Snatcher "The Imminent Arrival of the Bioroids" 3:16

We've got another great arrangement from an album that didn't materialize, as timaeus222 adds cinematic horror flair to Hideo Kojima's Blade Runner-inspired cyberpunk thriller Snatcher! Snatcher's an absolutely brilliant soundtrack that we'd love to hear more takes on as, so far from the initial game in the series, we've only had one prior arrangement of "Bio Hazard", which is also a must-listen. It's easy to hear why this theme has inspired artists in the scene, even in timaeus's case where he ventured outside of his stylistic wheelhouse:

"This remix had actually been almost a year in the making. I'm a big fan of granular synthesis, and, believe it or not, I started out with just the very first bitcrushed pad you hear, and just layered things on until I had something; the entire track flowed out naturally from there. Although it took a while, I thought it was a very fun exercise in layering, and a great challenge in bass mixing (and project file organization; it's HUGE!). This one was so hard to mix in the bass!

Now, horror movies themselves aren't really my thing, but I think horror music or otherwise creepy or scary music is so fun to write, and that's exactly what this is supposed to be. I've never played SNATCHER before, so I did a little light research on it and decided I'd basically detail the arrival of the bioroids by writing a constantly changing, progressive atmosphere with plenty of spine-tingling, bone-chilling ear candy, and an arrangement that certainly keeps you on your toes!

I began by imagining an abandoned, lifeless wasteland, kind of like when you get thrust into an alternate future where everything goes wrong whenever it can and you just have to figure it all out all by your lonesome. Kind of a quasi-Sartrean environment, if you know what I mean. I gotta thank XPRTNovice for supplying an awesome evil laugh for me, which I used as an overdub on top of a Yu-Gi-Oh! 13th Grave monster sample for that big drop about two-thirds of the way through. So, yeah, bring your dates, and if something in here scares them, you'll be a happy yet somewhat cruel person at the same time for about 3 minutes. It worked on my Spanish teacher (who is really cool, by the way!). Who else can it work on? :D"

Right from the jump, this one's unapologetically sinister with strong sound design supplementing Masahiro Ikariko's theme, with tension dripping off of each eerie element, whether it be the sound effects, bowed strings, or the warbling synths that arrived at 1:04. Percussion ratcheted up the tension at 1:17, followed by pizz string support and a myriad of hand percussion accents at 1:30 really dialing in the film score feel. The final third of the track shifted to an even more foreboding mood before the shrill lead took things home at 2:40.

In evaluating this one, judge Chimpazilla kept it short and sweet: "Cool and creepy!" It's a must-have for the Halloween rotation, that's for sure! Kudos to timaeus for challenging himself with both a soundtrack and a genre he wasn't familiar with; at the end of the day, there's seemingly nothing timaeus can't musically execute on if he's curious about it, which makes ME curious on if he isn't actually a snatcher himself. Well, he makes great music, so I, for one, welcome our bioroid overlords! ;-)