A followup to The Summer of '87, this SelloRekT/LA Dreams and A-ha inspired track might evoke visions of driving down the highway in the summer of 1986, with the top down or the T top panels removed, and one's favorite cassettes or radio stations playing in a car stereo with the volume at max.

The Summer of 1986 began as an experiment in making VirtualCZ (a VST recreation of the Casio CZ line of synthesizers) sound a bit like a Roland Juno-106 synthesizer, and as such, VirtualCZ was used for most of the synth parts, though a modified Yamaha DX7 bell preset is also used.

The melody, like so many other of my compositions, came about when I was noodling on the keyboard, though the rhythm of the syncopated notes are based on the melody of Take On Me. The layered rhythm consists of the Linn LM1 and Oberheim DMX drum computers of the early 1980s, fed through an emulation of the Eventide H949 Harmonizer, which serves as a stereo widener of sorts.

The "ratcheting" bass line sequence was created using the arpeggiator features of my Korg nanoPAD 2, an extremely lightweight velocity-sensitive MIDI pad with 16 drum pads and an X+Y touch controller similar to Korg's KAOSS pads. Now that I have my Alesis SR-16 drum machine, I plan to use the nanoPAD to trigger one-shot samples and various other percussive elements.

As of June 2, 2025, I have decided to make The Summer of 1986 the official theme song for my character's perennial arctic fox companion, Yuki Elyran.