MIDI Week Singles: "Silent Hill" - Silent Hill (PSX)

 

"Silent Hill" from Silent Hill on the PlayStation and the Game Boy Advance* (?!?!?) 1999
Composer: Akira Yamaoka
Album: SILENT HILL ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACKS
Label: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (Team Silent)

It made sense to use a song from Silent Hill the last Wednesday before Halloween, although if you were not familiar with the franchise, I would be surprised if someone were to not only guess that this was from Silent Hill, but from a survival horror game.  There are some hints to the setting, mainly being that the song sounds like it was recorded by someone listening to an LP, but that is really about it.  The Wikipedia page states that composer Akira Yamaoka did not have any knowledge about what Silent Hill looked like and composed the music apart from the game development, which is probably why the song sounds like you just walked into either a cheeses shop or an Italian restaurant.  There is even the James Bond riff (around 1:20) that to me eeks out of nowhere then slides back into the ether.

This is just a very strange song, but I like it.  It somehow works with Harry wandering around a snowy beachside town looking for his daughter after a car crash.  It kind of makes you question why it is there, which is kind of what Silent Hill is about.  Or I am just coming up with a justification for this song existing in this terrifying universe.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Instrumental

*P.S.  This game was ported to the Game Boy Advance in Japan!?  Why am I only just hearing about this now?  That's right, it was a choose your own adventure visual novel.  I remember now.  Never mind.