There’s something oddly fitting about a Montreal-based Japanese psych-rock collective scoring the latest Assassin’s Creed game. TEKE::TEKE‘s “Kage No Iro” soundtrack marks Ubisoft’s first experiment using an album’s worth of original songs—rather than just background score—to propel their blockbuster franchise forward. The approach mostly works, though not without occasional moments where the gaming and musical worlds seem slightly at odds.
The band sets the tone with their reimagining of “Ezio’s Family,” an inescapable theme that longtime series fans are familiar with. Where previous iterations leaned heavily on orchestral gravitas, TEKE::TEKE transforms it with vocalist Maya Kuroki’s vocals floating above surf-rock guitars and fluttering woodwinds.
The band doesn’t just rehash their established formula, though. “Kage no koe” meanders through unsteady rhythms before dissolving into traditional Japanese flute passages that evoke the transient nature of shadow warriors. It’s patient music that rewards attention, which feels somewhat counterintuitive for a medium often built around sensory overload.
“Michi” packs the biggest punch here. Kuroki’s hushed Japanese whispers give way to a thunderous wall of reverb and distortion that would feel at home on either of the band’s previous albums—2021’s “Shirushi” or 2023’s “Hagata.” You can imagine the controller buttons flashing as the track builds toward its frenzied climax. Whether this seamless integration with gameplay mechanics enhances or detracts from the music itself probably depends on whether you’re holding a gamepad while listening.
There’s an admirable restraint to much of “Kage No Iro” that separates it from typical gaming soundtracks. “Mizukagami” opens with metallic guitar plucks that sound like distant temple bells before settling into a groove that’s equal parts meditative and uneasy. The song works perfectly well outside its intended context—you needn’t know anything about feudal Japan or stealth assassinations to appreciate its shifting textures.
TEKE::TEKE have said their process involved extensive research into shinobi philosophy and techniques, with Kuroki diving deep into historical texts rather than relying on pop culture ninja tropes. This scholarly approach occasionally results in lyrics that feel more academic than visceral, but the band’s instrumental prowess generally prevents things from becoming too cerebral.
The soundtrack was supposedly inspired in part by Tarantino film scores—a reference point that music supervisors Benedicte Ouimet and Jerome Angelot mentioned during development. Yet “Kage No Iro” rarely achieves the pastiche-driven gleeful abandon of those soundtracks. TEKE::TEKE’s compositions are more cohesive but less surprising, rarely delivering the jarring stylistic shifts that make Tarantino’s musical choices so memorable.
For TEKE::TEKE, the project seems to have been an opportunity to focus on the cinematic elements that have always lurked beneath their music’s surface. Guitarist Sei Nakauchi Pelletier has noted that the collaboration allowed them to “push elements we already had even further.”
“Kage No Iro” ultimately succeeds as both functional game music and as a reasonably engaging standalone listen. It’s neither TEKE::TEKE’s strongest work nor a revolutionary approach to video game soundtracks, but it occupies the middle ground between those poles with enough personality to warrant attention from both gamers and curious indie rock fans.
“Kage No Iro” is out now.
Share this :
