As the always-reliable YouTube comments section will happily note, there will always be something about the boot-up music of the original Sony PlayStation that taps into some dormant nostalgia hidden somewhere in the brain of over 50% of the population born between roughly 1980 and 1991.

Something about it provided the perfect amount of suspense while suggesting a taste of the scope and awe of the 3D worlds that awaited after the final chimes faded out:

While less integral to its success than the PlayStation 2's DVD player, the PS1's ability to play music CDs was also a feature in and of itself -- some games, like Ridge Racer, allowed you to insert a new CD mid-game to replace the in-game background music. There was also a hidden visualizer that reacted to button presses:

Conversely, putting a PS1 disc into a standard CD player allowed you to play the game's OST as a standard album. Titles like WipEout, Rez, Ridge Racer, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy VII and Cool Boarders worked as complete packages, with their Y2K-era electronic music supporting and in some cases surpassing the acclaim for the visuals and gameplay of the game itself.

Naturally, today multiple entire sub-cultures exist around combining PS1-era visuals with the downtempo, ambient, jungle/dnb and IDM electronic sonic textures that were in vogue at the turn of the millennium -- take this mix, for example, set to visuals evoking Final Fantasy VII's Midgar:

Sometime in late 2024, after listening to re-issues of Palomatic's Trill and Love Spirals Downwards' Flux I started to notice some of those same textures popping up in underground/indie and mainstream pop records -- Madonna's William Orbit-helmed Ray of Light has obviously been having a moment after being heavily referenced in last years Addison Rae and FKA Twigs records, and plenty has been written about both PinkPantheress' Underworld and Basement Jaxx sampling and Oklou's gauzy euro-pop tinged choke enough.

But that same spirit also exists in one of my favorite records from 2025, James K's Friend. I love this album so much -- in part because something about both the visual and sonic aesthetic of it that completely capture the mystery of finding a random CD and putting it in a PS1 and getting completely absorbed by that visualizer dancing on a 30-inch CRT screen.

Mentalized, by Sydney-based Skeleten was another one of my favorites throughout the year, it's artwork similarly echoing the digital artifacts and janky visualizers of Y2K computer graphics. Ravers Dream has some synths gurgling throughout that sound like they came straight out of an RPGs pause menu from 1998.

Facility Extras, a companion/follow-up of demos dropped in October and perfectly continues the mood. Listening to E-Tusk I could almost convince myself I'm listening to an old AOL-connected modem reaching ascension after finally being freed from the internet for the last time.

EXPHORIA, a benefit compilation released this week with proceeds going to the Sameer Project, taps into the more ravey side of the PS1 library -- there's lots of great high BPM nuggets that could easily soundtrack a particularly white-knuckle Ridge Racer or WipEout course.

Lastly, Tiffi M's Heartstrings utilizes a lot of different sounds and textures in its relatively short run time, merging 2010s Alex G-esque folk with digitally warped and processed vocals in the vein of other acts in and around the inadvertent.index scene -- but there's something perfectly uncanny about the undercurrent of synthesized strings and programmed drums throughout the record that evoke the sensibility (if not the exact sonics) of so much music during the digital revolution.