Written by: Rik
Date posted: September 1, 2022
With age comes an ever-growing list of things you used to like doing but don’t (or can’t) do any more, like drinking cider, engaging in meaningful physical exercise, or smiling.
For me, though, a growing intolerance of exposure to loud dance music isn’t among them: I used to like quite a lot of that stuff back in the day, and still do.
So I don’t really know what it is about the music of certain mid-90s action and racing games that has become so unpalatable to me lately.
[Perhaps it’s just bad, and/or not at the same level as your old albums by The Chemical Brothers or The Prodigy, because it’s on the soundtrack to some 90s computer game – Ed.]
Anyway, here are some clips from some of the most anxiety-inducing tracks in the game:
UK – London
The UK track features Big Ben (obviously) but is otherwise all garages, brickwork and traffic cones. It’s London, innit?
This music is almost guaranteed to make you feel old and the effect of the buildup captured here is to create an urgent sense of stress, as if you’ve just realised you smell gas and need to evacuate the house and call the authorities.
France – Mt. Blanc
France, though, doesn’t mean Paris. Oh no! We’re in the snow and ice, so in the ski-resort areas, but doing go-karting.
Key to this particular tune is the slightly incongruous vocal contribution, which at times seems more like a distant call for help than anything else.
Mexico – Tijuana
“No time for tequila and tacos,” warns the preamble to our trip to Mexico. That’s Mexico for you, all tequila and tacos. I know this, from when I went there that time. I’ve totally been to Mexico, guys.
This isn’t techno, but nevertheless, it’s still the kind of music that makes you think you might be going crazy. Especially when combined with attempted negotiation of the second of the two tracks in Tijuana, which requires a degree of concentration largely made impossible by the accompanying soundtrack of boing-boings and harmonica. Then the banjo kicks in and things go to a whole new level of madness.
[I didn’t turn it off, readers! I didn’t!]
USA – New York
A change of tack here, with an instrumental re-imagining of New York, New York by Frank Sinatra.
Just kidding! It’s more techno, of course, combining thudding bass with trance-y loops in a way that’s certain to make your jaw clench.
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