Vega Intl. Night School Explained

Vega Intl. Night School
Type:	studio
Artist:	Neon Indian
Cover:	Neon-Indian-VINS.png
Released:	October 16, 2015
Studio:	The Palomo Dojo Plantain, New York City Maze, Atlanta Rad, New York City Midnight Sun, New York City Carnival Fantasy
Genre:	Vaporwave^[1] synth-pop^[2] chillwave
Length:	51:21
Label:	Mom + Pop
Producer:	Alan Palomo
Prev Title:	Errata Anex
Prev Year:	2013
Next Title:	World of Hassle
Next Year:	2023

Vega Intl. Night School is the third album by American electronic music band Neon Indian. It was released on October 16, 2015, by Mom + Pop Music. The album title was an intentional nod to Alan Palomo's other music project, titled Vega, for which he produced only a single EP. Noticing that ideas from Neon Indian and Vega were merging, Palomo decided to combine the two projects into one and retire the use of the Vega moniker.^[3]

Critical reception

Vega Intl. Night School received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 79, based on 17 reviews. Praising "the most rewarding of danceable peaks" in the album's middle section, Calum Slingerland of Exclaim! wrote, "Palomo's four-year absence has yielded a flashy, fun record with welcome diversity".

After noting that "there's plenty of Tom Tom Club and Blondie in the album's bubbly disco", Heather Phares of AllMusic said, "In its own way, VEGA INTL. Night School is just as immersive as Neon Indian's previous work and even more impressionistic, with a flamboyance that makes it a captivating standout within his own work as well as his contemporaries". Rolling Stone reviewer Renato Pagnani said, "Palomo peels back the layers of psychedelia that have sometimes obscured his work in the past, striving for a directness that results in the most crystallized – and accessible – version of his aesthetic yet".

Sasha Geffen of Consequence of Sound praised "the sequence of 'Slumlord' into 'Slumlord's Re-lease' and 'Techno Clique'", declaring that it "proves to be Night Schools centerpiece and the most concrete realization yet of Neon Indian as pure electronic music".

Year-end lists

Publication	Accolade	Year	Rank
The 405	The 30 Best Albums of 2015	2015		^[4]
Complex	The Best Albums of 2015	2015		^[5]
Gorilla vs. Bear	Best Albums of 2015	2015		^[6]
The Line of Best Fit	The 50 Best Albums of 2015	2015		^[7]
No Ripcord	Top 50 Albums of 2015	2015		^[8]
Pitchfork	The 50 Best Albums of 2015	2015		^[9]
Pretty Much Amazing	The 50 Best Albums of 2015	2015		^[10]
Under the Radar	Top 100 Albums of 2015	2015		^[11]
Variance	The 50 Best Albums of 2015	2015		^[12]

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Vega Intl. Night School.^[13]

Musicians

• Alan Palomo – all vocals; Fender Rhodes electric piano
• Jorge Palomo – bass ; guitar
• Alex Epton – drum programming ; percussion
• Ben Allen – guitar ; drum programming
• Morgan Wiley – outro Minimoog keyboard ; Rhodes Chroma keyboard ; Korg PS-3100 keyboard intro ; piano
• Nicole Brenny, Gryphon Graham, Eliza Walton, Austin Brown, John Jacobson, Kai Flanders, Lanneau White – partygoes in background
• Chris Coombs – guitar
• W. Andrew Raposo - Fender Rhodes electric piano
• Nick Millhiser – drums
• Mark Cobb – percussion
• Abe Seiferth – additional guitar
• Jason Faries – drums
• Josh Ascalon – outro noise textures
• Brandi Ullian – back-up vocals

Technical

• Alan Palomo – production ; engineering
• Alex Epton – mixing ; additional production ; engineering
• Sumner Jones – engineering ; outro mixing
• Ben Allen – additional production ; mixing
• Josh Ascalon – engineering
• W. Andrew Raposo – engineering
• Eric Broucek – engineering
• Jordan Richardson – engineering
• Heba Kadry – mastering at Timeless Mastering, Brooklyn, New York

Artwork

• Robert Beatty – artwork, design, art direction
• Luke Lanter – cover photo
• Alan Palomo – art direction

Notes and References

1. Web site: Album Review: Neon Indian – VEGA INTL. Night School . Feenstra . Gerrit . October 13, 2015 . KEXP-FM Blog . July 31, 2018.
2. Web site: Matt . Mitchell . The 50 Greatest Synth-Pop Albums of All Time. . July 21, 2023 . July 22, 2023.
3. Web site: The Director's Chair: A Chat with Neon Indian's Alan Palomo. Consequence of Sound.
4. Web site: The 405's 30 Best Albums of 2015. The 405.
5. The Best Albums of 2015. Complex.
6. Web site: Gorilla vs. Bear's Albums of 2015. Gorilla vs. Bear.
7. Web site: The 50 Best Albums of 2015. The Line of Best Fit.
8. Web site: Top 50 Albums of 2015. No Ripcord.
9. Web site: The 50 Best Albums of 2015. Pitchfork. 2015-12-16. 2015-12-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20151218152929/http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/9764-the-50-best-albums-of-2015/2/. dead.
10. Web site: The 50 Best Albums of 2015. Pretty Much Amazing. 2017-06-02. 2016-06-13. https://web.archive.org/web/20160613122005/http://prettymuchamazing.com/features/best-albums-2015. dead.
11. Under the Radar's Top 100 Albums of 2015. Under the Radar.
12. Web site: The 50 Best Albums of 2015. Variance.
13. Vega Intl. Night School . liner notes . . . 2015 . MP233.