she moves with a purpurpurpurpurpurpurpurpurpose

those who cold war again

bmbmbm by 7ak is the level that introduced me to the band black midi. I had no idea who they were at the time, but 7ak told me that their new level was going to use the song bmbmbm by them. Out of curiosity, I listened to the song and I was both confused and ENTHRALLED. It is a repetitive and abstract mess of a song, and yet it just gets stuck in your head. I knew from the moment that I heard the song that 7ak was going to COOK with this.

And I was absolutely right.

bmbmbm is a very repetitive song in itself, repeating the same lyrics over and over, in random order. So 7ak decided to make gameplay for each of those lyrics, and fit them to each lyric in the song. It makes you feel like you're genuinely playing to the song and it's SO cool. It might sound simple here, but it is used extremely effectively and I absolutely love it.

The first three and a half minutes consist of these repeating blocks, the decoration is also relatively simple. Yet somehow, it keeps you intrigued the entire way through. The decoration consists of these white blocks that are all connected by lines, becoming more complex as more words are said in the lyric. There are occasional black slanted blocks with spikes coming out of the ground, and that's relatively it for gameplay and decoration. The white inside the blocks and the decoration around the orbs continues to expand in and out to the song, over, and over, and over again. It's honestly entrancing in a way. The ground is also a very unique pick, but it fits the very strange vibe the level has.

After the three and a half minutes, you hit a dash orb and get sent flying into a violently flashing rainbow glow that covers your screen as the song descends into complete chaos. Until it finally comes to a close and fades out into black as you slowly go down a slope, you hit two jump pads and get SENT into an extremely chaotic ball part with stuff flying through the blocks, a vibrant red and pink filling your screen. The gameplay simply consists of dash orbs that sync to the beat of the song, but the hits are so aggressive that it feels like you're SLAMMING into the blocks. It's extremely cool.

The level then starts to devolve into even more chaos, the lyrics flashing a bright and scrawled pink in the background as the structures from the first part of the level are copy and pasted en masse over everything. It is extremely cathartic and I LOVE it. It's such a simple way of invoking intensity, and yet it does it perfectly. The bars on the top and bottom slowly close in further and further until it fully closes and you're back as a cube. The song is back to the same repeating note as it was before, and each pink orb pulses the ground red. It ends off very simply with a recreation of the album cover that the song is from, 'Schlagenheim'.

I think this level is the perfect mix of abstract that this song needed, some people might call it repetitive, empty, or boring, but I think that fits the song! The song is just the same note over and over again, with the lyrics repeating over and over again, I don't think there's a better way 7ak could have represented it. It's been about 3 years since I've seen this and I still think it stands up to this day.

She mooouuuves with a Poirpus . oh it is such a porpos it is such a pourpos Ouuuhh what a poirpous. What a mag nificent. pourpose

pretty genius gameplay. i don't know how ak came up with this but it's so damn cool

This is a level that Ak directly before his banger project "Radio", and it seems to have slipped under the radar for many people. I'm actually the first and only victor of this level as of posting this review, but it deserves so many more! For one, it uses a KILLER NoNG song ("bmbmbm" by black midi), which already gives the level some points. It's that good! Of course, just using an awesome song is not enough, but the way Ak used it here has resulted in a very immersive product with great progression. The strongest aspect of "bmbmbm" is its song representation. I'd even go as far to say that this level is a master class in that field. Nearly every instrument and little detail of the song is paired up with a certain part of the level. The pink jump rings are synced to the bass guitar, the blue pad/ring clicks are synced to the drums, the pink blocks represent the vocals, etc. Speaking of the pink blocks, I have to point out how the blocks have squares floating around them and turn white as Geordie Greep gets more and more insane on the vocals. The placement of the blocks is also connected to specific lyrics that are repeated throughout the song. This close attention to detail adds to the immersion. I also love the repetitive and simplistic feel of the level. The same timings repeat throughout and the decoration is rather minimalist, and it all works in favor of the song's simple yet suspenseful and aggressive nature. Speaking of which, the song and its representation are so good that the level really works up your nerves as you progress, and the breakdown is crushing. The gameplay is really good for the most part. It’s super fun to find the correct path, and, again, every timing and structure being synced to the song creates a very immersive experience. However, I found a tight timing at 44% and a yellow ring timing right at the end of 46% to be chokepoints when I was beating this level, and the dash rings at 72% are not synced to the guitar riff well. I’m also not a fan of how you can skip any of the blue pad/ring timings without consequence, as it breaks the immersion pretty easily. But even with those issues, “bmbmbm” is still a thrilling XXL experience. Its song representation carries, it’s easy to get into the atmosphere, and it is severely underrated imo. Ak created with a purpose, and he delivered.