I’ve never really understood Disney’s attitude toward Tron as a potential franchise. It seemed to loom large in the studio’s future plans until they purchased Lucasfilm, and then it’s like “Tron? What’s a Tron?” Every so often they actually draw some attention to it – hey, one hears there’s a new ride that’s cool – and then something like this pops up. The soundtrack to a new Tron game? What new Tron game? I’m a fan, I’d normally be pre-sold on this. Why didn’t I know about this?
But hey, I get it, Disney’s a huge corporation with a lot of concerns, such as failing themed hotel attractions and fending off the performative harassment of governors who want to be (but under not circumstances should ever be) presidents. They can’t market everything equally. So there’s a new Tron game that almost nobody knew was coming. How’s the music?
Dan le Sac has a background in remixing and hip hop, but has also started to plant his flag in some soundtrack work, including such games as Subsurface Circular and Quarantine Circular, whose developer is also behind Tron: Identity – aha, mystery solved! What’s interesting about this album is that, from the standpoint of 2023, the sound Wendy Carlos established for Tron is over 40 uears behind us in the rear-view mirror, but to help you feel even older, Daft Punk’s Tron Legacy soundtrack is nearly a decade and a half behind us as well. Is anyone scoring a new Tron project under any obligation to sound like…well…either of them?
It took me a few listens to arrive at an answer, because at first I thought, “well, there’s some vaguely Daft Punk-esque stuff in there, but not even much of that.” The soundtrack from the animated series Tron Uprising noted that its composer (Daft Punk collaborator Joseph Trapanese, who did some significant-but-only-quietly-credited heavy lifting on the Legacy score) was using synth patches designed by Daft Punk. This made sense, since Uprising was telling a story that happens between Tron and Tron Legacy. But where you see credit, you’re probably also seeing someone get paid extra, so that probably answers why nothing since Uprising has gone out of its way to hew to the Daft Punk sound.
And Identity’s score doesn’t do that either. Tracks like “Antiques”, “First Impressions”, and “A Really Big Door” give the strong impression that this game’s music is trying to meet both of the franchise’s films in the middle, where the music inhabits an interesting middle ground with electronics deployed in a manner that reminds you a little of Tron Legacy, but also choral pads that hearken all the way back to the almost-religious sound Wendy Carlos used in key scenes of the original film, when the score was hammering home the “programs regard the users as gods, but they are neither gods nor worthy of that worship” metaphor that the script didn’t dare put into words in 1982. It’s an interesting mix. Tracks such as “Upcycled”, “Last Steps”, “Breakout”, and “Back On The Grid” bring in beats that have more of a connection to the composer’s previous work than they do to anything we’ve heard in a Tron property before. And some tracks – looking at you, “Bloom Effect” – find a mesmerizing middle ground between the two styles.
But when Disney waits so long to do anything with a franchise that clearly has significant fan interest and public recognition, the passage of time makes it a nearly ridiculous exercise for anyone to claim that the “sound of Tron” is thing thing, but definitely isn’t that other thing. The music of each fleeting entry in the franchise has had an outsized influence on defining its universe. Tron can be Carlos, Daft Punk, and trap beats. It doesn’t harm its fictional universe. That makes this soundtrack an interesting listen.
Now to find out what this game’s actually about. Really good job, Disney Marketing Department, really good job. But I know y’all are busy right now.
- Opening Up (01:41)
- Antiques (03:43)
- Upcycled (01:46)
- First Impression (03:27)
- Last Steps (02:06)
- Back On The Grid (02:09)
- A Really Big Door (04:01)
- Breakout (02:07)
- Bloom Effect (03:07)
- Imposition (04:40)
- Getting Comfortable (01:52)
- Consequences (End Credits) (02:16)
Released by: Disney Music
Release date: April 11, 2023
Total running time: 32:50