Queer Man Peering Into A Rock Pool.jpg, from Sydney developers Fuzzy Ghost, was one of my favourite video game experiences of last year, but with Pete and Scott moving onto their exceptionally-exciting next project, Janet DeMornay Is A Slumlord (and a witch), I hadn’t expected to find myself with the opportunity to revisit that curious little place with a fresh angle – yet here we are!
Collaborating once again with Magic City Counterpoint, the electronic duo of Madeleine Cocolas and Chris Perren that wrote Fern Bells, one of the tracks in Queer Man, Fuzzy Ghost has created an interactive online experience for the duo’s new EP, Dialogue. Taking bits and pieces from the game, Fuzzy Ghost has created a new island, playable right from a browser, where folks can experience the EP in an immersive way with the familiar and charming lo-fi visual style.
This new island dynamically takes shape and life as you listen and wander through all five tracks. Each track brings its own distinct feeling and intent, and each is perfectly represented by the shifting hues, tones, shapes and ideas in the experience. They’re all great, but Dream State stands out to me in particular thanks to an incredible and unexpected visual journey and wonderfully-dreamlike and spacey synths and vocals – Sun for similar reasons but a complete opposite vibe. Fern Bells, which featured in Queer Man Peering, is also just as good as ever.
It’s almost like a remix album, if the original album was a game and the remix album was an original album, and it feels like listening to a playlist stacked with the likes of Purity Ring, Baths and Poliça with heavy rain hitting my roof as I play Minecraft on a burnt-out Macbook at 2AM. And of course, you can peer into rock pools!
I really appreciate that the songs can be played in any order without giving the impression that there’s a correct, curated way to listen, although if you play just the audio side of things through as is on your streaming platform of choice it’s a great little sequence. It’s telling that I’ve had it on repeat all morning. Check it out below:
There’s a quick trailer for Dialogue below, but you should definitely try the experience for yourself right here (via a Chrome browser)!
