If I ever get into the retro video game making business, I want these guys to do all my soundtracks. Hearing this brings me back to the days of Street Fighter 2 Turbo!
Everyone loves video game music, it’s not possible to play a good game and not enjoy the music by association. To it’s credit, Ghoul Poon’s, Bastard Sorcerer, can’t be pinned to just one genre. For a few tracks, I thought it was techno, but then I realized that was only because it’s 100 percent synthetic music. Not to say it’s fake, but all the instruments sound programmed and this might be not a long shot because Shane Sanchez is a well-known DIY artist and he’s behind Ghoul Poon.
The instrumentation on this album is very clever. Shane is able to deliver some very interesting, experimental sounds with a thick veneer of indie, pop and techno. The music has a really accessible vibe, but the lyrics are perverse and weird. Imagine if Trent Reznor kept his dark lyricism, but traded in his dark music for a poppy, indie sort of sound. This isn’t just footnotes to Trent Reznor, though. Shane has an undeniably unique approach to putting his dark ideas out there.
If charming 16-bit, lo-fi, digital music is what keeps you up at night, then give this a try and be pleasantly surprised.
In A Word: Abstruse
