V.A. Out Run Arcade Game Alternative Soundtrack (2010)

ARTIST`````Various
ALBUM`````V.A. Out Run Arcade Game Alternative Soundtrack
GENRE`````Kitsch, Nerdy, Electronic, Italo, Electro, Techno, Retro, Moog
YEAR````````2010

A Bleeding Panda Compilation

Out Run:

For some time now I wanted to make a nerdy tribute to one of the greatest arcade games of my childhood - the glorious 1986 Out Run by Sega. I too have lost tons of pocket money trying to beat the #1 record set by some mysterious local kid but I never really made it (I was either a shitty player or didn't carry around enough cash for coins). Anyway - for those who didn't play it or have a vague memory: Out Run was and still is considered to be one of the breaking points in arcade game history. It had supreme, smooth fake 3D graphics and a great FPS so you could actually feel the speed. It had a killer soundtrack with a revolutionary twist: you could choose a song you wanted to listen while driving (a concept obviously taken for the GTA series years later). Now, today this sounds like blah, but at that time - this was really, really important and really, really awesome + this was not the only choice a player could make. While driving through luxurious, detailed European scenery, you could choose different paths at predefined crossroads. Some paths were difficult while some were easier - this is the first time players could slightly feel "freedom of choice" which is mostly why this game is so praised (also, the blond in the Ferrari Testarossa added some pluses)."At least part of Out Run's huge success was down to it capturing the fun-yet-superficial spirit of the 1980s. Previous racing games had concentrated on the more serious side of racing, with the action usually taking place in a Formula One racing car, over a series of competent but uninspiring racing tracks. Out Run was different; in a decade that celebrated style over content, the game offered players the ultimate boy racer experience by putting them behind the wheel of that eighties icon of cool, a red Ferrari Testarossa; replete with a 'blonde bimbo' in the passenger seat."

http://www.exotica.org.uk

Why no Testarossa?
I know someone who knows the subject would ask so I am answering in advance: I didn't post Kavinsky's Testarossa track in this selection because I posted it already in one of my worst compilations so instead I inserted a goofy intro from the EP that really sits well here. Many critics (including the obnoxious Pitchfork sponges that dismissed the 1986 EP because it wasn't trendy and indie enough) have completely missed to notice that a few of Kavinsky's tracks are a goddamn DIRECT HOMAGE to this very game. Ok, the entire EP is not great but just the fact that at a time when everybody was farting in torture of being the indiest band on Pitchfork's homepage, a nerdy French dude was having lots of fun producing romantic Miami Vice/Out Run music makes me say YES! I go with the nerdy French dude.In general
The kitschy selection is a mix of early italo-disco tunes, a few romantic Moog moments and some fresher songs heavily influenced by 80's sound. Many of tracks are (or were) very popular club hits at some point but got lost or were simply to stupid & too 80's to last long. Since most of the older tracks were of really shabby quality I had to unskillfully "remaster" them ha HA! I used a VST plugin called Izotope Ozone which I highly recommend (can be easily found). Since I am quite unfamiliar with mastering I just browsed through a ton of presets and chose the ones I though sounded the best?! This is my first time in using shit like this and I hope your ears don't suffer too much.

Enjoy and I will see you in October - I am taking a sunny vacation in Lisbon::::-)
Tracklist
01 James Saunders - Launch Control (1981)
02 Patrick Cowley - Sea Hunt (1982) 256
03 Trevor Bastow - Light Industrial Motion (1980)
04 Alden Tyrell - Rendez Vous At Rimini (2006)
05 Claudio Mingardi - Star (Instrumental) (1984)
06 Alden Tyrell - Mindless (2006)
07 FPU - Crockett's Theme (FPU Original Mix) (2002)
08 Yello - Hawaiian Chance (1987)
09 Kavinsky - Flashback
10 Alan Hawkshaw - Technicolour (1981)
11 Mark Shreeve - City Of Angels (1989)
12 Roland Bocquet - Epsilove (1982)
13 Droids - Be Happy (1978)
14 Aavikko - Syntaksis (2009)
15 Rockets - Future Game (1982)
16 Morgan Geist - Palace Life (2008)
17 Mux Mool - Death 9000 (2010)
18 Sebastien Leger - Saturn (2007)
19 Astral Sounds - Velvet Mousetrap (1982)
20 Colossus - Raga (1978)
21 Hard Ton - Flawless (Tobias Bernstrup Italo Remix) (2010)

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