VG Frequency

For a hater like myself, I rarely, if ever, gush about the talents of an OC ReMixer. There are definitely a lot of talented people out there, and I plan to profile a few more when I get a chance, but as a wanna-be I hold a special place in my musical heart for Jillian Goldin, a.k.a. pixietricks. Not only is she a classically trained vocalist at one of the best music schools in the country, AND a great arrangement artist, but she’s also a cool person who’s got a tremendous career ahead of her be it belting out Mozart or Nobuo Uematsu. Heck, she’s already been featured in Firaxis Games‘ Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword expansion pack.

And this wouldn’t be my column if I didn’t also say that Jill’s work is some of the most accessible to mainstream listeners, especially those who like new age artists like Enya or Loreena McKennitt. And I’m not the only one who thinks so…ask radioMystic, an online New Age radio station that made Jill artist of the month.

I can also appreciate a woman making it in a man’s world, or, in this case the OCR Judges Panel–of which she is the first “feminines” as Larry would say and one of the few female ReMixers on the site overall. I remember when Jill was asked to be on the judges panel and Larry, ever the gentleman, was telling the judges that they were going to have to seriously curtail their language/nasty chat on their IRC channel when she joined. And let’s not talk about how many OCR message board members have pervy animated GIFs of bouncing, barely clothed breasts in their signatures.

But back to the music. Jill has a pretty distinctive style for her ReMixes–on occasion she’s been known to even bust out a bit of opera here and there. But for the most part, they are sweeping, cinematic (don’t those two words always go together?) and relaxing. For all the drama of the arrangement, many of Jill’s songs, in my mind are lullabies that you can easily put on repeat and go on about your Net surfing, romancing, or meditating business.The song I’ve highlighted for this column, “Journey’s End”, a ReMix of a Final Fantasy X theme, is actually a collaboration between Jill, GrayLightning (Gray Alexander), and Sephfire (Daniel Floyd). And what a collab it was!

I do feel compelled to note that GrayLightning sort of disappeared from the ReMixing scene with some cryptic note about moving on with his life or something. We’ll never know what happened to him, but I wish him well, and it’s certainly a great loss to the community that he’s not around to see it grow and develop as it has.

As a concept, this song could probably be it’s own track in a Final Fantasy game. Imagine Yuna sitting outside on as the summer’s evening as the stars shine and she dreams about Tidus. Maybe there is such a scene in the game, with sparkles falling and Yuna and Tidus floating up into the air. Oh wait…there is.

The structure of this song really sweetens the deal. You’ve got Jill’s voice as the focus, with a “pulsing boosh-ah” techno beat running at the bottom driving the song forward, and an airy piano/synthy bit floating up top. It’d be a great driving song for a late night ride home while the city sleeps, if you know what I mean. And when you get to your, ahem, “Journey’s End” you may have the recurring theme stuck in your head for a while–in a nice way, that is.

After spending a week island hopping in the Mediterranean Sea, I’m now in overcast, coastal Ireland and missing the sun. The water outside my window is a pale grey and the weatherman said we’d be lucky to get up to 70°F today. But my earphones are transporting me back to coastal France and Italy thanks to Adrian Holovaty’s Super Mario Bros. 2 ‘Gypsy Jazz.’

I’m a huge jazz fan, more typically into classic crooners like Old Blue Eyes, Edith Piaf, or Billie Holiday and thinking man’s jazz like Thelonius Monk and Duke Ellington…but every once in a while, I pull out my only Western Swing album (a dime-a-dozen TIME music collection kind of dealie that I’m embarrassed to admit I own) or flip on the Internets Radio [sic] and listen to West Coast Jazz. For an hour or two, everything’s chill and I’m content. But after a while, the soothing, enthusiastic lullabye of guitar jazz starts to wear on my nerves.

I hate to say it but so much guitar-based jazz (especially gypsy jazz) sounds the same to me—too happy, too simple, too…unashamedly temperate. Unless of course, I was riding a bike around Provençal France, making crepes, or filming a Yoplait commercial.

