“i want to woerll you up into my life”

One day back when I lived in UC Santa Cruz I went to my friend Kristen’s room and she was playing some kind of video game where she was rolling a ball around a brightly coloured universe full of screaming, laughing and general cutesy Japanese bedlam. It looked infuriating, but little did I know that this game would soon have me clapping with glee like a simpleton, and would provide countless hours of addiction. That game was Katamari Damacy, which has spawned a bunch of sequels, and is the single best reason for owning a PS2.

In brief: the game involves you, the prince of the Lord of all the cosmos, having to pick everything up in the universe after said Lord got “drunk” and crashed into everything, throwing it out of place. (This drunk section is accompanied by the most hallucinogenic of visuals, that are usually associated with drugs other than alcohol, a nice nod to the game’s inevitable stoner fanbase). You pick everything up by rolling a ball, or “katamari”, which things stick to. At first, paperclips and flowers, later on people and elephants. It’s very silly, very Japanese, and has a soundtrack to die for – a crazy blend of J-pop, electro, jazz and electronica that’s incredibly charming and really quite envelope-pushing.

First up we have, well I don’t know what, because they all have Japanese names, so you’ll have to put up with my made-up names. I’ll, hilariously, call this one “Scatamari Damacy”, because of the girlish scat singing and lithe chamber jazz backing:

The Katamari House Band – Scatamari Damacy

There’s this, which is well funky piano set against scratchy noises, a cheesy breakbeat and rapping from what sounds like a geeky salaryman:

The Katamari House Band – Salaryman Funk

And this, a stirringly, fabulously overwrought minor-key power ballad for holding lighters aloft to and maybe having a bit of a cry. Nice spoken-word middle eight too:

The Katamari House Band – Katamari Final Victory Power Ballad

But the best of all is this, which is sweet and wonderful dinner jazz with wonky English vocals, more scat singing (inc. harmonised backing vocals), placid glockenspiel, and lyrics about wanting to roll an objet d’amour into my life, and roll up to be a single star in the sky. It’s tiny bit barking mad and all the more adorable for it. Get it get it, oh get it:

The Katamari House Band – Roll You Up Into My Life