Rapture - Harlequin - TVee Wonderland (ingame tune 5)

Barry Leitch's Harlequin soundtrack remains one of my all-time favourite game OSTs ever. Every tune in that marvellous game is a treat for the ears, and anyone aiming to improve upon the original tracks has their work very much cut out for them.

This remix succeeds in absolutely every respect. Indeed, it's no exaggeration to say that it's one of my favourite pieces of music of any kind in the world ever.

Not only does it capture perfectly the electrifying mood of the original TVee Wonderland theme (somehow managing to be hair-raisingly eerie and playfully energetic at the same time), not only does it expand upon the original with exceptional verve and creativity (introducing an array of beautiful new harmonies, counter-melodies and other splendidly atmospheric flourishes), but it even manages to tell a story that fits in perfectly with the part of the game where this particular theme first turns up, via some positively spiffing sound design. The level of Harlequin that gives this track its name is one of the most original and gleefully sinister environments ever to appear in a platformer. The hero of the piece finds himself inside a gigantic, haunted television showroom where every single TV set is broken, and the player is tasked with guiding him past an array of electricity-themed enemies and traps. As such, the intro to this remix could scarcely be more perfect as we hear a television turn on by itself and start searching through the static for a clear transmission, eventually settling upon a channel where the MOD version of the tune can briefly be heard before the updated version zaps into life. (An especially pleasing touch – among the garbled snatches of other programmes we can clearly hear excerpts from the theme tunes of Gamesmaster and Bad! Influence, both of which first came to the screen in the year of Harlequin's release.) The various other crackles, sparks and fizzes that crop up throughout the rest of the track add greatly to the spookily mysterious vibe of the whole thing without ever being intrusive, and the conclusion as the static returns and the misfiring TV finally shuts itself off is the perfect coda to the whole experience.

I utterly, wholeheartedly love this remix. As you may possibly have gathered.