Private Life, Otherside – Musical Game

Growing up, when the humble household PC wasn’t being used for #hashtagging, Skyping or monitoring fortnightly dole payments, I spent a grand amount of time playing games on the World Wide Web. Nothing serious like World of Warcraft or anything like that, my jam was a silly little game called Icy Tower, where a hooded character would scale a brick wall against a timer. It was fun, and riddled my parents’ computer with diseases beyond repair.

Anyway, harking back to these old humble times of the pixilated, delayed and downright rubbish PC games of the 90s is the newest clip/game from  the Melbourne-based electronic duo, Private Life. The pair have created a game, not unlike Ice Tower, where you jump and hope not to fall to your doom in a mystical retro world, which nicely accompanies their track, Otherside.

The idea for an arcade game-type video clip stemmed from the meeting with video game developer, Damien Sloane at one of the band’s gigs last year. The two parties were eager to collaborate, and so this nifty game/music/entertainment e-baby was born. The track, Otherside, has pretty synths and a gentle beat, not unlike sounds of  great electronic artists like Little Dragon or Metric. It is featured on Private Life’s debut EP, which was produced and mixed by Jean Paul Fung, who previously has worked with Last Dinosaurs, Art Vs. Science and Glass Towers.

You can play the Outsiders game and sample the track by clicking this link, or simply keep up to date with the band via their Private Life Facebook page. Oh and don’t bother with Icy Tower, it does more harm than good.

Words by Carol Bowditch.