It is said that the AG Drive Soundtrack—which features the composer of the Angry Birds theme song (Ari Pulkkinen) as well as other world-famous video game musicians with a background in the Finnish EDM demo scene—is industry changing. Fans of simple video game music might have a soft spot for this soundtrack, which was released last February.
Pulkkinen, who is the main force behind this project, believes music is “the biggest emotional aspect of any game”, and so it is only logical to enjoy it than through a compilation like this one. It sounds like Pulkkinen and fellow artists Burt Kane, Jonne Valtonen, Domestic Machine Movement, Tommy Baynen, City Cat, Little Bitchard, and Tommi Salomaa had a lot of fun putting together this soundtrack, which brings together numerous genres (from electronic, house, acid house, and trance, to alternative dance, 8-Bit, and typical video game music).
The context of the entire compilation is set within the first minutes, with the spoken explanations overlapping the first track, Kane’s “AG Drive”. This tune also sets the tone for the entire release, with its distinctive old school 8-bit soundtrack feel combined with ’80s style dance music. It is quite interesting to listen to an album that evokes, very easily, at that, the feeling of playing a video game.
Valtonen’s “They Call Me Speed (Original)” and Baynen’s “Rapid Acceleration”, for example, can make listeners feel like they are playing a racing video game, with its ebbs and flows, its tight turns, dips, and ultimate upsurge into a high finale. There are some tracks that just feel like pure dance tracks, like Domestic Machine Movement’s house-imbibed “Delta Course” or Pulkkinen’s electronic-inspired “Drive” and “Electric Mayhem”.
The AG Drive Soundtrack makes for good background music for those who work best with upbeat tracks of these genres. Some of the tracks would also no doubt make a good addition to the soundtrack of a lounge or bar. Songs from this release can be streamed on SoundCloud. More information can be found on project mastermind Ari Pulkkinen’s Facebook page.
Pictures provided by Independent Music Promotions.
First published here on Blogcritics.