[1]
With each new streaming music service that launches I always have a poke around to see what they consider to be popular video game fare. The results are usually spectacularly disappointing. A handful of Halo. Some licensed rock and rap tracks that featured in a Tony Hawk game. A playlist of pop music from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Now that Songza has been folded into Google Play Music, and with a time consuming project unfolding at work, I decided to have a poke around.
I wish I could tell you what I typed in to find it but at the hands of Google’s search algorithm I was deposited in front of the Aperture Science Psychoacoustic Laboratories [2] station. True to its name there’s plenty of Portal 2’s excellent soundtrack in store but it also serves as a good sampling of the modern video game music scene. If it weren’t for a few tracks from Mass Effect and Portal I’d even call this the Indie Video Game Music station.
There’s a good mix of albums and artists here with a focus on atmospheric EDM stuff. Fez, Minecraft, Frozen Synapse and Sword & Sworcery mingle with the peppier sounds of PPPPPP, Super Hexagon and Scott Pilgrim: The Game. Every now and then you get a nice acoustic/orchestral break with Bastion, The Banner Saga, Thomas Was Alone and Trine 2. Rounding out the mix is a helping of original tracks from artists including Anamanaguchi, Big Giant Circles and Chipzel.
It’s been a nice backdrop for my work lately and I really appreciate that it never goes to extremes causing me to scramble for the skip button. Did I mention it’s free, streaming and available from your Android or iOS device? Check it out [2] the next time you find yourself itching for a new playlist.