2024 Music Enjoyer Pt. 6
Ocean Planet Paradise // Dolphin Rally Race Finals
Coming to you live from Ocean Planet Paradise, it’s the 42nd Annual Dolphin Rally Race Finals! We’ve got an all-star lineup for everyone joining us on this spectacular afternoon — while the competitors prepare to show us the finest in high-speed cetacean racing, we’ve got the greatest soundsmiths in the quadrant here with us in the announcers skypod, ready to soundtrack every thrilling moment! Low-poly jungle breaks, anti-gravity bass acrobatics, sky-blue synths and more in store, folks — let’s gooooo!
Pizza Hotline - Polygon Island
The current reigning champion of the low-poly breaks sound, Pizza Hotline elevates the sound of Y2K era videogame soundtrack nostalgia to an artform. This is their debut album for the fantastic weirdos at We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records (WRWTFWW), and it’s unsurprisingly an absolute gem. If you’re feelin’ the vibes but haven’t heard of the artist before, you’re in for a feast of delights my friend. From the jaw-dropping YouTube mixes that chart the inspiration & evolution of the genre (currently up to volume 6 and still going strong), to their exquisitely chill ambient Daydream Cast mixes, there’s an enormous amount of excellent music to discover through the Pizza Hotline. Call anytime.
Kloke - On Rhythm
Kloke, much like his friend and frequent collaborator Tim Reaper, puts out a staggering amount of fantastically good jungle music across a wide range of labels. This album from veteran purveyors of top-shelf jungle & dnb, Future Retro, is one of their best yet. Absolute fire from front to back, weaving masterfully between extremes of utopian beauty and raw bassbin-churning break-choppage.
KADE - Video Breaks
KADE just refuses to quit churning out unbelievably good VGM-inspired jungle — tons of single tracks and several blazingly good albums this year alone (check out Blue and Wet/Dry World if you need more of this sound in your brain immediately).
June Chikuma - The Lantern Wheel
Nostalgia for the past runs strong through these selections, and here we have a true original master of videogame music — June Chikuma (perhaps best known for her legendary Bomberman soundtracks). On her new album The Lantern Wheel, she’s showing us all that her exquisite sense of composition & energy hasn’t faded a single bit. 8 tracks of pure synth melodies & perfectly crunchy breaks blended together in an immaculate emulsion of sweet, sweet sound.
Fume Fever - Dreaming of Being
A friend turned me onto this one, and it’s an absolute masterclass in cybernetic dream-jungle vibes, strafing your brain with wild, burst-fired melodies and crispy-fried breaks across 5 damn near perfect tracks.
Aural Imbalance - Infinity Spectrum
Sun’s almost down here on Ocean Planet Paradise here folks, and Aural Imbalance is the perfect one to run the show for the nightside. The moonlight is positively gleaming across the waves as our intrepid dolphin racers turn on their neon tail-tracers, weaving their way through the constantly shifting tri-helical courses for the entertainment of approximately 86 trillion viewers on every inhabited planet in this quadrant. Fans of ancient earth artists like Blu Mar Ten or Big Bud will want to make sure to keep up with Aural Imbalance and the other excellent selections from the Spatial record label.
Arcologies - Ocean Deep
Arcologies has been putting out silky-smooth jungle for a while now with remarkable consistency & quality production chops. If you fondly remember the LTJ Bukem era of mid/late 90s atmospheric/jazzy drum & bass a la Good Lookin’ Records, you’re in good company.
Pizza Hotline - Old School Runebreaks (Official Remixes of the Old School Runescape Soundtrack)
Pizza Hotline continues his invincibility-star win-streak of 2024 with this deep set of lovingly handcrafted remixes of the Old School Runescape (OSRS) soundtrack, complete with a plush (if expensive) vinyl pressing. One to leave on repeat while grinding in the mind-realms of your favorite videogame.
Mitch Murder x Pizza Hotline - Anti Gravity Tournament
This is a bit of a late entry, but it was never in doubt that the combination of Swedish synthwave maestro Mitch Murder and Pizza Hotline would prove to be one of the most potent challengers in this competition, and this flawless EP on the WRWTFWW Records label is coming in absolutely top-of-class. In a year full of ridiculously good music in this general vibe-range, this might be my favorite. If the absurdly sick Wipeout-style cover art alone hasn’t already gotten you to click play, I do not understand your life choices.
Mihail P - It’s Just A Ride
Alright folks, the races are all wrapped for the night, and we’re gonna close out this year’s Ocean Planet Paradise Dolphin Rally Races with a few bonus untimed laps around the tracks from all our incredible contestants. Give these brave cetacean racers a round of applause, blow some smoke and/or bubbles if you like, and cruise home to this set of breezy, blissed out breaks beamed straight from the star tropics by mind-master Mihail P. And be sure to check out further transmissions from the Childhood Intelligence label alliance, a reliable source of quality sonics across the cosmos.