Diggin In The Carts: A Collection Of Pioneering Japanese Video Game Music CD

Writer/director Nick Dwyer's Diggin in the Carts documentary series on Red Bull Music Academy has done much to chronicle the history and global influence of early Japanese video game music. Hyperdub head Kode9 was clearly a fan, as he's joined forces with Dwyer to put together this epic retrospective of "chip-era" compositions by Japanese electronic musicians. Game nerds are well catered for (details of which titles the various tracks are taken from are listed on the back cover), though you don't have to pine after early '80s consoles to enjoy the treats the duo has dug up. Naturally sparse and heavily synthesized, the majority of the tracks sound surprisingly good taken out of context (I.E without the games they were created for) and stand up to scrutiny almost 40 years after they were produced.