Humanity has spent hundreds of years pondering the concept that we most likely aren’t the one clever lifeforms within the universe. The Fermi paradox means that regardless of there being no conclusive proof of extraterrestrial life, possibly it’s merely hidden amongst the 200 billion trillion stars within the universe.
The larger query, although, at the very least to synth participant and document producer Danalogue, is how superior these lifeforms would should be to go their time enjoying sports activities in purpose-built house stations. Danalogue has spent an excessive amount of time wrapping his head round this query whereas engaged on the soundtrack for a online game, which could sound fairly bizarre however completely is sensible when the sport he’s engaged on is C-Smash VRS, a futuristic sports activities recreation for the PSVR2 combining squash, house stations and a complete lot of atmospheric synth.
“I like the thought of the sport being on an area station, and I used to be pondering: ‘how distant we’re from not simply having an area station that’s sensible for scientific issues, however the place you’ve obtained sufficient technical prowess to construct this large squash court docket in house?’” Danalogue laughs down a telephone line to NME.
The idea of C-Smash VRS is so wild you’d be forgiven for pondering it was dreamed up through the experimental period of Dreamcast video games equivalent to House Channel 5, Lack of Love and Kenji Eno’s D2. It was, in actual fact. C-Smash VRS is a modern-day reimagining of the arcade recreation Cosmic Smash, and the results of author and director Jörg Tittel’s obsession with the unique recreation and all issues Sega. The addition of VR solely enhances the otherworldly expertise.
Danalogue. Credit score: Press
The pair met after Danalogue licensed a monitor from his electronica jazz band, Comet is Coming, for Tittel’s recreation The Final Employee. After a load of conferences the place they bonded over a shared love of video video games and music, Tittel advised Danalogue about his mammoth assortment of online game soundtracks. Danalogue says he was blown away after studying there was a marketplace for online game soundtracks, and was intrigued by the thought of writing music for a recreation.
“It was actually thrilling to me as a result of I’d by no means considered releasing music as a recreation soundtrack,” he explains. “However given I’ve this huge historical past of enjoying video video games as a child, we each actually clicked and when he requested me to jot down music for the sport it was an entire no-brainer.”
Danalogue has amassed a stable choice of analogue synths over time he’s spent enjoying with Comet is Coming and his digital duo Soccer96, with Roland 303s, Junos, Jupiters, and a trusty SH-101 forming the foundations for C-Smash VRS. Whereas the music he’s written will sound acquainted to followers of Comet is Coming and Soccer96, the heavy use of a Roland TR-808 drum machine shakes issues up sufficient to create a singular sonic palette for the sport. “That’s the primary departure, actually,” he says. “There’s just one monitor on the soundtrack I did with dwell drums.”
C-Smash VRS. Credit score: Wolf Wooden Interactive
And as you may think, Danalogue’s constructed a reasonably robust community of music contacts by the 15 years he’s spent touring and performing, so why not use C-Smash VRS as a chance to deliver collectively a bunch of musicians who would by no means see their names side-by-side on a undertaking except it was in essentially the most extraordinary circumstances: just like the soundtrack for a recreation the place you play squash in house.
The tip result’s a cosmic soundtrack that includes a number of the hottest names in underground music, together with Brainfeeder-signed Salami Rose Jo Lewis, post-punk band Snapped Ankles, Phil MFU (ex-Vanishing Twin), Night time Tapes’ drummer Max Doohan and Terracassette. They lent their skills in varied methods, from co-writing and engineering tracks to, within the case of Salami Rose Jo Lewis, having each chromatic observe in her vocal vary recorded and laid throughout a keyboard as a customized choir synth.
C-Smash VRS. Credit score: Wolf Wooden Interactive
Danalogue and his eclectic entourage of musicians aren’t the one ones writing music for C-Smash VRS, although. Danalogue’s joined by co-composer and techno legend, Ken Ishii, whose written new tracks for the sport after he was launched to Tittel by his good friend James Mielke – though they quickly found they’d met 20 years earlier when Tittel interviewed Ishii whereas he was working as a journalist for US Official Dreamcast Journal.
