My Favourite Game Ikonika

The producer and DJ on how the sounds of the 16bit era have shaped her musical career.

Sara Abdel-Hamid produces and DJs under the name Ikonika. Her first album, Contact, Love, Want, Have, was released for revered bass-music imprint Hyperdub in 2010 and is shot through with videogame references, with track names such as Insert Coin and Look (Final Boss Stage); her latest release, Distraction, has a track called Not Gameplay Footage and a well-hidden, but very familiar sample: of Dyna and Tillo, the item-swapping crows from Dark Souls II. When we add Abdel-Hamid on Skype, we see her avatar is a Dark Souls character. After that, there is only one way this conversation is ever going to start.

Sticking our necks out here – you appear to like Dark Souls. Why sample the crows? 

There’s loads of Dark Souls samples scattered around the album – loads of little one-hits, and bits and pieces. There’s a lot of ‘voom’ noises when you transition from the bonfire into different lands, or enter fog gates. In Hazefield [another album track], what is supposed to be the snare drum is one of those noises.

So do you play it yourself?