I remember being punched in the face with emotion at The Force Awakens opening weekend, tearing immediately as just the “STAR WARS” banner of the opening credits score smashed onto the screen with the John Williams trumpet blast. For someone who was excited for another Star Wars movie, I didn’t realize how much I had loved Star Wars. Nostalgia hit me like a brick.
Star Wars Headspace is an odd project in that it’s electronic producers and musicians sampling bits of Star Wars audio into a compilation Various Artist collection of their updated nostalgia.
Starting off the record, we have Kaskade’s “C3PO’s Plight,” a track that turns C3PO dialogue into something Marvin from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy might say over Ke$ha sounding piano chords, and then GTA’s “Help Me!,” a track using Leia’s “help me Obi-Wan, you’re my only hope” and Darth Vader’s Imperial March samples, maybe the most sample heavy track of the record.
My personal favorite, mostly just because it’s comprised mainly of only Star Wars samples, the EDM Star Wars album is an odd concept in of itself. My favorite tracks usually are the ones that implement as little of the artist’s original material as possible. Most, not all, exist around the 3 minute mark as well, putting them at pop song time lengths that end before I could get annoyed or bored.
There isn’t much substance here other than the fact that it’s a cute project where electronic artists sample Star Wars sounds, and I’m sure Disney is banking on the hope that it gets listens as EDM popularity rises and Diplo & Skrillex take home the Electronic genre Grammy’s for Jack Ü. It sweeps down in enjoyment and excitement for me around the middle mark of Claude VonStroke, Bonobo, Royksopp & ATTLAS’ tracks, picked back up by the original sounds and production style of Flying Lotus, and then kind of plateau’s until the end. Star Wars Headspace was a cool idea and a great way to capitalize on the success of Star Wars‘ return and the industry of EDM, but as a project and an album, it’s well thought out and at times entertaining, but generally lackluster.