Hotline Maimi OST was the first game soundtrack I think I ever really considered on par with the music I would hear on the radio or listen to on CD. Now I had been into videogames since I was a kid and my love of many of my favorite titles was closely tied to their music.
I thought the boss battle score in Metal Gear Solid was incredibly engaging and level music for each match in Twisted Metal II would give the stage an added layer of humor and drama, which heightened the whole experience. Even going as far back as the 8-bit thrash of the original Doom episode, videogame music has always sent a spike of adrenaline ping-ponging throughout the soft and malleable corridors of my brain.
But it wasn't until I heard the OST for this stylish and violently existential, neo-noir twitch-shooter that the idea of a game's music as an independent creative work really dawned on me. Part of the soundtrack's uniquely sticking character is the way that the tracks were composed and assembled. Each has its own mood and personality- separate from the game, but which still managed to deepen the sense of emersion while cracking skulls.
It all works because the developers got some very talented people to score their vicious masterwork. Artists like M|O|O|N and El Huervo, and even the man who would become the standard-bearer of darkwave and Italian Disco revival in the years following the game's release- I'm talking, of course, about Perturbator.
However, the individual composer whose contributions are the most consistent in my mind is Scattle. There is a brooding calm to his tracks that give them an ineffable cool. Borrowing from the lo-fi synth soundtracks of '80s thrillers and horror, his compositions explore the menacing resolve and cold, tamping of fear and regret that would have to occur in the mind of someone capable of committing the insane acts of reprisal that the gameplay requires.
Sometimes the tracks take on the mark of Euro-disco, filling the air of urban nightfall with a sooty, irony aftertaste after a rainfall. Other times the synthy parts babble and pool around reflective funk basslines like fresh blood flowing across the floor- oozing under and around a scattering of still-smoking bullet casings. And at other times, it appears that the rhythm is moving in glinting sweeps, with a fateful and deliberate pressure, like it was calmly polishing an oversized blade. For your convenience and pleasure, Scattle's tracks from the OST have been collected into a single EP titled The Takedown.
There isn't a single number that is wanting for character or purpose on this album, and you'll find plenty of intriguing sounds to liven up whatever your doing- from frying an egg in the morning, to going on a mid-day jog in the park, to trying out your mixology skills at night to further woo your partner or a hot date. Just try to ignore any strange messages that might appear in your voicemail after giving this thing a spin. They'll only lead to trouble...
