Remember this game?
It’s been talked about a lot.
Game studio bypasses the Nintendo Seal of Approval and the courts are on their side.
Nintendo can’t fight back directly, but can threaten retailers.
Sales whither, so game studio moves into the Christian Video Game Market, untouchable.
A story for the ages.
But I think a lot of people kinda skip over the logistics of that last step.
Where were they selling these games?
A Christian book store? Uh...
What?
How?
Well.
For those who haven’t set foot inside such a store, such as me on my two decade streak,
I’d like to explain: They’re called bookstores because they mostly have books, but
they have other media too.
Movies, more traditionally.
Video games, since 1991.
And of course…
music.
Traditionally this would be gospel and praise and worship and such.
But...
I don’t know when this started, but for quite a while, Christianity has been very
keen to be hip.
That youth pastor meme exists for a reason.
(Among us. He's am--)
So, with that in mind, I’d like to show you the funniest CD that I own.
Behold.
The year is 1993.
Some guys from Texas hear about the rave scene that's going wild in the UK.
They bring it overseas and spritz it with some holy water.
This is the result.
Well, not this specifically.
This is their second album.
But their first was still from 1993, so whatever.
Look at it though! I mean.
I don’t know if the art is a riff on some other breakbeat hardcore album, but the CD sure is.
This ain’t the Prodigy, this is the Prodigal Sons.
Similarly, the track names are all wordplay
and it’s great.
“James Brown is Dead”.
I think you mean…
“Satan is Dead”.
You’ve heard of the 3 Wise Men.
Now get ready for…
the “303 Wiseman”.
Psalm 150............
Beats Per Minute.
The 1790s in America saw a significant rise in the spread and adoption of Christianity.
This is sometimes referred to as the Protestant Revival.
But we're in 1993 so this time it's the Ravival
“Firestarter”?
More like…
“Fire......brand” Psalms 102:3.
I gues-- no, that didn't exist yet.
Yeah, the other half of the tracks are just Christian imagery.
The funniest part though?
It’s good.
Sometimes.
Some of the chopped samples are unfortunate, especially after being trapped in amber for
30 years.
Some of the tracks are just a bit silly.
Some of the messaging is straight up uncomfortable.
But then you hear stuff like this.
(The Prodigal Sons - Believe)
And this rabbit hole goes deep.
I haven’t fully explored it.
Apparently there was an entire record label dedicated to Christian rave music, called
N*SOUL.
I guess they’re defunct now?
They have a twitter but it’s been nothing but automated tweets about their follower count
since 2016…
I’m going to leave you with two retro N*SOUL recommendations, both on youtube:
In 1998, Faith Massive released "Drum & Bass for the Masses",
and it’s some incredibly solid liquid dnb, start to finish.
Just watch out for the jumpscare at the end of track 9.
In 1995, Paradigm Shift put out a self titled album, exactly 10 years after the completely
unrelated (secular) eponymous Paradigm Shift album.
The halal one is chemical breaks.
Pure raw vibes that somehow haven’t aged a day.
It fits right alongside the Crystal Method.
There’s probably more gold to find on this record label, but
nothing else caught my attention when I did my digging.
It’s kinda wild enough to know this existed at all.