F*ck the Algorithm - Issue 011
A magical thing happened to me as a 13-year-old, alone in my bedroom – and no, it’s not what you’re thinking. With nothing better to do, I decided to try out a PS1 game demo that I think found its way to me through a relative who thought I was into skateboarding. That game was Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and it quickly demanded my unerring hyper-focus.
As soon as the full game was released I bought it and chucking a blocky, digital skateboarder at the scenery for hours on end while trying to perfect a Christ air or a 900 would become an obsession for several years. But it wasn’t the gameplay that would have the truly lasting effect, it was the soundtrack.
It’s tricky to pin it down exactly, but I think the version I played featured just eleven songs, and so given the number of hours (weeks? Months?) I spent playing I must have heard each hundreds of times.
No two songs were the same but to my naïve young ears they all sounded dangerous, otherworldly, and alluring – the soundtrack to a world filled with older kids who skated, smoked and drank. People that my mum wouldn't approve of me hanging out with.
I’ve picked out four of the most impactful tracks from that first THPS game and paired them with four modern songs that evoke the same nervous but beguiling energy.
1. Superman – Goldfinger
Almost certainly my first ska-punk influence, the excitement and chaos of this track is made easier to swallow by the polished and easily digestible production. It's a track that featured on the warehouse demo so I must have heard it even more than the others. I would go on to play in a ska punk band of my own for a few years, too, so it made its mark.
Señor Presidente by La Pobreska isn’t a direct swap for the Goldfinger track with a darker energy and rougher production, but it could easily sit on the original game soundtrack in terms of its vibe.
2. Jerry Was A Racecar Driver – Primus
It wasn’t until I got older and my expanding tastes found their way to Primus that I realised I already knew this song because of THPS. And I was even older still before I realised how much of the track is just Les Claypool being his usual virtuosic self – finger-tapping whole chords at the top of the fretboard over a hammer-on left hand groove… as you do.
It’s not so easy to find a direct equivalent in the modern world, or any world, but Call This # Now by The Garden is a genre-smashing two and a half minutes of bass groove led weirdness that embodies the right spirit.
3. Cyco Vision – Suicidal Tendencies
4. Bloodstains – Agent Orange
Cyco Vision is one of my favourite songs from the game but for some unknown reason I never got into Suicidal Tendencies beyond that. It’s got a boundless energy that makes me want to take on a mega ramp despite being unable to skateboard.
As for Agent Orange, it is insane to think that in a year when the UK charts were topped by such things as Don’t You Want Me, Tainted Love, and Vienna, some teenagers from California would be making songs that sound like Bloodstains. Looking back now, it blows my mind.
My final two modern picks each work for either of those originals, so I’m lumping Sadist Faction by G.U.N. and Brute Force by Imploders together.
Here’s the finished playlist, grab your Discman and get yourself down to the local skatepark! Maybe pop a couple of ibuprofen first…
