Brian Gibson "Thrasher"
Brian Gibson is an artist and composer whose career is defined by uncompromising creativity. As the bassist for legendary duo Lightning Bolt or as a composer and artist on video games, Gibson consistently tests boundaries by injecting wonder and excitement into his singular body of work. Gibson’s 2016 release Thumper, produced by Drool, was an award-winning smash hit game and soundtrack. Thrasher is Gibson’s triumphant return to VR, a fantastical whirlwind co-created with Mike Mandell via their partnership Puddle. The soundtrack harnesses Gibson’s otherworldly visions with bright musical clarity, trading the “rhythmic violence” of Thumper for expansive and sublime atmospheres punctured by cascading, serpentine arpeggios embodied by otherworldly creatures.
Gibson and Mandel call the game “a mind-melting arcade action odyssey and visceral audiovisual experience.” The game was designed as an immersive virtual reality experience following a kind of evolving space centipede from “crawling from the depths of primordial gloom to the heights of celestial bliss, culminating in a heart-pounding reckoning with a cosmic baby god.” Gibson’s start in game designing began at Harmonix working on tentpole titles like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Thrasher breaks from Gibson’s history in rhythm-centered games. Arpeggiated synths and undulating textural loops mimic the segmented art style of the centipede, as well as the game’s more open and nuanced emotional core. Through these intricate sequences, Gibson imbues the soundtrack’s ceaseless propulsion with melodic mystery and tensions. The crystalline twirl of “Magenta Machine” expands and contracts like a living, breathing biosphere. Tracks like album opener “Metal Maze” and “Mica” harken back to the trance-inflected movements of Lightning Bolt’s Hypermagic Mountain. The existential dread of Thumper carries over to pieces like “Timekeepers” and “Mad Moon,” but across the album Gibson infuses that dread with an equal share of awe.