Like countless others, Steve Goodman played a lot of video games during lockdown. At the time, the artist known as Kode9 and founder of the iconic Hyperdub label found himself imagining a game about Scotland and the country's plan to set up a colony in Panama back in the 1690s. Those thoughts later crystallised into Astro-Darien, an AV installation, "sonic fiction" and album that explores Scotland's space program and its past colonial ambitions through the lens of a video game.
Speaking to RA on this week's episode of the Exchange, Goodman delves into the various facets of this project, including Escapology, his score to Astro-Darien. The album, released in July, is "like a film trailer that's giving you a little taste of various bits of story and strands of a kind of palette of sounds and a world," he explains. "So if you want, there's places to go deeper on it but if you are not interested in that, just treat it as a slightly weird dance music record."
Science fiction aside, the Hyperdub founder also discusses the cyclical nature of music and why jungle is currently experiencing what many have called a revival. "Music doesn't move forward, it doesn't progress in a linear fashion," he describes, attributing that to "generational relationships."
For more deep thoughts and Goodman's guide on hiking in the Scottish Highlands, listen to the conversation in full.