With the new version of VVVVVV being released, I have revisited that game a bit, and for some reason I got the track called ecroF evitisoP in my head. For those that aren't aware, this track is a time-reversed version of Positive Force that plays in The Tower on Flip Mode, and it souds really strange, because we're used to hearing the attack of a note at the start of the note rather than at the end.

So, what other strange music have you heard in video games? (Note that I don't count ambient music as necessarily strange. Also, it must count as music; if it's something that even John Cage would not consider music, it probably doesn't belong in this topic.)

Ape Out's dynamic (as in partly generated by the player character's actions/inputs) Free Jazz score comes to mind.

There's music that (is / I consider) "ill-fitting", but I have no idea what this "strange music" thing is.

Music that I don't like doesn't seem to be the subject of this topic...

There is a music track which plays at the of one of the Mariokart 8 cups (shows pink trees) that sounds like a funeral home music, so out of place in mariokart!

I gotchu. Whatever the heck this track is from Twilight Princess.

The entire Metroid 2 OST is rather atypical, with only a couple tracks containing what could be ascribed as typical chiptunes.

And Earthbound: The Place is very ethereal.

- Gargling Drummer (The Neverhood)

- Morte's Theme (Planescape Torment).

https://youtu.be/dhcIMq5TKZE?t=845

This music in Get Even was strange in a sense, that it's not fitting the situation.

Time paradox in the soundtrack from Wolverine: Adamantium Rage for SNES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9K23uzHjus

Grime instrumental long before grime (music genre) appeared.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time Music - Fire Temple (original music)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZGnJF1R0WU

Nintendo for some reason used that part to include into music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvINn-qsg4o

My friend from Algeria who is also a Muslim, told me once that he sh!t his paints (figure of speech) when played this particular level at his home, he said it was SO frightening.

Lavender Town never ceases to disturb.

It's a harsh shift of tone from everything that's happened before and everything that will come later.

That particular song never felt strange to me. In fact, while it may have been a change in mood, and could be described as pretty scary, it still sounded like a typical piece of music (where "typical piece of music" is a very broad category). After all, it has a clear rhythm and a definite melody, and it's in a common time signature (probably 4/4). Also, the attack of each note is at the start of the note, not the end.

About the only Pokemon music I'd qualify as strange is the glitch music that sometimes plays when you're playing around with glitches (like in the 151 speedrun when recruiting one of the dragon Pokemon (I think Dragonite)), or some of the other glitch tunes I've heard.

Perhaps I could mention some of the music in the later part of Metroid 2, which is composed of a few tracks playing simultaneously (not unusual), but where the tracks have different periods, causing them to get out of sync (unusual, and I'm not aware of any other game that does this).

Edit: Listening to the Lavender Town theme a bit more, it does appear to be polytonal, with one repeating part in major, but the melody in minor, so it does have that unusual characteristic.

In FPS's, if I want immersion I turn off the music and keep the sound FX on. The only FPS where I find that music adds something of value to the gameplay, is Quake 1 with its amazing Nine Inch Nails ambient score. I believe that score has influenced how I remember the game: Mysterious, sombre, borderline survival horror.

The sound effects that turn into generative music in Mini Metro.