while slowly perusing a dictionary. His vocal delivery is almost unsung, spoken word broken by the occasional high long wail of “It’s not faaaaaaaaaaaaaaair.” The simplistic yet dramatic music will keep you shaking your head left and right. The music is so chipper and happy, yet the lyrics are so depressing. Just look at them!

 “Outwardly, cowardly, obsequiously 
Everybody’s kissing one another’s toes
So it goes, so it goes, Vonnegut, you’re kidding me!
And I’m no troll, I’m no troll, I’m no troll
And still I have some time to plod along with you
I plod along, I plot my schemes in the midst of these risqué scenes“

“Vonnegut You Kid Me” is the a stand alone single yet Cholewa has quite the impressive catalogue of releases under Outside the Academy. Explore the inner workings of his mind below.