Various Artists – Descent II [1996; Interplay Productions]

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Packed on the same CD as the game’s data, the twelve tracks of this album offer a quick run through the music of Descent II, which leans into industrial metal and experimental electronic for its flavors.  Brian Luzietti provides the bulk of the tunes, including the main theme, with some other obscure composers (e.g., Johann Langlie, Ron Valdez, and most of the other contributors) lending assistance here and there, while Skinny Puppy’s Kevin Ogilvie and Mark Walk turn in a couple of tracks, and an instrumental remix of Type O Negative’s “Haunted” is dropped in towards the end.  For such a jumble, the music manages a surprisingly consistent mood and tone, aided by its sub-30-minute run-time, providing a clear slice of mid-’90s technolust attitude with electric guitars still ingrained.

DJ Sharpnel – アニメガバイト = Anime Gabba It! [2003; Sharpnelsound]

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On the fifth album from DJ Sharpnel, the Japanese crew keep up their flavor of speedy hardcore techno, with driving percussion loops, skittering synth tones, and numerous vocal samples in English and Japanese.  Though there’s some variation in exact execution from track to track, the usual arrangement relies on deep bass pounding while the beats rise in intensity, breaking a few times for interjections of some sort, before wrapping it up in a decisive last burst.  While there’s fun to be had with the formula, and the energy is undeniable, the repetitive nature of the songs gets rather stale before too long.

One of the more distinctive tracks is “Redpill”, which samples not just lines from characters in Matrix Reloaded, but adapts chunks of its musical score as well, wrapping them around each other and one of Sharpnel’s usual beats.  Some similar tappings of outside melodies appear in other parts of the album, but not to quite the same consumptive degree, or with such focus.  The album’s weakest point is likely its thrown-together vibe; instead of seeming like a full construction, it comes off as more of a dumping ground for the tracks constructed since DJ Sharpnel’s last album, without regard for connecting them to each other in any notable way.  As such, it comes off as one of the more disposable releases from the group, with just a small percentage of the songs managing to stand out from the pack.