3 out of 5

Label: Data Discs

Produced by: Shaun Crook (remastered by)

Though admittedly not a fan of the original score – perhaps lacking the nostalgia to tie me to it – some time away and revisiting it strictly as music (and not a soundtrack) has warmed me to it. There’s a nice range of grooves and techno numbers that do a good job of mixing up the different sounds the Genesis offered, producing some appreciably layered beats – especially once we get into mid-album / soundtrack with Inner Darkside. For the digital remaster, I’m sure my lukewarm reception affects my take even more, but Shaun Crook’s work – if definitely notable for its difference – subjectively doesn’t serve the tunes as well.

For digital, where I think we’re assuming people are listening through phones, my guess is that fidelity is compressed in some way, and so the goal is to amp up the highlights; separate out the channels / nuance in a way that gets to the meat of the music. For high energy VGM, bumping up the highs and lows makes sense, and that’s mostly what I hear: on tracks that make a lot use of said highs lows – especially crunchy on the Sega – the remaster sounds pretty cool. But when you go side by side, I think the wishy-washy nature of the music (which, to me, lacks real storytelling or themes) almost benefits from the warmer, less sharp vibe of the vinyl master. And even not side by side, the songs that don’t do a lot of layers fall kind of flat on the digital; again, there was benefit in the rounder sound of the wax giving those tunes more weight.

It’s an interesting remaster all the same, and, as mentioned, I’m sure my take would have more enthusiasm if I had that for the original work as well.