Jet Set Radio and Wipeout. Key Listening.

Nearly 8 years ago, back in 2002, I was 11 and still withdrawing from Pokemon and Lego. Most clearly from that year however, I remember the release of Jet Set Radio on the Xbox - an unorthodox videogame focusing heavily on visual style rather than points and ranking. It follows the efforts of a rollerblading, graffiti spraying crew of mindless, mutant, future b-boys, suppressed by a new government scheme oppressing the people, taking away freedom of speech and artistic expression.

I went over to a friends house as soon as he got it - we were glued to it till sunrise. For weeks after I was there every other night. It seemed that Jet Set Radio quenched my thirst for another masterful piece of Japanese marketing. Unlike many of the games though, JSR had something I'd never noticed anywhere other than Wipeout. Music. Not produced by Sega itself, but instead sourced from real artists.
The music of JSR was, like, hyper diverse (for me at the time) and the playlist was colossal. It was played in a mix, alternating for different levels. The music wasn't interactive, although there was a jukebox option - I ended up spending most of my time on there in it in the end, switching the game on just to hear "Rockin' the Mic" by The Prunes. Click here to check out the soundtrack.



Compared to Wipeout though, JSR's main genre is "J-pop", a massively popular genre in Japan and sometimes over here with those nerdy anime goffins (goth + boffin)...
Wipeout's main genre was electronica, fitting it's 1995 release, using artists like The Chemical Brothers, Orbital and Leftfield. I had a big nostalgia trip and ended up replaying Wipeout after JSR. At this time I was probably around 14 and could truly appreciate the music, compared to when I first had a go at 6. The track I loved was "Afro Ride" by Leftfield. Leftfield were the group who's track "Phat Planet" soared the Guinness ad with the horses to mass popularity, now still heralded as the best ad ever made. I still agree.



It was Wipeout that introduced me to electronic music, from there on my dad introduced me to his vast record collection, featuring rare vinyl from The Shamen and even Altern8... Had'nt the faintest idea he liked old rave and acid.

Since then my interests and knowledge in music have developed faaar more but I've always found myself picturing Wipeout during intense tracks, it must be the feeling of velocity, or the pumping visuals. Speaking of pumping visuals, you should all check out REZ - it's another intense audio/visual treat to the senses, with a similar structure to Vib Ribbon and a visual style reminiscent of Tron.



REZ made it into an early piece of vid-art I created - mashing over 20 Youtube clips together. The vid's main clips are from Akira, Predator, Ghost in the Shell and A Scanner Darkly.