Ishii’s contributions to C-Smash VRS are the techno cherry on prime of a cosmic cake bursting with electronica and membership music flavours. Think about the elements in that cake are the soundtracks for Rez, Tunic, Hotline Miami, Fez, Streets of Rage, Ecco the Dolphin and Kaze No Notam and also you’ve obtained an honest concept of how scrumptious the whole lot sounds.
C-Smash VRS. Credit score: Wolf Wooden Interactive
All of this works as a result of there’s a powerful hyperlink between membership music and video video games, one thing which Ishii credit to the early sounds of ‘70s arcade video games like Taito’s House Invaders and Atari’s Circus inspiring digital pioneers equivalent to Yellow Magic Orchestra, which in flip impressed a complete technology of DJs and producers (together with Ishii). “I feel [club music and video games] are like twins in a manner,” he explains over electronic mail. “I used to be significantly into that first technology of video video games in my childhood, and I had an implanted conception, like ‘video video games equal digital music.’”
After all, Ishii is actually no stranger to the world of video video games. Through the years, he’s pumped out techno tunes for a protracted listing of titles together with Rez, Lumines and LSD: Dream Emulator, to not point out his work producing remix albums such because the hilariously heavy Tekken 3: Seven Remixes album.
That stated, the music that Ishii has written for C-Smash VRS is considerably of a departure from the darkish techno sound the producer is greatest identified for. It is a VR recreation, in any case, and if this was Ishii at his heaviest, anybody fighting movement illness would additionally should take care of the specter of an existential disaster after being pummelled by an onslaught of heavy techno and squash balls in a digital house station.
That’s to not say Ishii’s music lacks power. Spend half-hour listening to ‘Warp’, a brand new monitor he’s written for the sport you’ll be able to take heed to above, and also you’ll be sweating simply as a lot as a 30-minute session of swatting digital squash balls. However relatively than incorporating his conventional techno fashion, Tittel directed Ishii by offering him with visions and tales for particular person scenes, giving him a number of requests that Ishii says “aren’t listed within the principle of constructing techno.”
“It was largely phrases expressing one thing summary. No point out of BPMs, monitor lengths, keys, or ups and downs,” he explains. “He didn’t at all times need a typical techno fashion so the outcomes are distinctive and extra various. It wasn’t simple generally however I did get pleasure from all elements of the method and noticed this as a brand new problem.”
Equally, Danalogue took an summary strategy to the sport’s rating – and we’re not simply speaking about him grappling with the philosophical debate surrounding the Fermi paradox. Fairly than attempting to jot down music round a selected style, Danalogue needed to seize three particular feelings that mirror the enjoyment of his personal gaming experiences and greatest seize the essence of the C-Smash VRS: the brave and hopeful side of triumph, the high-stakes depth of competitors, and the upbeat power of athleticism (as a result of should you’ve performed the demo of C-Smash VRS, you’ll respect how a lot of a exercise it’s).
“Each stage I’ve been writing music for, I’ve written 5 tracks,” he says. “We’re utilizing the identical sounds, however they get extra intense as the extent goes on. I went a bit overboard with it – as a substitute of simply writing one monitor and build up the drums I’ve primarily ended up with 25 tracks! I feel there’ll be parts to it the place sure bits can get looped or will play within the foyer earlier than you go into the extent, and there will likely be bits the place while you full the extent the music harkens again to different bits.”
The mixed musical efforts of Ishii, Danalogue and quite a few different collaborators coupled with the slick design work of Cory Schmitz and the emphatic course and keenness from Tittel means C-Smash VRS is an audible and visible delight that anybody who’s a fan of quirky Dreamcast video games gained’t need to miss. And should you can’t deal with the depth of a VR sports activities recreation, you’ll be able to whack in your headset, sit down within the foyer and let the music transport you to a different world.
C-Smash VRS is about to launch for PSVR2 on June 23, 2023.