Pivotal proto-grime soundtrack for ‘Wolverine: Adamantium Rage’ to get first vinyl pressing

Sneaker Social Club to issue influential soundtrack on double vinyl

Having been re-discovered as a groundbreaking slice of proto-grime from 1994, Dylan Beale’s legendary soundtrack for the SNES game ‘Wolverine: Adamantium Rage’ finally sees the official release it deserves via Sneaker Social Club.

When the game came out in 1994, Beale’s soundtrack for the SNES edition stood out from the pack for its gritty beats, deceptively weighty low end and edgy orchestral stabs, but few would have guessed how certain tracks would predict the shape of music to come. Around 2016, the ‘Tri Fusion’ track in particular was picked up on by London-based producer Sir Pixalot as a mind-blowing slice of Eski beat coldness. To prove his point, Pixalot ran an acapella from J-Wing over the track and the results spoke for themselves.

While ‘Tri Fusion’ is a straight-up accidental grime sheller, there’s loads more heat packed away in Beale’s soundtrack for ‘Adamantium Rage’. The limitations of the space on the game cart meant Beale had to get creative with the most limited samples. Fortunately his background producing UK hardcore and jungle in Rude & Deadly and Stuck To Your Lips meant he knew his way around the restrictions of an Akai s950. Fuelled by the inspiration of jungle and West Coast rap, he worked on the game soundtrack with a similar spartan attitude, limited to 200kb with which to load up the music engine for the game, samples and all.

Alongside the full, original soundtrack, this first issue of ‘Wolverine: Adamantium Rage’ OST comes with additional tracks never used in the original game, which widen out the styles Beale was exploring within the shockingly limited means at his disposal.

“I vividly remember when we first played the soundtrack on a bigger set of speakers to the boss,” Beale recalls, “his initial reaction was one of amazement that we had created something so ‘real’ and different in comparison to everything else out there in terms of video game music, which I remember with great pride and fondness. Comparing to everything out there, it was totally unique- a moment in time.”

To pre-order your vinyl copy, released on October 27, click here