Pitchfork

When the Playstation 3 hits the streets on November 17 (start lining up now, kids), its earliest adopters will be happy to learn that among the device's high-tech, new-fangled features, the PS3 comes equipped with a means of purchasing and downloading video games. Among these arcade-style games slated for launch with the console: Blast Factor, a three-dimensional shooter that just happens to feature a bangin' soundtrack by Drop D, the electronic duo comprised of Belong's Turk Dietrich and Telefon Tel Aviv's Josh Eustis.

Pitchfork recently chatted with Dietrich about scoring Blast Factor, what's next for Belong, and of course, general gaming nerdery.

"It was basically a stroke of luck," said Dietrich of his involvement in the project, which resulted from the ol' friend-of-a-friend scenario. While they weren't able to play the actual game, Drop D composed the music-- meant to supplement the saga of a little nano-spaceship sent in to navigate various bodily fluids and exterminate all manner of nasty viruses and parasites-- by viewing Quicktime footage of game events.

The sound? Basically, said Dietrich, "It's got some longish ambient textures and also some electronic, electro-ish, more science fiction beat type stuff in there as well...definitely a Telefon Tel Aviv fan would be into it because a lot of it is really beat-oriented electronic stuff."

Dietrich assured, however, that fans of Belong's gorgeous, Pitchfork Recommended 2006 set October Language won't feel left out in the cold. "The scenes in the game are centered on aliens and science fiction, but there are still elements in there that a Belong fan would catch and really get into...a lot of really textural and ambient stuff in there that is similar to the material on October Language."

While this is Drop D's first video game project, it seemed like a natural choice for Dietrich and Eustis, and they hope to continue working in this realm. "We want to seek out some of the more creative and interesting games that people are working on, because that is one of our pastimes. We are both video game nerds."

Dietrich has been at it since the beginning: "I've been playing video games since the Atari 2600 days; then I had a Commodore 64 and then it just went from Nintendo all through today. My favorite games are just the Nintendo catalog: anything Zelda or Metroid, and other stuff like Metal Gear Solid."

Because Blast Factor bears the stamp of mega-corporation Sony, Dietrich and Eustis were concerned their creative voices might be stifled. Fortunately, this proved not to be the case. "There was a lot of back and forth. The cool thing is that a lot of back and forth was with the actual game designers...It was basically the two programmers of the game talking with me and Josh.

"There [was] no outside involvement or meddling. It was just us."

While there are no immediate plans to release the music on Blast Factor independently of the game, Dietrich speculated that the Playstation 3's web-savvy interface increases the chances. "The really cool thing about this new generation of video game systems is that they are all Wi-Fi and internet ready. They all offer online chat and download services, and if Blast Factor became really popular, they could easily throw up the soundtrack for download. That is a possibility."

As mentioned, Dietrich hopes to make a serious endeavor of Drop D's video game scoring, with the aim of funneling the spoils into Belong and other artistic pursuits which, for now, are a little less lucrative-- "which is really cool," he said, "because: one, I really love video games, and two, I'm not gonna make any money from Belong. So if I can make a little money working on video games and really enjoy doing it then, that's awesome.

"Better than being a bartender or something-- at least this way I can actually write music!"

And as for Belong, the New Orleans duo comprised of Dietrich and Michael Jones has a new 12" on the way via Secretly Canadian off-shoot St. Ives-- which initially put out the ultra-rare Animal Collective Hollinndagain live 12". Marking a fairly different direction for the duo, this vinyl frisbee should spin into shops in early 2007 and will feature "four or five" covers of late 1960s psychedelic artists like Tintern Abbey and July. And yes, said Dietrich, "it will have vocals."

Belong then plan to release the full-length follow-up to October Language in fall 2007, and tour with a new four-piece line-up. Eustis' Telefon Tel Aviv, meanwhile, also have a new disc on the way in the coming year.