Catacomb Snatch Soundtrack

Catacomb Snatch Soundtrack, anosou / C418, 2012

Delivering under intense pressure can be a powerful catalyst for creativity. For proof, look no further than the Catacomb Snatch soundtrack. The game itself was created as part of the “Humble Bundle Mojam”, a 60-hour event during which indie developers had to build a new game from scratch. To determine Catacomb Snatch’s theme, developer Mojang AB combined the most and least popular categories in an online poll. The result was an unlikely RTS / shoot-’em-up hybrid with a steampunk / Ancient Egypt setting.

That sort of combination would have posed a challenge for any composer, even if one ignored the fact that the music had to be delivered in less than three days. It is also safe to assume that the composers would not have had the luxury of much concept art or many other clues about the game’s style before beginning work. On the other hand, perhaps that relative lack of guidance proved liberating. It would certainly explain how the Catacomb Snatch soundtrack turned into such a creative and, at times, intoxicating experience.

True, the music mostly ignores the game’s steampunk side and concentrates on its Ancient Egypt theme. However, it approaches that setting in delightfully unexpected ways. Catacomb Snatch certainly contains its share of Near Eastern scales, instruments, and musical stereotypes. But it embeds these elements within such a quirky, atmospheric mix of vintage and contemporary electronics that the score’s evocation of ancient Egypt always feels fresh. Far from being constrained by the setting, the soundtrack uses it as a springboard for inspired experimentation.

The two artists behind this reinvigoration of well-worn tropes were anosou and C418. Both experienced chiptune artists and remixers, they had already collaborated on various Super Meat Boy albums and the Cobalt EP. Prior to Catacomb Snatch, C418 had also achieved major success through his score for indie phenomenon Minecraft. Each composer contributed three tracks to the soundtrack. Of the six resulting cues, the brief bookends “Theme” and “Ending” are the least interesting. The real substance of the Catacomb Snatch soundtrack lies in its four central pieces. Across them, both composers excel through the sheer variety of their heady beats and rhythms, catchy yet effortlessly complex.

anosou’s “Mummyf***er” and “Scarab’s Gold” are the more driving contributions. “Mummyf***er” establishes the soundtrack’s overall stylistic template. Warm, varied electronic beats – part contemporary, part chiptune-derived – support a slightly generic but effective lead melody that immediately signals the connection to ancient Egypt. This division of labour between rhythm and melody remains consistent across most of the album, though not without variation. In “Mummyf***er”, for instance, the silvery melody is effectively counterbalanced by a bass-heavy sine-wave pulse that sometimes takes over the foreground. The track’s most surprising idea is a harsh descending sequence of gnawing synth chords that interrupts the music’s smooth flow. Judged and integrated with real care, the effect energises rather than disrupts.

“Scarab’s Gold” follows “Enforcer Brittanica”’s outer-space drift with markedly earthier rhythms. Its dry beats contrast beautifully with glittering, almost sound-effect-like synth blips that cleverly reinforce the cue’s title. These details add playfulness while also refreshing the music’s exotic colouring in unexpected ways. The same is true of “Scarab’s Gold”’s obligatory Egyptian-sounding lead melody, which later returns on borderline psychedelic synths. Wooden percussion and xylophone also make their first appearance here, broadening the soundtrack’s palette still further.

C418’s “Enforcer Brittanica” and “Dune Storm” feature slower beats than anosou’s tracks, but they are no less engaging. “Enforcer Brittanica” opens with a heavy rhythm whose crackling vinyl textures emphasise its organic, laid-back feel. A chiptune lead keeps things simple but catchy before becoming dreamier, supported by perfectly judged jazzy hi-hat work. It is the magic of One Thousand and One Nights filtered through a chiptune lens. That floating mood eventually begins to seep into the rhythm itself, as arpeggios drift in and out against increasingly thinned-out beats.

“Dune Storm” closes the soundtrack in entirely convincing fashion, bringing its playfully experimental streak to a peak. Ethnic hand percussion opens the cue in hushed fashion, before heavily manipulated drum-kit samples introduce a state of constant rhythmic disorientation. It is the album’s most off-the-wall and rhythmically intricate passage, not too far removed in effect from parts of Olivier Derivière’s Remember Me. The final minutes complicate the beat still further by blending sound effects into the drum patterns. Yet the resulting polyrhythms never sacrifice the track’s steady groove. Remarkably, “Dune Storm” also finds room for genuine melodic release. When its head-spinning rhythms briefly subside, celestial synth pads begin to swell and gaze out at the desert stars, deepening the nocturnal atmosphere suggested by the track’s opening synth pulse. “Dune Storm” concludes what is ultimately only a short journey – but one that passes through landscapes very few other game soundtracks could offer.