You are a volleyball. Primitive 3D structures float high above the sand of an infinite desert, surrounding you ominously. As you roll, gravity shifts with you so you can stick to the structures. Somewhere a key is hidden, but can you figure out how to get to it without falling to your demise. Welcome to the strange world of Kula World.

Twice a Man - Hiro (1998)

Kula World is probably one of the most esoteric games I have ever played. It was part of the demo disc given with the PSX back in 1997, and fit pretty well with the futuristic and acid vibes of the menus. It was a challenging 3D puzzle / platformer, or at least challenging for a 6 years-old child, with an absolutely mint soundtrack, mainly composed of breaks and goa trance.

It is hard to pick a favorite as truly, this entire soundtrack would deserve its own vinyl pressing, being an absolute stunner from start to finish. I already teased you with the slow, mystical downtempo trance of the first level Hiro above; but you cannot imagine where this soundtrack will take you. Here is Bonus 3 for instance.

Twice a Man - Bonus 3 (1998)

Flying amen breaks, deep ambient layers, multiple 303 crying their solace, peak time track or bonus level track? Why not both? Can you imagine the level of creativity and care put in creating such a track for such a UFO of a video game? Well once you start grasping how good PSX era music is, one can actually consider it.

The soundtrack was composed by Twice A Man; which seems to be a quite pioneering Swedish group, who on their discogs page were blessed by a description by the trance artist Transwave (whomst we talked about here):

This band is certainly one of the more important mile stones in the electronic music since their music is unique in many ways. Karl and Dan started seperatly in bands like: "Älgarnas Trädgård" (Dan)and "Anna själv tredje" (Karl). (Dan also played the guitar and composed a few songs on a couple of albums with: "Ragnarök" in the early 80´s).
After that "Cosmic overdose" was formed in the late 70´s playing synth and post punk. Two albums, two 7" and a cassette later "Twice a man" was formed with karl, Dan and Lars Falk.
Today they have tryed a lot of styles like: deep house, acid, ambient, synthpop, classical, synth etc. They have made a lot of unreleased material that might not see the light of the day. Since they are very fuzzy about their compositions you will never know if they will release it or not. I have some great demos and live performances in my posession that are really extrodinary. Both the "Kula world" and "Launch music 2004" are really fantastic. A must have for the fans!

Since he was mentioning Launch Music 2004 and I could not find it on any streaming websites, I took the time to upload the album on my YouTube channel, all just for you my beloved readers. Give it a spin, very nice downtempo, reminiscent of Kula World but with a slightly different vibe. Enjoy!

Twice a Man - Launch Music 2004 (2004)