Music for a Cyberpunk future?

To me, the cyberpunk world isn't just about technology, but about how that tech shrinks the world, making all kinds of combinations possible. That's why you have so many cyberpunk stories, novels and movies using linguistic patois of Asian and European languages, mash-ups of different artistic asthetic sensibilities, and so forth.

I won't list songs, but I will list artists who on some level would fit right in to some niche a cyberpunk world:

Godflesh
Machines of Loving Grace
God Lives Underwater
Bjork
Tricky
Ministry
50,000 Homo DJs
MC 900ft Jesus
Pigface
Tackhead
Portishead
NIN
Nitzer Ebb
KMFDM
Buckethead
Lush
Curve
Helios Creed
David Bowie
Tin Machine
Robert Fripp
Adrian Belew
King Crimson (1980s on)
Brian Eno (specifically Nerve Net)
Sisters of Mercy
Tangerine Dream (early stuff, up to the mid 1980s)
Killing Joke
Static X
Skunk Anansie
William Orbit
Bill Laswell
Material
Praxis
Painkiller
Karsh Kale
Roni Size
Nicky Skopelitis
David Sylvan
 
Last edited:

log in or register to remove this ad

I put together a few tapes of music for a Cyberpunk game I ran back in college. I had access to the college radio station's record collection (yes, records, on vinyl) and so was able to get a lot of interesting stuff. Off the top of my head:

"Night Falls over Western Europe" by Cassandra Complex (on their Cyberpunx album)
"Get Back" by Laibach
"Rip Her to Shreds" by Blondie
"So What" by Ministry
"Stigmata" by Ministry
"Interstellar Overdrive" by Pink Floyd
"Burn, Hollywood, Burn" by Public Enemy
"Information Overload" by Living Colour
"Astronomy Domine" by Voivod
"Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns and Roses
"Mongoloid" by Devo
I think I also had some Killing Joke and MC Spider.

If I were making one now, I'd be sure to add some Rammstein. They seem pretty cyberpsycho to me.
 

I probably put Combichrist, Suicide Commando, and Punto Omega on the list of caustic music that might be for a cyberpunk future.

For more moody and ambient music I'd probably have Haujobb and Noise Unit on the list.
 

Dannyalcatraz said:
MC 900ft Jesus
Click to expand...
You are a man of taste and refinement, sir!

I'll second Tricky (specifically, the album w/Christiansands), and add Saul Williams (for NiggyTardust --didn't Trent Reznor have a hand in that?) and Underworld (their music is what I imagine cyberspace runs sound like).

It's funny, 2 out of 3 of my selections for the 'soundtrack to the future' are over a decade old... and most cyberpunk is even older. Is Neuromancer really 25 years old?

edit: oh, and the Massive Attack disk w/Teardrop. Just because it's a beautiful song. Even in a futuristic dystopia, there should be a little beauty.
 

In high school, my friends and I loved a band called Psykosonik, that had overtly William Gibson inspired cyberpunk lyrics.

I haven't listen to them in years, and it might seem pretty cheesy now.
 



jdrakeh said:
I actually have that, but was trying to stay away from largely instrumental stuff (Kuss being the sole exception on my list so far).
Click to expand...
Huh. Here I was going to recommend that you look into the largely instrumental stuff. Lyrically "pop" music is really distracting at the game table.

This playlist sounds more like you trying to show off your industrial cred than it does like adding something meaningful to the game. My cyperbunk soundtrack would probably be mostly instrumental trance.
 

Among the rappers I forgot to mention who would fit in:

Bustah Rhymes
Kool Kieth/Dr. Octagon/Ultramagnetic MCs
Del, The Funky Homosapien
 


Pets & Sidekicks

Remove ads

Top