Last week, Shinoda gave us versions of "Already Over" and "In My Head" optimised to soundtrack gaming sessions; this time, he's delivering us new remixes geared for your sweaty cardio workouts, once again in collaboration with the German soundscape wizards at Endel Sound. The resulting mixtape-style listening experience, "Already Over / In My Head (Endel Workout Soundscape)" consists of 15 tracks with 43 minutes of music, starting from soft and relaxing numbers and building up to more intense arrangements. The music contains plenty of distorted ambient elements and stretched-out vocal cuts, coated with heavy amounts of reverb and layered over deep bass, which adds up to an ominous, trippy atmosphere that permeates the entire album. The overall sampling approach heard here could be compared to the aesthetics of modern-day phonk or mid-2010s "cloud rap", both of which draw heavily from the 90s Memphis hip-hop scene and trailblazing producers like DJ Smokey and DJ Screw. Meanwhile, all the drums parts are house-influenced four-to-the-floor rhythms at different tempos, instead of more relaxed trip-hop rhythms on the previous Shinoda x Endel collaboration, which makes for the most obvious difference between the two. The tracklist comprises a "Warm Up" suite with 4 versions of "In My Head", a "Light Cardio" section with 4 remixes of the "Fort Minor Mix" version of "Already Over", and, lastly, 7 remixes of the original "Already Over" divided into 3 suites: "Cardio", "Intense Cardio" and "Cool Down". In My Head - Endel Warm Up 1 (Workout Soundscape) [2:07] In My Head - Endel Warm Up 2 (Workout Soundscape) [2:06] In My Head - Endel Warm Up 3 (Workout Soundscape) [3:38] In My Head - Endel Warm Up 4 (Workout Soundscape) [3:54] Already Over - Endel Light Cardio 1 (Fort Minor Mix)(Workout Soundscape) [2:23] Already Over - Endel Light Cardio 2 (Fort Minor Mix)(Workout Soundscape) [2:29] Already Over - Endel Light Cardio 3 (Fort Minor Mix)(Workout Soundscape) [3:31] Already Over - Endel Light Cardio 4 (Fort Minor Mix)(Workout Soundscape) [2:53] Already Over - Endel Cardio 1 (Workout Soundscape) [3:00] Already Over - Endel Cardio 2 (Workout Soundscape) [3:12] Already Over - Endel Cardio 3 (Workout Soundscape) [4:07] Already Over - Endel Intense Cardio 1 (Workout Soundscape) [2:35] Already Over - Endel Intense Cardio 2 (Workout Soundscape) [2:51] Already Over - Endel Cool Down 1 (Workout Soundscape) [2:25] Already Over - Endel Cool Down 2 (Workout Soundscape) [2:08] The first couple of tracks are soft, drumless ambient takes on "In My Head", combining swirling synth drones and vocal snippets with generous amounts of reverb. A soft guitar rhythm seeps in towards the end of "Warm Up 2". "Warm Up 3" begins with the sudden introduction of a kick rhythm and a bassline from the original song; this arrangement continues to build with the introduction of piano chords, cymbal crashes and other rhythm elements; this build continues in "Warm Up 4", which brings in more guitar parts, vocal samples and synth parts. At about the midpoint in this track, the arrangement reaches its climax and begins to wind down over the rest of its 4-minute length. The end of the "In My Head" section transitions straight into the "Light Cardio" section, kicking off with a midtempo drum rhythm - a syncopated breakbeat with a four-on-the-floor kick layered underneath - which is immediately at odds with the halftime rhythm we're familiar with from the "Fort Minor" remix of "Already Over". The drum rhythm continues for over 2 minutes while samples from the the "Already Over" remix are used as obscured atmospheric elements in the background. The rest of the tracks in this section build on that minimal start, with the echoed samples becoming louder and more prominent and sub-bass appearing underneath the drums more and more. Throughout the rest of these 4 tracks, the drum kit builds to include a clap snare and hi-hat layers, playing a more confident electronic midtempo beat. These drums weave in and out alongside samples from the "Already Over" remix, all within the dynamics of a greater overarching 4-track arrangement. None of the rap vocals from the "Fort Minor" remix make an appearance throughout these versions. The "Cardio" section is the first 3 closing sections which are all remixes of "Already Over". This suite is primarily built on a house four-to-the-floor rhythm paired with the original song's pre-chorus bassline. A synth pad and vocal elements from "Already Over" appear over the top, and the song's synth arp appears around the midpoint of "Cardio 2" for what could almost be mistaken for a rave-friendly build-up, but the track breaks down from there instead of delivering any sort of drop. Towards the end of "Cardio 2", the pre-chorus bassline is traded for the verses' four-note bass guitar part, which remains the bassline throughout all of "Cardio 3". Things get a little bit faster during the "Intense Cardio" section - we once again have a house rhythm going on, with the verse bassline again, but it's faster now, bringing us more in the vicinity of the original "Already Over" tempo. The vocal samples here aren't so obscured and distant but some of them are distinctly off-beat, giving these tracks a slightly more chaotic feel. Some rhythm guitar appears towards the end of "Intense Cardio 2" as the arrangement builds to a climax and closes out. The last two tracks, labelled "Cool Down", take us back to the more ambient New Age soundscapes that are more typical of Endel releases. Much like the opening "Warm Up" versions of "In My Head", they mostly have no drums or bass, instead being centered on synth drones and faint, reverb- and delay-heavy vocal samples drifting in and out across the stereo field. These new tracks add to a scary amount of official versions of "Already Over" released since the original song dropped in September last year. Nobody knows if Shinoda is plotting to release even more, and whether he will be working with Endel on any more of these soundscape collections ... In the meantime, you can listen to the Endel Workout Soundscape collection on platforms including Spotify and YouTube (including the whole thing in one video) - tell us what you think on our message board!
Those gaming sessions versions seem like they are especially for the use of background music in twitch streams. Nothing really special but for such a thing propably kinda nice.