The Ongaku

Thrasher launched via Steam, playable on Steam Deck & SteamVR

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Thrasher launched via Steam, playable on Steam Deck & SteamVR
Cosmic racer Thrasher has launched for Windows through Steam, playable on Steam Deck, SteamVR, or PC with mouse or gamepad. The independently developed title invites players to utilize fast-paced gestural controls to pilot an evolving space eel in a breakneck race for survival that begins at the dawn of time.

Previously released for Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro, the cosmic racer is by independent developer Puddle of Providence, Rhode Island. Design is by artist Mike Mandel and composer Brian Gibson, bassist for the band Lightning Bolt, makers of Thumper (2016), produced by Drool.


"Tracks like album opener 'Metal Maze' and 'Mica' harken back to the trance-inflected movements of Lightning Bolt’s Hypermagic Mountain," reads the product description. "The existential dread of Thumper carries over to pieces like 'Timekeepers' and 'Mad Moon,' but across the album Gibson infuses that dread with an equal share of awe."

The Thrasher vinyl soundtrack ships via Bandcamp, publisher Thrill Jockey, and distributor Forced Exposure. The twelve-track digital soundtrack is hosted on Steam and Bandcamp, with streaming on Spotify and Amazon Music Unlimited.


From the Vimeo vinyl unboxing video:
The soundtrack harnesses Gibson’s otherworldly visions with bright musical clarity, trading the “rhythmic violence” of Thumper for expansive and sublime atmospheres punctured by cascading, serpentine arpeggios embodied by otherworldly creatures.

Gibson and Mandel call the game “a mind-melting arcade action odyssey and visceral audiovisual experience.” The game was designed as an immersive virtual reality experience following a kind of evolving space centipede from “crawling from the depths of primordial gloom to the heights of celestial bliss, culminating in a heart-pounding reckoning with a cosmic baby god.” Gibson’s start in game designing began at Harmonix working on tentpole titles like Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

Thrasher breaks from Gibson’s history in rhythm-centered games. Arpeggiated synths and undulating textural loops mimic the segmented art style of the centipede, as well as the game’s more open and nuanced emotional core. Through these intricate sequences, Gibson imbues the soundtrack’s ceaseless propulsion with melodic mystery and tensions. The crystalline twirl of “Magenta Machine” expands and contracts like a living, breathing biosphere.
Thrill Jockey - Thrasher Vinyl LP

Forced Exposure (North America) - Thrasher Clear Color Vinyl / Thrasher LP

Black Screen Records - Thrasher Vinyl Soundtrack