ReMix:Deus Ex "God from the Machine" 3:23

Linkin Park meets Deus Ex?!?

Not *too* far off the mark, as newcomers Moiré Effect take UNATCO in an aggressive, vocal rap/metal hybrid direction, with spoken verses, an anthemic sung chorus, some pretty gritty & on-point Orwellian lyrics, and a whole lotta energy; Drew writes:

"I am Drew Etterle (SuprMelO) and my bandmate is Scott Wells (BluuMonk), and together our band is Moiré Effect. Our submission is a hard rock remix of the "UNATCO" theme from the original Deus Ex, released on PC in 2000, and is titled "God from the Machine."

Deus Ex was revolutionary in its mature subject matter and open-ended gameplay. It was also nigh prophetic in its portrayal of our evolving relationship with technology, ever increasing government surveillance, and corporatism. While the themes from the song draw heavily from the original, the visuals of Mankind Divided and Human Revolution convey the same sense of gravity, just in a different way.

The UNATCO music is a serene but mysterious song, perfect for investigating intrigue at the virtually unaccountable global police bureaucracy. We took melodies and progressions and found they served great for examining our behaviors and habits brought on by technology, and the ease of surrendering privacy to the system. The hard rock take added weight to the themes of surveillance and corporatism we were exploring in the song.

[Spoilers for Deus Ex ahead] A lot of Scott's lyrics are lifted and modified from JC Denton's encounter with the A.I. Morpheus late in the original game. Morpheus presents itself as a system that trawls the internet for people's information and presents it back to them for their amusement. It seems benign, but it's not difficult to imagine it as a much more sinister system. And why would we feel the need to create such a system? [/Spoilers]

We actually cut a music video for the song using footage from various trailers for other Deus Ex games. Thanks for taking a listen."

While this particular genre/sound might be polarizing for some, it's pretty damn hard to execute well, and there's zero room for lack of confidence or going halfway. Kudos to Drew & Scott for both the vision and the conviction, here - it comes through in their music; this is a song they WANTED to make happen, and they did. I'm not even a huge fan of the style myself, but I was definitely getting into it, the chorus lands right, the backing synths & DSP are integrated effectively, the entire narrative vision is relevant both to the game and to our modern, post-Snowden era. Gario writes:

"This has 'Linkin Park' written all over it, and I enjoyed every second of it. The rapping paired with the screamo, the quality guitar work against the simpler synths, and the thematic lyrics - it's quite the homage to one of my favorite games. It's unconventional, but it's really quite good."

Sir_NutS adds:

"Very 2000s Nu-metal, this one... The arrangement and structure are pretty good here, this sounds like a single you would hear at the peak of the nu-metal popularity, though an expressive guitar solo is not something you often heard in the style, here it's a very nice inclusion."

Great stuff; I love surprises like this, love to see genre diversity and tracks which embrace not only a specific aesthetic that we see less of, generally, but which also embrace the game narrative and draw connections to the here & now. While Deus Ex works particularly well for this style, I'd love to see what else these two can cook up in terms of VGM adaptations. Great stuff, check it out!