Sometimes listening to music feels selfish. Why would someone make a whole album just for me? LUCID FIRE - DAY is a frequently uptempo jungle/DnB soundtrack album for a modern weirdcore low-poly boomer-shooter in early development. It's like the developer took a tiny spoon and scooped out a part of my brain with these precise aesthetic sensibilities and decided to make it a reality.
In the beginning, we're met with a relaxed muffled breakbeat panning around punctuated with some stadium organ noodling. There's a glitchy hypnotic quality that makes it very easy for me to imagine deliriously listening to this on an extended loop.
The second track is quite a lot louder. The loudness levels between tracks are a tad inconsistent, so be prepared to adjust while listening if needed.
Technical nitpick aside, the track opens with a heavily flanged breakbeat (one of my favorite sounds), some synthetic sounding slap bass and an overall chaotic atmosphere that feels perfect for the screenshots on the game's webpage.
The sound is fun. It really feels perfectly suited for the game it was made for. I feel like it would really be a blast to play with this music thumping in my ears. There's a certain low-poly chip-tune quality to it all that brings me straight back to playing those N64 games my uncle handed down to me as a kid.
Track five, Burnt to a crisp, sounds fiery. We're entering breakcore bpm thresholds. I imagine this level to be difficult. I picture playing it over and over, carefully executing gameplay with flowstate precision. One of my favorite feelings in high bpm music is that slowness that overtakes you, when you subconsciously start feeling longer rhythmic subdivisions. The marriage between that feeling and solid gameplay is inspiring.
The album is a lot of fun, but most of all it makes me excited to try Lucid Fire sometime.