Search - DJ Faust, DJ Shortee, Faust & Shortee :: The Thirteen Soundtrack (XIII Game Soundtrack)

Perhaps the coolest thing about The Thirteen Soundtrack is that it works outside of the game as an entertaining slab of mid-tempo futuro funk with tinges of '70s throwback and a decidedly hip-hop oriented undercurrent. That it's put together like a seamless mixtape is all the more impressive, giving the CD the feeling of a continuous score that shifts tempo and mood with sophisticated ease. The soundtrack has been composed by several different musicians, all of whom are affiliated with San Francisco's renowned Future Primitive Sound art collective. Since it's put together like a continuous mix, there are no song titles, just 13 unidentified tracks that flow one into the other. To further add to the mystery, the CD booklet aligns each musician with a character from the game. DJs Faust and Shortee are linked to the title character XIII. DJ Zeph is connected to Carrington. J-Boogie's Dubtronic Science is tied to Mongoose. Romanowski is teamed up with Jones. Meat Beat Manifest's Jack Dangers is paired with Sheridan. And Bing Ji Ling is affiliated with Amos. But mysterious connections aside, the soundtrack is all about the music. The album commences with some eerie, all most menacing piano tones (think Hitchcock) which are augmented by dialogue from the game in which an assassination attempt has been taken against the president. From this freaky intro the album slides into a shuffling funk jazz romp that is interspersed with further dialogue, punchy horns, and swift blitzes of scratchmatic wonderment. Finger poppin' and neck snappin' goodness, to be sure that rolls along to a seriously fat bassline.