Dozens of Vaporwave artists gathered in Montreal over the weekend to discuss the genres growing Nazi problem. Brooklyn’s DJ Karoda Night organized the event to help fight back against the creeping fascism that is slowly overtaking the Vaporwave scene. “It’s getting a little ridiculous,” says Karoda. “Vaporwave has a good chance of becoming the future of techno, but not if we let fascists co-opt the genre.”

Vaporwave is a recent addition to the techno pantheon that has seen its popularity boom over the last two years, but that popularity has come at a price. “Neo nazis across the internet decided to make Vaporwave the music of their people,” says anti-racist activatist Pericles Fox. “No one know’s exactly why it’s so popular with fascists, but if you go on youtube and search for their videos, odds are they’ll have a vaporware soundtrack. They can’t get enough of it, and that understandably pisses off Vaporwave producers.”

DJ Karoda Nite agrees. “I love making music, but if neo nazis keep using my tracks in their propaganda videos, I might have to stop releasing more albums,” says Karoda. “I don’t want to help enable their hatred. Music should be about bringing people together, not about establishing a 4th Reich under God Emperor Trump, lord of the Americas, or whatever the fuck it is that fascists are trying to do.”

Karoda’s not alone in his disdain for Vaporwave loving fascists. “I want you to imagine pouring your heart in soul into creating something, like a painting or a statue,” says music producer Ariel Hoganswarth. “Now imagine if half the people who show up to appreciate your art have little red swastika bands on their arms and tiny Hitler moustaches on their face. That’s what’s happening to Vaporwave right now. It’s terrible. We don’t want fascists to listen to our music. Most of our tracks don’t even have lyrics, and the ones that do are aren’t singing the praises of National Socialism. There is no bloody reason for fascists to like Vaporwave over dubstep or psytrance or happy goddamn hardcore. But we’re the community that gets stuck with nazis. What the hell.”

Ariel says it’s impossible to stop people from listening to her music, but she’s going to work hard to ensure that Vaporwave doesn’t become associated with it’s less savoury fans. “I’m going to be releasing an entire album of Antifa vaporware tracks. Nazis can fuck off.”