Montreal DJ Kid Koala blends beats for virtual breakdancing

Montreal-based DJ and producer Kid Koala, akaEric San,released a double-vinyl album this week of the 42-tracks he composed for the award-winning video game, Floor Kids.

The album contains71 minutes of original instrumental hip-hop and break music he produced for the game, which has raked in awards at gaming competitionsin Boston, San Francisco and Vancouver to name a few.

Floor Kids, released onNintendo Switch in December, was years in the making and features hand-drawn animation where players can participate in virtual breakdance battles.

"You have this freedom to create, to link moves on the spot, and do combos," said San.

"It's how you score points in the game, but its also how you choreograph or design or improvise if you're a dancer."

This is one of manymultimedia projects San has worked on over his 20-year career.

He's produced six albums, waslong-listed for the2013 Polaris Music Prize and has produced music for major Hollywood films like the Oscar-nominated Baby Driver, released in2017.

As to why he decided to release the music on its own, the scratch artist joked, "in my opinion, it's the first Kid Koala record you can actually dance to."

• VIDEO:From turntables to vintagedictaphones, Kid Koala teaches youto scratchfour ways

Sanexplained that in each level of the game,players can control avatars to do different dance moves and he jumped at the chance to compose and produce the music they'd be dancing to.

"There'sa lot of musical content that you have to create," he said.

"By the time we launched the game, we realized there were over 40 tracks."

San also produced thebackground music for the video game's menu and settings pages. His goal was to maketracks that brought the energy and feel of a live breakdance battle to the virtual dance floor.

He also took inspiration from the settings, which varied from an 1980s-inspired arcade game to an empty Metro station.

"I would just sprinkle in things that would match the aesthetic feel," he said.

The cover art for thealbum was by game co-collaborator JonJon, who also created the art for Floor Kids.

The response since the game's release has been encouraging for San, as well aswith avid players pushing online for the tracks to be released so they can bop to the same beats on the go.

• LISTEN: Kid Koala on writing an entire video game soundtrack for Floor Kids

Kid Koala teaches CBC's Nantali Indongo how to scratch like a pro

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The Montreal DJ and producer has released a 42-track double album.