We’re sure that most artists can agree that getting a consistent vision off the ground for a group object can be pretty difficult. You’ve got different roles and expectations that can distract you from keeping coordinated, and if you stay out of communication too long, results can vary.
But somehow, people pull it off. When they’re done particularly well, soundtracks and original scores become inseparable from the narratives that called them into existence, with people listening to OST’s time and time again without ever replaying or rewatching the original experience. As OST’s have become more available, they’ve grown in their influence, especially in the last 30… hell, 40 years if we’re honest.
People that grew up with Atari, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis now have kids that grew up with Playstation, Gamecube and Xbox, and most likely, those kids have kids playing Fortnite at this very moment.
(Tomohiro Nishikado’s 1978 suite for Space Invaders is acknowledged as the first piece of original music composed for a video game.)
Just think about how many OST’s have been made since then. Ponder the inter-generational effects they had… and hey, we’re not just talking generations of consoles here, which makes the following list an interesting snapshot of a sonic legacy that’s really only just beginning. If you want to be chronological about this new section of ours, be sure to check out the prequel to this article here.
Otherwise, enjoy!
1. Angus Bayley – Everything is Dangerous, 2024
Angus Bayley has beyond proven his virtuosic grip on slippery, unpredictable jazz and lively dynamics with his frenetic debut, Everything is Dangerous. With some expert assistance from Joshua Blackmore and Matthew Calvert of Strobes, Bayley’s first record is timeless, futuristic and old-school all at once, withsongs like “Cyriak” and “Connect” just begging to be used as a backdrop in some kind of platformer or puzzle games.
2. Alpha Male Tea Party – Infinity Stare, 2020
AMTP’s rambunctiously heavy and always grinning brand of massive guitars, quirky effects, and exotic beats came to a monstrous head on 2020’s Infinity Stare. Leaving no stone unturned, the band delivered something equal parts post-metal and math rock, but with a ton of otherworldly leads and atmospheres that had us thinking of epic space games like No Man’s Sky and Starfield on “God U.N.I.T.” and “Leather Diamond”, but late 90’s classics as well like F-Zero X on songs like “Bonfire Disaster Movie.”
3. Quadrupède – T O B O G A N , 2014
Quadrupède simply does not get enough love up here in the States, but we’re reasonably sure they’re still making music. That being said, T O B O G A N is an incredible collection of chaotic melodies and soul-soothing textures that take us our minds to Metroid Prime and Megaman, but after chugging a few matés or energy drinks.
4. Trust Fund Ozu – Faye Doubt, 2023
Faye Doubt is an absolute treat when it comes to delicious trips and tricks, featuring production work from Faye Fadem and recording from Angel Marcloid. Both of those names are at the top of our list when it comes to violently technical, slush-wave flavored madness, and TFO’s driving tracks like “ZAWA” and “CIGARETTES” have us thinking about how to mod her music into the brightly colored sprees of Neon White and the upcoming Anger Foot.
5. Coral Zero – Windwalker, 2024
Coral Zero’s debut EP engages immediately with stimulating yet serene compositions, and OST lovers of all kind are sure to fall in love with it. There’s even a little bit of sound design thrown in there, complete with a ‘soundtrack version’ of the title track – if that’s not an ideal for a chilled out RPG experience, we don’t know what is.
6. Dylan Lounsbury – Mastication 2, 2023
This collage of math rock, noise rock, jazz, and midwest emo is hard to pin down, but its prowess is hard to deny as it envelopes you in its various atmospheres. At once introspective and infectiously optimistic, it speaks to the same kind of dichotomy you see in indie games like Cloudpunk, Risk of Rain, and the Talos Principle series.
7. Joseph A. Peragine – 33, 2022
The way that that Joseph A. Peragine puts his mind to musical form is truly inspiring, and it’s always good when Chris Pennie of The Dillinger Escape Plan joins in on the fun as well. 33 might be our favorite record that they’ve worked on together, because they never teased so much midwest-emo, but also throw in a couple big ol’ Meshuggah type-moments, which had us wondering about an alternate universe where Peragine and Pennie put their spin on the post-apocalyptic visions of Dustborn, The Last of Us, or even Half Life 2.
8. JYOCHO – Let’s Promise to Be Happy, 2022
For many westerners, JYOCHO instantly gave Final Fantasy vibes on Let’s Promise to Be Happy thanks to it’s heartbreaking beauty and emotive piano arrangements. The band’s legendary guitarist Daijiro Nakagawa also peppered in unforgettable melodies at every turn, cementing the idea that the band could turn out a fantasy role-playing game OST with little to no effort.
9. Garrett Gleason and Niko Wood – An Abundance of Compassion, 2022
These two went absolutely ham on this joint-venture EP, melting down Niko Wood’s crazy fusion drums with Garrett Gleason’s outrageously dense King Crimson-style loops. If you haven’t heard it before, you’re in for a hell of weird a ride, but with OST’s getting bolder all the time (Hi-Fi Rush, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and Stellar Blade for instance), it’s only right that we find ourselves wanting to see what these two could create for a soundtrack.
