MUSIC BLOCKS

If your video game has sold more than 230 million copies and is played by some 140 million people monthly*, it’s safe to say you have aced the world of computer gaming. Such are the raw statistics for Minecraft, arguably the most popular and successful video game of all time.

Entering Minecraft’s cubic world the player can create whatever they like. Dig deep into the earth to mine iron or diamonds. Breed blocky cows for food and to make leather. Use leather to create armour or books. Drawn to the overground rather than underground? Build a glass tower a thousand stories high. Fancy a medieval castle floating on a cloud? No problem. Along the way, you’ll encounter pixelated pigs, explosive green Creepers, bow and arrow toting skeletons, and sinister Endermen. Whether playing alone or with friends, the possibilities for these digital building blocks are endless. You can even build a jukebox. Like many things in Minecraft, sourcing records to spin on your record playing device is, well, quirky. One method is to be nearby when a skeleton shoots a creeper. The dying robot-shaped greenie drops a music disc, an item remarkably similar to a vinyl record. Pop it in your jukebox and boogie on!

If you crave the sounds of Minecraft but don’t have a screen-based digital world at the ready, despair not! German electronic musician Daniel Rosenfeld, aka C418, released the music he composed for the game as a download in 2011 and then on vinyl in 2015. Entitled, with admirable directness, Minecraft Volume Alpha, the LP has twelve tracks with intriguing titles such as "Mice on Venus" and "Wet Hands". As the album includes only half of the music C418 created, the download card is particularly welcome as it doubles the fun to a satisfying twenty-four tracks.

Like other similar soundtrack projects, may of the cuts on Minecraft Volume Alpha are quite short (eleven of them clock at less than two minutes) but as the music is generally floaty and light on percussion this is not particularly distracting.

The vinyl version of the album opens with "Subwoofer Lullaby", which sounds like an oxymoron, but is in fact a delicate melody with a gentle tick-tock rhythm fading into an atmospheric synthscape that then invites the keyboards back for a long coda. Another standout is "Living Mice", blending a brief but delightful melody with synthesised backing: it is New Age in the best possible way. Meanwhile, for synth fans, "Moog City" has rich, cascading lines that fade away all too soon. That is my only criticism of Minecraft Volume Alpha; so many of the pieces finish well before they’ve worn out their welcome.

An ambient electronic feel pervades this beguiling music, with clear references to Brian Eno. The opening track of the digital album, "Key" is very Eno-esque, evoking his outstanding Apollo album. But there are other influences, as we shall see. The quirkiness of the game is occasionally present in the music as well. "Death" is an example. A brief piano fragment is interrupted by a crow-like Ahhg!, though this is more amusing than alarming.

Daniel Rosenfeld’s knowledge of electronic and ambient music created in his homeland shines through. It is hard to hear a pastoral piece such as "Haggstrom" without thinking of Hans-Joachim Roedelius, esteemed elder of this spacious, filigree musical style. "Wet Hands" is a perfect example.

There is something deeply impressionistic in the gentle washes of sound. Whether you know Minecraft or have an interest in game soundtracks matters not. There is so much to enjoy in these miniature sound paintings, fans of gossamer electronica music are sure to be delighted.

© Bruce Jenkins—October 2023

* Statistics from Wikipedia, accessed 4 October 2023.