Influential electronic duo Autechre, who hails from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, has stated that it was asked to compose the music for the hugely popular GameCube game, Metroid Prime.
Revealed in a Twitch AMA and shared on Twitter by @GoodWillsmith, Sean Booth — one member of the duo — responded to a question from a viewer asking about the first-person shooter (thanks, Nintendo Everything!).
Now, this might sound like it's come out of nowhere, but in the North American credits for the 2002 game, both Booth and Rob Brown's names are listed in the Special Thanks section of the credits — which you can check out here on Metroid Wiki. Fans have been wondering for a while why the duo's names were in the credits, and this seems to confirm why.
Here's an extract from the AMA where Booth discusses being asked to do the game's soundtrack, with both parties being incredibly excited because of Metroid's reputation:
“Well I can now, even though I am violating an NDA technically by saying this, but basically we got asked to do the soundtrack by [Retro Studios]. We met up with them in Austin. They were really keen and we were really keen..."
However, things fell through and Autechre didn't get the chance to write the music, as the job went to series veteran Kenji Yamamoto. Booth says that some fans of the game have even reached out saying that some of Prime's music sounds like Autechre's, which Booth doesn't entirely agree with:
"And then Nintendo kind of borked it for some reason and wanted their guy to do it, so that was that really. I don’t know how much involvement they had in the sound of it, whether they intentionally tried to make it sound a bit more [like] us, but I don’t think so really. I’ve read people saying that they think it sounds a bit like us, but I don’t think it does. But it’s subjective.”
Can you imagine what Metroid Prime's music would've sounded like if Autechre got the chance to compose the game's music? Of course, what we got from Yamamoto is beautifully haunting, iconic, atmospheric — pretty much perfect, really! But we'd love to have seen how different the game could've sounded in different musical hands. There's always Metroid Prime 4, hey?
You can watch the full AMA below on YouTube. Be warned, there's strong language throughout, so watch at your own discretion.
Did you spot Booth and Brown's names in the credits of Metroid Prime? Would you like to have heard the duo's interpretation of the music? Let us know!
[source nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 23
I knew I’d heard of this somewhere! I was getting confused with Orbital though and couldn’t find info on it anywhere, which now makes sense given it’s the wrong electronic duo 😂
man that would've been wicked, not that i'm necessarily dissatisfied with the current score but man
Never heard of them. But after listening to some of their music, yeah, their music style would have worked just as well.
Removed - unconstructive
They played live at an underground techno club I used to frequent a lot back in the late 90s - they were quite decent.
Apparently, depending on which other articles you read, they ‘nearly’ did the music for lots of other stuff too! Wishful thinking on their behalf I think.
90 legends for those in the know…at the tag time and place I guess, but brilliantly inventive and atmospheric, could have been interesting and achingly cool too…what’s next, Eluvium for Animal Crossing?
@Orokosaki Except their names appear in the credits of Metroid Prime..?
Huh, that's an interesting story. I listened to a couple of tracks from the band and they probably would have been suitable for the score of Prime. However, the score we ended up getting from Yamamoto and Kyuma is near perfection in my opinion.
I’m torn on this. I know Autechre is considered a classic ambient electronic artist worthy of praise and they may have done an awesome job. On the other hand, despite my love of electronic music, I honestly can’t stand their music and think they lack vision beyond dazzling the listener with wAcKy sYnThesIzeR soUnDs. I just find them too nihilistic musically. But that’s just me. It’s subjective.
@nessisonett just as a thank you though, they didn’t actually provide any content.
I consider the tracks for all 3 prime games to be some of the best OSTs in gaming, so I'm happy they didn't go with them. Not saying that their OST would have been bad, it probably would have been pretty good, but I'll take what we got over their sounds every time.
I'm not saying that I'm glad their music isn't in the game, but if it was, who would have owned the soundtrack? I don't want Nintendo to deal with the same issues SEGA has to deal with when it comes to classic Sonic music.
Oh my, that would have been something. Autechre are incredible.
I can’t imagine Prime’s soundtrack any other way but man I’d love an Autechre Metroid soundtrack. Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross would be perfect too…not like Nintendo couldn’t afford them to do it.
@Orokosaki They included them in the thanks for a reason. What other reason can you think of other than a courtesy mention to thank them for wanting to be involved but ultimately not being able to make it happen (seemingly at Nintendo’s behest and not Retro’s) now that they themselves are claiming they were approached?
@Rambler Oops, I'm muddling Manchester itself with Greater Manchester! That'll get me in trouble. Thanks for the reminder, I've corrected it!
I always thought the credits thing was just a nod to them for some inspiration or maybe at the most some consultation. My favorite thing about their music has always been how alien it sounded, like listening to music from another race, another planet. Now knowing this is something that almost happened, I can't shake the need for an Autechre scored video game.
Prime 1's soundtrack is one of the best in gaming and I don't know who these people are. What else have they done and why do some people believe their writing may have been better?
Wow.
I think that ALL the score could have been too much but it would have been something incredible for sure.
Long ago they were a bit more “melodic”. Saw them live in June and “alien music” fits so well.
No disrespect, but bullet dodged - I'm sure they would've done a fine job in their own right, but the world would be a poorer place without the soundtrack we ended up with.
Wow. The Ae fanboy I am cannot help but wonder what a game score would have sounded like from that early 00's-era Autechre. Perhaps later entries would have been all-Skam Records events ; )
Would love AE to publish what they would've done. A Metroid tribute project.
Autechre's Confield album came out 1.5 years before Metroid Prime came out, and that album sort of took their whole thing and shot it into the stratosphere of inscrutability and artistic weirdness. The whole album sounds like termites in mulch. I love it. But I could see how Nintendo might have taken a few listens to their most recent work and thought "you know what? This is too crazy, people won't get it, it's not right for a major mainstream game". I don't blame them. Cool to imagine what it would've been like though!
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