10. Daydream Plus – Escape at Your Own Pace, 2024
We recently did an interview with Daydream Plus’s Payson Power, and towards the end he confirms what we knew all along – he is as inspired by video games as we are. Peep the feel-good speed runs of “Gently Technical” and “Neighborhood Watch” on their new EP Escpape at Your Own Pace and just imagine yourself as Sonic or Spyro, zooming around through hoops of gold. God, if only – check out that interview here.
11. Kaguu – Rosewood, 2020
Monterrey, Mexico’s Kaguu have a distinctly emotive style that really fits in with the 90’s Nintendo aesthetic thanks to smacking drums and chirp-y, 16-bit leads that sound like a lost OST from the Legend of Zelda series. It’s even in their Bandcamp bio – “progressive rock band that plays way too many Nintendo games.” We’re here for it, guys.
12. Three Trapped Tigers – Numbers 1-13, 2012
TTT’s most consistently spiky record puts you in the sonic slaughterhouse immediately with ring mods, flailing percussion, and square form leads, but don’t let them fool you. Numbers 1-13 is full of pensive, inward-looking moments as well, many of them disarmingly beautiful even when they’re perforated with Lightning Bolt-type beats and the noise of dying machinery. All of this would fit easily dramatic gameplay of any kind, but it feels uniquely suited for the kind of fast paced multiplayer shootouts that drive the last of the console markets, so we wouldn’t be shocked if the members appeared on the credits of a video game sooner rather than later.
13. SAWCE – Life is Temporary, Sawce is Forever, 2023
SAWCE’s progressive fusion flavors have reached a lot of interesting places, from 100 gecs to Anthony Green of Circa Survice, and you can see why pretty easily on the band’s newest album. It’s constantly shifting from one thing to the next, but you hardly notice because it gives the space to unpack. We could easily see Sawce doing something like an anime adaptation like what we just witnessed with Tim Henson of Polyphia in collaboration with the Ultraman series, but we could also see them doing something more along the lines of HEALTH and the OST for Max Payne 3 – we’d be happy to see either.
14. Covet – Effloresce, 2018
Yvette Young has pushed her style far beyond the scope of humble math rock and into the realms of something really uniquely its own, but 2018’s transportive Effloresce still radiates some of the warmest, fuzzy-est homecoming feels you can pump into your headphones. For lack of a better phrase, it’s got a spirit to it that makes you feel safe to explore, and that’s what got us thinking – when is Yvette Young going to score some kind of open-world adventure game?
15. Ssighborggg – Sugarlion, 2024
The head of Facebook’s largest math rock meme group released a wildly chill album this year, and it took us by surprise with its immense synth pads and therapeutic effects. It never stays in one place for too long, even when things feel ambient like on “PALACE//SOURCE” and “Iridescent Black Pt. II.” It would be hard to pick a flavor, but we could see Ssighborggg unleashing a lot of these skills on platform adventurers like Stray and Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
16. Makoto – New Game Plus, 2023
Florida’s Makoto seemed like a logical band to round out this list, as their most recent offering was a 2-song EP called New Game Plus, a feature everybody probably feels like they could really use where you ge to start over, but with all the experience (and legendary items) you at this moment. It’s a lofty goal, and the creators (developers?) are unlikely to bestow it upon us in this lifetime, but dream your dream. In the meantime, the EP would make for a stellar soundtrack to a racing game, or at least a game where you can cruise along the coast and contemplate this whole new game scenario as the sun sets over the ocean.
BONUS ROUND:
Car Bomb – Mordial, 2019
Given that the Doom: Eternal OST was fraught with controversies, we were not surprised to see that Mick Gordon was not returning for the series’ next chapter when it was recently revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase, although it did make us extremely sad. Gordon isn’t just a great man for the job, he’s an extraordinarily committed human being, so the visionary tricks up his sleeve will be missed for sure. That being said, when we were just spitballing who would could fill his shoes and metal-as-fuck aesthetic, we not-so-randomly thought of Car Bomb guitarist Greg Kubacki. Greg’s proficiency in melting low-tuned guitar tones into pools of interstellar ASMR is known galaxy-wide, but he’s also got an ear for atmospheric production as shown off in his side-project, Xytechra. We could see both sides of his brain serving the FPS genre pretty well overall, just saying.
BONUS ROUND II: SUDDEN DEATH
Save Us From the Archon – How Terrible, The Undergrowth’s Jaws that Tangle, 2012
Twelve years later, this melodic mathcore marvel still out-shreds, out-cries, and outlives just about everything it comes up against. While the band changed their formula and lineup after this record in 2012 and is no longer active, the Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy inspired synths and maddeningly complex guitars saw them shoot to the top of the Pittsburg underground in a very short period of time. SUFTA’s sound was probably too violent for a throwback RPG and too busy for anything else, but it’s a great example of how the effort poured into one creative medium can reanimate and continue it’s legacy in another. Without Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda’s soundtracks, we might never would have got How Terrible, The Undergrowth’s Jaws That Tangle, and we honestly who we would be if we hadn’t heard that record when we did.
Let’s not think about it. Keep your eyes out for more new stuff, there’s a lot happening!
(Thanks for playing! For more music, check out our Bandcamp compilations here. If you like us, or possibly even love us, donations are appreciated at the Buy Me A Coffee page here.)