3 out of 5

Label: Materia Collective

Produced by: Grant Kirkhope

Materia Collective and Grant Kirkhope have now clearly established a “thing” with these Rare Treats albums: giving Grant a new go at some of his Rare releases. For Donkey Kong, that was a remix and remaster for vinyl; for Viva Piñata, which already got a pretty nice vinyl release not too long ago, that is an orchestral release of the score. …Oh, which was already orchestral. Using the same orchestra. Hm.

Let’s say that Viva Piñata was an opportunity for Mr. Kirkhope to step off the beaten path of his platformer / action-y type games, and try his compositional hand at something wholly low key. While the end product admittedly didn’t Wow me very much – that off-the-path ended up sounding, to me, like a kind of standard, John Williams-lite score – I can appreciate if it was a fun experience for Grant, especially if the full orchestra bit wasn’t an often opportunity. So to get another go at that, but this time not limited in any way by game sound compression or other details that go into the process I’d only be guessing at, I’m sure it was exciting. Even as a skeptical listener, I had some of that buzz, imagining / hoping that a revisit could act like a remaster or sorts, and bring out new dimensions in the music I hadn’t been hearing.

I tried. I think. I guess that album a couple of end-to-end listens, but still couldn’t find much of a hook. My original review would apply again; my John Williams quip applies again. I then went side-by-side, doing tracks from the original, and then every few songs switching to the Rare Treats version, and I do hear what Grant was going for – more subtlety; more life: flutes and strings are gentler, finding the touchpoints between the organic music and the digital world it scored – but it is, to this layperson, a rather minor difference overall, and my dumb ears maybe even prefer some of the more upfront takes from the original score, as the delicate-ness moves this even closer to cinematic territory, and I’m here for a game score, y’all.

If you’re a passionate Viva Piñata music fan, then of course, this might offer quite a bit more, but I really do struggle to believe that; when remasters of albums I adore only provide small tweaks, “worth,” to me, can be determined by what else the remaster offers – accessibility, a new format. I guess the old Viva score is sold out, so maybe I should just treat this as a repress… I dunno. You tell me, mystical Viva Piñata fan – are you owning, and listening to, both editions?

Lastly, with only two Materia Collective Rare Treats to judge by, I’m curious if the artwork is what we should expect. I dig that we get liner notes with this, and the sound quality is good, but the art doesn’t feel as unique as the iam8bit take. But perhaps once we have a full suite of Rare Treats, the synced up visuals will feel nice altogether.