Monolith

"Monolith" started life in the In The Groove series. Within Pump It Up it first appeared on the Pro release and was later carried over to Fiesta 2, where it sits in the World Music channel. According to the track's own notes, Affinity wrote it taking a motif from DDR's classic "Healing Vision -angelic mix-". That lineage shows up in more than just the mood: in both ITG and the Pro version, the song featured slow-speed passages in its intro and finale, echoing the DDR original.

A neat touch lives in the BGA. At the very start, a numeric counter ticks steadily upward and then freezes at exactly 196.0, an elegant way of announcing the song's precise BPM.

On PHOENIX, "Monolith" offers Single charts at S3, S5, S9, S15 and S21, plus Double charts at D14, D17 and D22. The stepmakers include CONRAD (S15), OSING (S21) and AEVILUX (D17 and D22). The Single charts and the S15/S21 set were added in the Pump It Up XX 1.03 update. The D14 was rated 13 up through Prime 2 and was bumped to 14 in XX, largely for its weight-shifting demands. The D17 and D22 arrived with the PRIME 2 1.10 update: the D22 was listed at 23 through Prime 2 before being demoted to 22 in XX, where it now stands as one of the toughest charts at its level.