The World Experience

*Till Death Do Us Part: Live*  (2019)
 State Of The World

***The World Experience*** is a studio concept album written and produced by Viper Hamato released as an EP, the songs are set to be released as a full box compilation set in 2025 with Hamato's "The 2020 Experience" upon launch, many critics stated how relevant it was with the times in the United States, though the EP was conceived in Early 2018.

## Production

During the documentary of Viper Hamato's Till Death Do Us Part, Hamato is stated to be working on something new. Having completed the basic tracking of his 2018 album Crazy Cool, Hamato makes a mistake on the keyboard for his final album track "Someday is Tonight" where instead of going up in scales, he makes the mistake of going down, creating a darker sound then what was intended. Laughing it off, he eventually goes to continue with the cameras rolling on him before eventually he admits to being to distracted by the sound that he'd made and knowing that there was an idea in it.

With the previous song on hold, Hamato goes to try and get the sound sample again to match the BPM of the sound that he was hearing, matching it to 161 BPM, eventually becoming a layout of a song, the basics of keyboards were done in around 30 minutes before Hamato wrote down a few words about the track including "Bonus, Last Track, Vault" to which Hamato explained off screen that he had given the song three options when it was later completed, to either go as a Bonus Track, a last track at the end of the album or in the vault. However, during the launch of the album Crazy Cool (2018) the track was not found to be there, which fans had concluded that Viper had indeed vaulted the track. But in a later interview after the launch of the EP, Hamato had stated that after the cameras had stopped rolling, Hamato was working frantically on what would become "Crazy Man Dance" stating that the song took him a whole of only five hours to finish and have produce before he was onto the next track.

By late 2019 it was reported that Hamato had written and produced almost 75 tracks for the album alone due to the new sound that he had recently explored. Dubbed by Hamato as "Cyber-Pop" which is the blend of Synthwave, Japanese City Pop and the Hamato dubbed "80's and 90's Sound" many reviewers had noted just how well the sound and blend worked and stated "in it's conjunctive use of the lyrics it fits in a darker, dystopian theme that seemed to, at the time, be running rampant in the year of 2020."

##### **Professional Ratings**

 The Daily Telegraph
 Entertainment Weekly
 NME
 Pitchfork
 The Rolling Stone
 The Sydney Morning Herald

The Four tracks of the EP which were all released as singles talk about themes of Political anarchy, which was noted by many reviewers to be a strong note after the Capitol Attack in the US, Racism, murder and mental health. Though many applauded the EP as a very 'right-on-the-nose' album, Hamato had stated in the interview that though he knew there was going to be bad reviews, he also noted that "when you get things very right on the nose years before it happens, there's going to be some people that are thinking about themselves, and the other people effected under the same umbrella as the person, and it'll be the same as it was back in 2002." Though the EP was rated 87, many of the lower scoring review criticized Hamato for using "Political affairs to further his album sales into the billions"

However, many foundations including the Mental Health Foundation of Australia had awarded Hamato with the Victorian "Mental Health Advocate of the Year" award after the release of the single "Troubles" which showed the insight of the music video of someone suffering with Depression, and showing just how much of an effect it had on their day to day lives. The video idea was taken up after Hamato suffered with Depression after the loss of his father back in 2010 due to heart related issues, the foundation cited just how Hamato was able to actively clear the stigma surrounding Depression and just how up close and personal he was with his own struggles and able to turn them into lyrics that the listener was able to relate to.

## Release

The first single was dropped as part of Hamato's tweet just days earlier before the beginning of 2020 where he stated "Nothing good ever comes out of a new decade" before dropping the single "Crazy Man Dance" on New Years Day which got people excited for the new sound that was surround Hamato's new Upcoming Album that was rumoured to be heavily in the works. Many reviewers stated at just how dystopian-esque his music had become and that, 'upon his first two other works that focused in on Depression and Political Agenda, this one borders on the current world of events that have not changed.'

When the EP was launched, it debuted with 1.4 Million copies upon it's first week debut which became the biggest launched album of the 2020's in the United States by a male artist. Worldwide, the album sold 1.92 Million copies upon launch and eventually went on to sell 10 Million Records. Becoming his biggest selling album of the 2020's so far, and the biggest selling album of 2020, with Taylor Swift's Folklore just behind with 1,200,000 sales.

## Legacy

Almost immediately upon launch, Hamato was given high praise for the darker aesthetics' set in a dystopian world stuck between 1990 and 2020. Many had also noted that not many pop artists had made an album that was hyper focused in and around a world of the cyberpunk genre and focusing in on the small miniscule things going on in the world around them.

Musicrumours.com gave Hamato the Male Artist Album of the Year award upon launch due to the consistency of sound between songs, and how heavy the lyricism became when taken into the nature of the music that followed along with them. The Rolling Stone had stated that "Though while many artists have the charm of trying to cheer people up in a dark time, Hamato does the complete opposite, with once spiralling famous towers to the homeless situation in New York and even murders that had happened down in his street. [Hamato] knows no bounds in where his music goes in his brutal honesty of it. Though not stating once that no one would be able to handle this album, if you weren't able to handle him on his first album, you most certainly won't be able to now."

Many had also cited the new birth and re-birth of many genres on the album which included City-Pop which formed from Japan, R&B, and a newly formed Cyber-Pop which used dark and bright sounds in a clash to come out with a sound that would mix in perfectly with all of the genre's on the album. The most evident use of Cyber-Pop on the album was used in the Tracks "Crazy Man Dance", "The Skin Game", and "State of The World" which also leans on an industrial formed sound.

Hamato would later go on to comment about how much he also wanted to turn these small EP's into albums, however, decided against it in knowing his fans would have too much music to process in so little time and later on, stating that at one point in time, he would like to release the full albums that he'd once planned to have them as.

The album also went on to become the only EP listed under "The Best Quarantine Albums" with a stated note that, though an EP is not counted as an album, the full 30 feature fills in for what the mainstream pop audience is now doing to try and make up for streams, where as Hamato is only making 30 minute EP's, many artists of today are making 30 minute albums with two minute tracks. Hamato has done the opposite in the sense of making longer tracks, for a whole album, in this case, an EP.

## Track Listing

All Tracks are written by Hamato, except where noted

## Personnel

* Viper Hamato - arranger, keyboards, percussion, finger snaps, cowbell drums, vocals, background vocals, producer, Dolby Atmos Mixer, art direction, cover design
* Andrew Green - mastering, engineer, mixing at Forest Way Studios, Melbourne, Australia
* Raphael Daniels -guitar, bass, finger snaps
* Hano Hamato - Photograph of Towers (circa. 1992)

## Charts

### Weekly Charts

 **US *Billboard* 200** | 1

## Release History

Digital Download, Streaming
 June 11, 2021
(Apple Music, TIDAL, Amazon Music Exclusive)