Which is why I had to give Holovaty credit for his ‘Gypsy Jazz.’ I’m pretty sure I recognize the source tune from this song as well, and although it doesn’t diverge overmuch from the original, it’s still a lovely little ditty that’ll get your feet tapping and certainly send a little sunny weather your way.

I think what makes this song so great for mainstream listeners is that, like good French food, Holovaty knows where to use restraint. He doesn’t go crazy with instrumentation or production. The sound, although it could be richer in parts, is like a well-worn record. While this may be frustrating for the more active listener, especially for guitar enthusiasts, I think it captures well the ambiance during which gypsy jazz evolved some 80-odd years ago.

I’m also always a little surprised jazz this good can be coaxed out of a Mario Bros. game. Hate me if you must, but I just don’t think the source material offers much to experiment with…classical, sure; techno/trance/electronica, bien sur, but jazz? Mes non.

This is probably also why there aren’t many other SMB jazz ReMixes available…and I’ve heard only one other that I think successfully transcended the VGM-mainstream music barrier. This may be because the main theme itself is already sort of jazzy.

But I am more than happy to be proven wrong again and again if there are any young derring dos out there willing to try. Or not so young…like this brave soul…

Some of you might remember me from my days of guesting as Larry’s friend, and later Larry’s Lady, on his radio show. Back then, I was what people might call “a hater.”

Most of the video game music I had heard back then was stuff I didn’t like. It was too electronic, not very compelling melodically, and I wasn’t familiar with most of the games being referenced to appreciate VGM even from a nostalgic perspective.

Back then, Larry was diligent in his effort to bring me over to the dark side. We had always shared music we liked, and Larry refused to see VGM as a point of departure in taste like the Beastie Boys.

Why is it that every guy I know creams himself over that band? I’d much rather listen to “Lonely Swedish” than “Brass Monkey” if I had to make a terrible choice in hell or Abu Ghraib.

My esteem for VGM, well, more accurately, OCR, grew slowly, hesitantly. Perhaps, it was my pride, or my general tendency to be sparing with my praise, but upon hearing a track that wasn’t offensive, I would say something like “not terrible,” or shrug my shoulders non-committally.

Over the years, as the musical selection available at OCR grew more diverse, and the quality of musicians and production increased exponentially, I found there were more and more instances where I would begrudgingly say “I don’t hate it.”

And then, one fateful day, the sky fell in and I actually liked a song…in fact, I liked it so much, I unabashedly added it to my iPod.

Israfel (aka Michael Dover) gets full credit for the dastardly deed, with his most appealing “Cerebral Rose Jam” from the game, Shivers.

When djp wrote his write-up of the ReMix, he was on target when he said, “I’d imagine this ReMix will get more listeners from fans of Israfel than of the source material.”

What I loved about this mix was how atmospheric, exotic, and totally unexpected it was. Not to mention the fact that you can lull yourself into a gratifying stupor listening to CRJ on loop.

It’s a pretty moody mix, that alludes to summer evenings in Cairo, smoking a cheroot as you wait for your “man” on the dig to bring you a souvenir from King Tut’s Tomb.

It’s also damn sexy, and I wonder if Israfel didn’t spend his nights dreaming of someone special’s flat, sweaty tummy as he added in the darbuka (I think), finger cymbals (possibly tingsha), and jingle bells.

There’s lots of space in this track, which is what I think makes it so successful compared to other instrumental versions of “Middle Eastern-like” music, where usually the rhythm is so driving it’s hard to really immerse yourself in the theme.

In that respect, I think Israfel’s got a good vibe going on of what is very similar to maybe some Rabih Abou-Khalil’s Blue Camel and Sufi trance music.

WARNING! APPROACHING TANGENT:
Larry says, “Damn, that’s esoteric as fuck! Sufi trance music?”
I showed Larry a sample of what I was talking about. Larry thought I was talking about this.
That’s “trance” as in meditative music.

Now my suggestion to the haters, or, ahem, lovers as it were, is to pick this track up from OCR, put it your Winamp and turn off the lights. It will give you the “shivers.”

So, folks, if you like this, I’ll come back regularly with other songs I, the nay-saying mistress of mainstream (and mystical world music), actually like.