Ultimate Rivals: The Court Soundtrack

Ultimate Rivals: The Court Soundtrack, Honnda, 2021

Putting together usually impossible dream teams is something video games have always excelled at, going back at least to King of Fighters ’94. Ultimate Rivals: The Court is simply another variation on that proud gaming tradition. The game pits athletes from various professional sports – NHL, NBA, MLB, WNBA, football and more – against one another on the basketball court. With a premise like that, realism is hardly the point. Instead, each athlete brings unique moves derived from their own sport, as teams of three face off on futuristic courts. Naturally, this kind of exaggerated arcade basketball recalls the immortal NBA Jam series, and developer Bit Fry Game Studios were clearly aware of the connection, even bringing in NBA Jam announcer Tim Kitzrow.

For the Ultimate Rivals: The Court soundtrack, Bit Fry made the inspired decision to hire electronic artist Honnda, aka Amnon Freidlin. Given his eclectic artistic background, Freidlin’s involvement promised a score with genuine personality. His credits are diverse to say the least, ranging from the electronica of his Honnda project to the chamber-punk of Normal Love, as well as video and audio work for pop-thrash outfit Mouthguard 88 and earlier involvement in post-minimalist group Zs. Operating at the intersection of futuristic pop and gallery art, Freidlin’s wider body of work includes music and video installations for artists and institutions such as Nick Cave, Patti Smith, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Michael Kors, Laurie Anderson, Steve Reich, John Zorn and the New York Philharmonic.

And Freidlin’s work for Ultimate Rivals: The Court does not disappoint. In fact, it continues several trends visible in 2021’s strongest game-music releases: striking game-score debuts by established artists (Genesis Noir, Knockout City, Returnal), wildly original electronica (The Caligula Effect 2, Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, and indeed Knockout City and Returnal again), and stylistically freewheeling sports games. The Ultimate Rivals: The Court soundtrack is only EP-length and considerably shorter than any of those works. Even so, it leaves a clear impression. While the score is less genre-bending and idiosyncratic than some of Freidlin’s previous solo work, it still introduces a fresh electronic language to game music.

Opener “Megabloom” is a tribute to New York City, and not merely because the game is set against a futuristic version of it. Freidlin’s work on the Ultimate Rivals: The Court soundtrack coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York in spring 2020. As a result, “Megabloom” emerged, in his words, as “a mammoth track with NYC artists channeling the city and hitting with this big ‘comeback’ energy”. Indeed, “Megabloom” is a near-perfect cyberpunk anthem, driven by beats that are both forceful and intricately layered, packed with rewarding rhythmic detail. Dai Burger’s rap verses add playful, off-kilter swagger, but it is really moistbreezy’s coolly majestic delivery of the track’s huge hook – not unlike her work on her own excellent 2020 single “Oasis” – that seals the deal.

Unsurprisingly, the music used during matches is less concerned with large, effortlessly cool melodic gestures – but it is almost as strong. “Cape Canaveral” combines a slow, controlled synth groove with clattering percussion. Meticulously arranged and layered, these sinewy sounds give the lush production a lean, energising undercurrent. The cue occasionally returns to the anthemic interludes of “Megabloom”, though its melodies are more unstable now, simultaneously sweet and edgy. “Cape Canaveral” becomes more eccentric once whooping hip-hop samples enter and the melodic lines begin to wobble through cyberspace. Naturally, the cue’s closing spacey synths and tinkling textures suit the location, but playful vocal touches keep the music just irreverent enough.

The one cue on the Ultimate Rivals: The Court soundtrack that does not quite stick the landing is “Radio Music City Hall”. Both its rhythms and its central hook – essentially a phase-shifted take on those NFL-style synth-brass fanfares – are too static and straightforward, and begin to outstay their welcome once the track passes the four-minute mark. “Times Square”, by contrast, successfully evokes the trance-like focus that “Radio Music City Hall” seems to be aiming for. It is a cerebral track built from ritualistic voice samples and tense, nervy beats, as if the music can barely contain its own energy. There are more breakdowns here, and the rhythmic base is considerably more interesting. Those whining synth leads near the end also perfectly suit the cue’s blend of control and agitation.

Two shorter but no less carefully crafted cues round out the Ultimate Rivals: The Court soundtrack. Neither really builds towards a destination, but both remain in constant, entertaining motion. Surrounded by swirling, cut-up samples, the myriad rhythms of “Bounce Castle” tumble over one another without ever sacrificing the cue’s underlying groove, which is a small miracle. It is fun, buoyant music perfectly suited to the track’s title. As a menu cue, “The Golden Age of Content” is more settled. It provides the ideal comedown at the end of a busy EP, bringing back the anthemic brass leads heard in “Radio Music City Hall”, but this time setting them against more supple R&B rhythms and a funky flute line. The latter is not merely an attractive addition to the score’s whirling genre mix; it also creates a compelling timbral contrast between the flute’s nimble tones and the pounding synth brass.

Ultimately, these are 15 minutes of innovative, ambitious electronic music packed with more ideas than 95% of game soundtracks manage across several times the duration. Ultimate Rivals: The Court’s arcade gameplay may be straightforward and may not have demanded a score of great depth or variety. Yet that is exactly what Freidlin provides here, all while never forgetting the basic requirement to keep hands and feet moving.