Originally Published by Music4Games.net
Clive Barker’s Jericho caught my attention for a lot of reasons. Firstly, it was the follow up to Clive Barker’s Undying which was a fantastic, creepy little shooter that made a few waves but couldn’t really catch on. I dug it and couldn’t wait for more in the same vein to finally get produced. So I watched tentatively for all the news bits and video clips for Jericho. And what’s this? Cris Velasco is set to write the score? Ok, you got to give me this score to review, M4G!
Yay, they did!
Sometimes a score clicks with me right away, sometimes it doesn’t. I’ll usually leave the majority of my opinion at bay when reviewing game soundtracks until I actually play the game with the music. It’s all about context, appropriateness, artistic cohesion…all that stuff. I actually received the soundtrack weeks before I could play the game and it did change what I envisioned the game actually was.
The standout instrument performance here is definitely the choirs. Embedded in almost every track is live choir recorded specifically for Jericho. The human voice is so flexible and dense with subtext that under the right direction you can get a jingle for peanut butter or the final mass before a biblical apocalypse. What we have here is the latter, truly. The boy soprano part is stellar and extremely memorable.
I asked myself, does this sound like a supernatural squad shooter? Well, it’s creepy, and plenty action packed…did I mention creepy? As a standalone listen, it’s haunting and twisted. An innocent glockenspiel melody plays, or a boy soprano echoes and you find yourself asking…what are these things doing here? What am I doing here? Something’s not right. It’s the unevenness of the bulk of the score and the interjection of misplaced sound effects that really gets a listener on edge here. Mix a little bit of familiar with a lot of disturbing and you’ve got pure nightmare material. That I feel is the recipe here with Cris Velasco’s Jericho score.
Clive Barker’s Jericho caught my attention for a lot of reasons. Firstly, it was the follow up to Clive Barker’s Undying which was a fantastic, creepy little shooter that made a few waves but couldn’t really catch on. I dug it and couldn’t wait for more in the same vein to finally get produced. So I watched tentatively for all the news bits and video clips for Jericho. And what’s this? Cris Velasco is set to write the score? Ok, you got to give me this score to review, M4G!
Yay, they did!
Sometimes a score clicks with me right away, sometimes it doesn’t. I’ll usually leave the majority of my opinion at bay when reviewing game soundtracks until I actually play the game with the music. It’s all about context, appropriateness, artistic cohesion…all that stuff. I actually received the soundtrack weeks before I could play the game and it did change what I envisioned the game actually was.
The standout instrument performance here is definitely the choirs. Embedded in almost every track is live choir recorded specifically for Jericho. The human voice is so flexible and dense with subtext that under the right direction you can get a jingle for peanut butter or the final mass before a biblical apocalypse. What we have here is the latter, truly. The boy soprano part is stellar and extremely memorable.
I asked myself, does this sound like a supernatural squad shooter? Well, it’s creepy, and plenty action packed…did I mention creepy? As a standalone listen, it’s haunting and twisted. An innocent glockenspiel melody plays, or a boy soprano echoes and you find yourself asking…what are these things doing here? What am I doing here? Something’s not right. It’s the unevenness of the bulk of the score and the interjection of misplaced sound effects that really gets a listener on edge here. Mix a little bit of familiar with a lot of disturbing and you’ve got pure nightmare material. That I feel is the recipe here with Cris Velasco’s Jericho score.
So, does it sound like a supernatural squad shooter off the bat? No, not really. But that’s perfect here. This is the story of a supernatural tactical squad plunging forward into the nightmares of hell despite the disgusting aura of death and depravity surrounding them, invading them, and overcoming them. The music, with it’s unevenness afoot, remains human, alive with singing choirs in the abyss, sweet melodies playing on death, and percussive impulses to keep pressing forward despite the world gone to hell. You know, that kinda thing!
The game has a cinematic presentation and the music adapts well to this method. That is, the music moves in concert with the story, the events, and the drama. What is refreshing to know is that Cris Velasco was given early builds of the game to actually PLAY the game and get a feel for more than the mood, but the actual mechanics of the game. This is so important to really meld music and gaming, which is why I try and play all the games before I review their score. Hopefully we see a growing trend of composers who see the importance of playing games along with writing music, because the results really speak for themselves. The score for Jericho is dark and bleak yet rich and full, intriguing and revolting, depressing yet oddly opportunistic. Spot on.