Air Ride: Machine Passage

Air Ride: Machine Passage
Sample of Air Ride: Machine Passage from Kirby Air Ride.
Details
Debut appearance	Kirby Air Ride (2003)
Last appearance	Kirby Air Riders (2025)
Other appearance(s)	Kirby: Planet Robobot Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe
Composer(s)	Jun Ishikawa^[1]
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"Air Ride: Machine Passage" (capitalized as "Air Ride: MACHINE PASSAGE" in the Sound Test) is the theme of the Machine Passage course in Kirby Air Ride. It was composed by Jun Ishikawa.^[1]

Composition[edit]

An isolated sample of Delay Lama, the throat-singing synth used on this track.

"Air Ride: Machine Passage" is a sinister and dramatic sounding musical track. It mostly uses electronic and machine-like instruments and sounds, a choir, and various synths. It is set mostly in the key of E minor and at 162 beats per minute.

The intro of the song is barely a melody, sounding like an engine as it goes up in pitch and eventually stops with the clang sound of a metal. The song then properly starts: on the first four bars, the percussion kicks off alongside an electronic synth that plays the main melody, which consists of many short notes rapidly playing. After that a different synth joins in, playing a countermelody, which, after another four bars, is followed by a machine-sounding synth that plays another countermelody. All instruments stop while a lighter sounding metal synth plays a new melody, alongside really quiet percussion. The percussion fully comes back after eight bars, alongside a choir that continues the melody. Eight bars after, the instruments change again: the synths and melodies from the beginning come back, with the addition of a melody played using Delay Lama (an electronic throat singer synth), then a siren-like sound plays after four bars. Four bars after, all instruments but Delay Lama, the light metal synth, and the percussion stop, with eventually only Delay Lama playing for the last four bars of this section. The song then switches to a section consisting of eight bars, which uses another electronic synth as the main melody, switching to a lighter and more "Kirby-like" synth at the last bar. The melody is repeated with another synth for another eight bars, while many siren-like sounds play. An electronic synth plays the main melody of the last eight bars while a sinister wind-like synth plays a countermelody in the background, and then the song loops, while the last note of the melody is held for a couple bars of the beginning of the loop.

Game appearances[edit]

Kirby Air Ride[edit]

"Air Ride: Machine Passage" makes its first appearance here as the default theme of the course of the same name. As a checklist reward, clearing Machine Passage in Time Attack with a time of less than 3 minutes and 10 seconds will unlock the theme in the Sound Test as track number 09.

Kirby: Planet Robobot[edit]

The original version of the theme plays in Access Ark - Stage 7 EX, and appears in the Jukebox as track 128.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe[edit]

"Air Ride: Machine Passage" in "Dusty Steel Field" from Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe

"Dusty Steel Field" by Yuki Shimooka.

"Dusty Steel Field (Secret Song)" by Yuki Shimooka.

A remixed version of the theme paired with an arrangement of "Air Ride: Sky Sands", named "Dusty Steel Field", plays during level 3 of the Booming Blasters sub-game. A chiptune arrangement of the theme, named "Dusty Steel Field (Secret Song)" is unlocked after clearing all the missions associated with the sub-game, and is used under similar circumstances. Both of these were arranged by Yuki Shimooka, and appear as tracks 92 and 160 in the Jukebox, respectively.

Kirby Air Riders[edit]

Due to the return of the eponymous course, the original theme reprises its role from Kirby Air Ride. The theme is now simply named as "Machine Passage".

Other appearances[edit]

The theme is available on the Japan-only album The Very Best of Kirby: 52 Hit Tracks.

Names in other languages[edit]