“Blind Spots” is the first song I wrote with the clear intention of having a unique soundtrack for Minecraft’s “creative mode”. It acts as the score that plays when you “beat” Minecraft, but it also acts as a celebration of past music from Volume Alpha. But this time it’s not quiet, somber and welcoming, but dark and foreboding.
“Ki,” like “Key,” on the previous album is an introduction to the album. That song you can find on the previous soundtrack, Volume Alpha. And a lot of the “creative mode” songs are at least around 8 minutes in length.Īdditionally, this soundtrack contains the collectible records, which are little vinyl songs you can find in Minecraft, the game. “Alpha”, being 10 minutes, while “The End” clocks in at 15 minutes. Some of the songs even have percussion, which is something that was a complete rarity with Volume Alpha. The big difference of Volume Beta is that the tone is both more positive and at times very dark. Aphex Twin also once said I stole his style. Critics like to compare the style of my album to Erik Satie, Roedelius, and Brian Eno. Oh and the game in question is "Minecraft".This is the second part to the official soundtrack to the most popular video game in recent history. It certainly isn't perfect, but it's easy to love. But what we have to admit is that this is a stunning piece of ambient work that no one could have expected from a producer so small. The fact that it's a soundtrack may put people off it, and I can't blame them because it put me off it too. In the end it's actually quite good, one of the best on the album, though it's probably for the best that it was placed at the end to prevent it from completely breaking the mood. This sudden shift in tone and style hints at the fact that it was included as an advert for what C418 can achieve when he's not working to an order. That's not to say that there isn't any variety to be found, the final song "Droopy Likes Your Face" is completely different to anything else the album has to offer and is more in line with electronica than ambient. This doesn't mean that it's a bad thing, in fact it's necessary for building the mood and not breaking the listener out of it, but a tiny bit more variety would be nice. The strong partnership of a piano lead and swirling synths can be found in a lot of the songs, most notably "Living Mice", and it creates a kind of signature for C418, it's expected. Where the album really excels is when it gives the illusion of being simple, forming easy-to-listen-to samples that you can hum along to, annoying everyone else in the immediate vicinity, when in fact it follows the genuine trend of electronic music in being extremely complicated.
It's immersion music, it will wash over you and if you allow it to do so you'll relax instantly, which pretty much makes it a "must have" for ambient fans. This is the kind of album that you sit down to for a quick listen, only to emerge, staggering and numb, 2 hours later, confused but knowing that time wasn't wasted. It can be quiet and peaceful at times or loud and epic, but at all times it's beautifully calm. "Volume Alpha" does what any soundtrack should, it sets the mood. But for "Volume Alpha" I make an exception, I make this exception because as a stand-alone album it holds itself among the top electronic/ambient albums of the year. It's not often that I choose to relax to a soundtrack, let alone one from a videogame and let alone one that I've played all of one time. Review Summary: Video-game music, almost forgotten, looking for love.