C418 Releases Auditory Charm With Newest EP ‘Cookie Clicker’
Daniel Rosenfeld, also known as C418, is a German producer, sound engineer, and legendary video game artist. C418's newest release is EP Cookie Clicker, with a total of five songs and a length of roughly 22 minutes.
Now you may be thinking, is it THAT Cookie Clicker game I used to play on the internet in 2013? Yes, but no. The game Cookie Clicker released its official, full-fledged game on the platform “Steam” on September 1st, and C418 was in charge of the composition of the game. Was I aware of this before I began writing this piece on the album? No. Does it really matter? Maybe. Was I just ecstatic to cover a piece of music by C418? Of course!
Enough of the backstory, now onto the music.
For a game about clicking cookies, C418 did not back down on his music abilities for this EP. The initial track “hover” introduces the EP with an atmospheric yet mysterious tune, with many waves and buzzes splotched onto its musical canvas. A fitting introduction to the mystifying, almost eerie look of the album cover. A cookie unexplainably in the midst of nature.
The second track, and the LONGEST track in the EP, “click” appears to take chill-hop and future wave inspirations. A catchy, slowed beat behind a wall of myriads of piano dabbles, synth melodies, and discrete bass additions to develop the track from a gentle tune to a resounding climax.
The third track “grandmapocalypse” is the most sonically intense song in the EP. This track carries trench deep bass that comes in powerful waves throughout the majority of its 5 minutes, accurately depicting the musical equivalent of a grandmapocalypse.
The fourth track “ascend”, in comparison, is the most subtle song in the EP. As if taken straight out of a Hans Zimmer soundtrack, the synths mimic a tight string orchestra, displaying the audio version of soft velvet, with many pauses and breaks in between. Ending with a space-like reverberation to wrap its delicate concept.
The fifth track “click forever” is the closing track for this EP. I enjoy seeing this as the sequel to “hover”, as it does not attempt to introduce a certain magnetism to this story. It effortlessly reminds you how lavish a soundtrack can be for a simple cookie game, where you only click cookies and observe your capitalist cookie census grow.
But does a video game soundtrack mean a mediocre album? Not one bit. Video game music can be one of the richest pieces of audio art out there, and this is a great opportunity to take a sample at one of the video games’ outstanding composers, Daniel Rosenfeld, C418.
