POP Methodology Experiment One caused a lot of hi-5ing on the indie game scene and Rob Lach’s one man wonder game has a chip track to boot.
Opening with the disco intro “Sigh” its like we’ve been transported back to Saturday Night Fever and I wanted a disco glitter ball to be spinning. Things get more chiptune orientated with “Wasted Effort” which has a bold base line that is slowly enveloped by arpeggios of harsh computer 8bit ness. “Barely Music” then takes the harshness to extremes with some of the most razor guttural synths committed to music. Sadly it’s not really enjoyable – it hurts! “F-” however takes dance synths and gives them a metallic boing to their stride and sounds more like a really screwed up 80s Depeche Mode track. “No Idea What I’m Doing” retreats to spectrum like bleeps and tweets but with a thick bass kick drum. There is so much going on in the track its like a chiptune hedonistic freakout. Fantastic!
“Self Doubt” is a chugging mess of clashing chords and mashed up explosions that is difficult to listen to whilst “Boring” slowly develops actually into a nice low-fi dub track. “Why Try?” is a slow burning track that rotates around four chords on the bass and three on the higher synths but overstays its welcome a bit before “Failure” goes all celestial for its pretend finale. There are two bonus tracks included, the first “Missed Milestone 1” is fun, the second “missed Milestone 2” grates through your skull as a vibrating bass tone.
Rob Lach could not make further extremes if he tried. I admire someone who puts out something that is 100% true to the vision they wanted – it just that this soundtrack doesn’t transfer into a decent standalone product. Much better with the game!