The Hard Modes approach their collision of jazz and video game music with nonstop, controller-bashing fury. Based out of Charlottesville, the Modes focus on the art of the Limit Break: They arrange around the improvisational moment, using modern jazz harmonic and rhythmic twists to push themselves to the max and turn VGM classics – and a healthy smattering of deep cuts – on their heads in a way where “Uematsu meets Mingus.”