Scrap Riders – 16-bit Highway To Hell

Outcasts live there at the world’s end. Like unneeded thoughts pushed to the back of the head. There they seethe and set their own rules – to break them and bones in bars as well. The bar is actually a knot of the world – all the threads tangle in this one place. We wake up as a member of a bike smugglers gang who try to survive in the world of corporations. We wake up with a gap in our memory and a joint around.

So, how to create music of the past that tells about the future?

Our Rast is not Robin Hood at all. He neither Harrier “Harry” Du Bois from Disco Elysium, despite a similar formula. He’s closer to Rick Sanchez who’s about to make a mock of kindly Morty. In Scrap Riders world it’s mostly all about being “cool”, like John Travolta in the 1980s.

Indie game music – the other side of the coin

And here we are. And it’s “cool”, indeed. These are the 80s in full bloom – by music and by game equally. But in the world of cyberpunk, like in Blade Runner with Harrison Ford. So, how to create music of the past that tells about the future? Just like Nicolas de Ferran, who’s our guide here, did. The composer went back in time, went into the then-composers’ heads and, like musical Stanislaw Lem, imagined the future by the eyes of the past.

It is just like in the 1980s – it’s very (very!) melodiously. Huge guitar solos that plough through a broad space – yes. Typical synth arpeggios (The Valkyries Will Come For You) – present. Drum machine in 4/4 beat (Alternate Route) – ready. At the same time there is a ghost of the future suspended above it. The Ghost Of The Cyber World.

De Ferran goes into many different directions simultaneously – into rock, pop, disco and even metal – especially with drums in King Of The Vikings to which, in a way, one wants to headbang with long hair. If one has it. At the same time de Ferran is like that bar which is the knot of the world because all these genres tangle with each other by the 80s’ new wave here. And you want to take another round – supposedly each drink has the same base here, but the flavour is different each time.

Under the pink-turquoise, 16-bit coat of the 80s, combined with the digital cyberpunk.

The composer, who dreamt about making game music as a child – is versatile on default. In Scrap Riders it’s clearly visible. Under the pink-turquoise, 16-bit coat of the 80s, combined with the digital cyberpunk – like in a then-famous drink, White Zinfandel – there’s the whole drinks cabinet with different genres. And everything matches. We can spin the cassette randomly – and what we’ll hear will be high-voltage.