VG Frequency

I’m glad we got a nice bunch of entries for the Ormgas radio jingle contest. Myself, the other Ormgas staff, and some select others judged things up this week and the winner was Neskvartetten with a cool Legend of Zelda 2 mix. Check it out below for the info. Now let’s see if, for my own sanity, I can do some quick writeups for the week ending Saturday, July 17th:

Ashane - Final Fantasy Mystic Quest “Red Cap Assault” [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month / VGMix2 #1828]
All of the top four entries in last month’s Dwelling of Duels compo have now made their way over to VGMix with Dan Liss’s posting of this 2nd place FFMQ mix. There are some people who can’t stand guitar mixes or the (allegedly undue) attention they receive, but, hey, I’m not a guitar remix mark, and I think “Red Cap Assault” sounds NICE. Mystic Quest’s is one of the bastard children of the FF series and doesn’t get much coverage, but there’s no need to veer past this one at all.

Beatdrop - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 “Strip Mine” [Bit by Bit / OC ReMix #1214]
Dain continues his work on the Bit by Bit remix album with this rough-around-the-edges version of the Mystic Cave Zone theme, a tune we heard covered by Kevin Sisk last week. Short and sweet, this one’s raw energy along with some cool synth work on the chorus to give a different feel to the industrialized foundations. BD’s made some excellent remixes so far out of the suggestions he’s received from fans, so I’m of course really interested in what’s going to drop next (i.e. DON’T CANCEL THE ALBUM, BEATDROP! OR I’LL CRY! DON’T MAKE ME CRY).

Dennis Mott - “Glass Onion” - Feedback
I like the guy, but Dennis sure can’t sing. Oops. I mean… [salesman mode] …check out Dennis with this VERY tongue-in-cheek Beatles cover and let him know how much you loved it. I know I did. [/salesman mode] Yeesh. Sure takes balls to sing like that AND let other people hear it.

Eminem f/DCT - Mega Man 7 “Stan (Shady Mix)” [http://www.vagstudios.com]
Eminem f/DCT & Flik - Mega Man 7 “Stan (Shady Mix)” [http://www.vagstudios.com] - Feedback
Duane Thorpe remains busy working on some hip-hop studio material, but a few weeks ago he released this tight blend of mainstream a cappella material with video game music, i.e. Eminem’s “Stan” with a hip-hop beat of Mega Man VII’s “Shademan Stage.” DCT’s version of “Stan” follows in the vein of other blends of his such as his 50 Cent mix “In Da Club (Dark Sword Mix)”, yet removed the chorus from Stan in order to make it fit better with the beats. That move though left some people going “Wut?”, so along came Flik this past week with his own complete rendition of Stan on top of DCT’s beats, which I enjoyed after a couple of listens (hey, it’s not the same). Flik really gets going as he gets angier and angrier throughout. Dope stuff on the hip-hop side by one guy with Jamaican soul and one crazy cracka.

Fray - Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind “Fear Not” [OC ReMix #1216]
Let’s see what I had to say about the older version back for the May 22nd Pimp Section:

 

Liontamer wrote…

Fray - Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind “Fear Not” [VGMix2 #1357]
Another pending OCR submission just completed, this mix from Jeremy Soule’s Morrowind is from mixer-hopeful Nathan Monteleone, aka Fray. Attempting to expand the out of the confines of the source material’s genre, Fray starts this mix off in a trance/electronica style incorporating several different instrument/synth combinations, along with various melodic switchups. Fray’s actually conducting a poll on whether “Fear Not” can make it past the OC judges’ panel. If you’re interested, drop your $.02 on on how YOU’D judge Fear Not’s fate. Artists registered with SectionZ can check out more of Fray’s stuff over at http://fray.sectionz.com.

After some retooling, Nate joins the fray (Holy shit, a lame pun!) at OCR with this well-arranged Morrowind piece, one that has weak samples, but more than makes up for it with over-the-top creativity. The freestyle section at 3:07 sounded a little reminiscent of some of Protricity’s own energized solos. As Fray develops more, the sample quality and polish will come, but in the meantime, this is well-made work nonetheless. Though this possesses some style along with potential you can hear, this is a really a case of substance over style.

Kaijin - Xenogears “Child of the Stars” [OC ReMix #1213]
Tim Sheehy offers another softly-made Xenogears mix to follow up on May’s “Momentary Emotion.” If you know Kai’s style, this is another remix in the same vein, dominated by strings and piano with a hip-hop style percussion beat. It didn’t tread any new ground for me personally, but you don’t care what I think, that’s for sure! If Xenogears or relaxing music is your speed, then you’ve gotta hit it. Over and out.

Koelsch1 - Valkyrie Profile “Blind Eternity” [VGMix2 #1396 / OC ReMix to-be-posted?]
If I can give you the heads-up on an OCR-bound remix before the n00bs see it, I’ll try and hook you up. Here’s Koelsch1 makes his way to OCR with a very interpretive take on Motoi Sakuraba’s “Eternal Hydrogen Anxieties.” I myself was borderline against this passing, but I don’t mean for that to take away from the obviously skills displayed by K1. Even if I felt this needed a bit more to be above the bar, this one’s a keeper and represents some very lush orchestral work. Don’t skip this one if you don’t recognize the game.

Koelsch1 & Sefiros - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 “Chillin’ with Sonic” [VGMix2 #1693 (removed)]
Frankly there are many cases where the mere title of a remix will tell you how n00bish you can expect it to be, so when I saw a mix that was very uncreatively called “Chillin’ with Sonic” I was wary. When you listen to it, you’ll clearly realize this isn’t great. However, this is at least a decent collab with a minimalist approach on the IceCap Zone done via saxophone. The production here needs improvement, but this remix does at least create a fairly depressing/melancholy mood along with the very nice rainstorm sample that continuously cycles through the background. Even if you don’t get that kind of feeling from it, this is a very nice track to loop in the background. This one would have been served better by having a more artistic/pretentious name like “As It Melts Away”; just anything more serviceable than “Chillin’ with Sonic.” - Wouldn’t you know it, this one got removed for being an update of any already-released track. Now you’ll just have to enjoy the K1-less original by Sefiros. You can tell ME how that one is. :-P

L. Spiro - Super Mario RPG “Mallow’s Opus” [VGMix2 #1873]
There’s a bit of rearrangement here, but I thought this shined as a beautiful sounding cover of Yoko Shimomura’s “Sad Song” featuring a much more realistic piano lead and some haunting ambiance alongside of it. This is a cool change of pace from Shawn, with a release that doesn’t cover Donkey Kong Country 2 and tries some other source inspiration (good inspiration, too). It’s not risky, but in a pinch it gets the job done.

Makke - Lost Patrol “In the Air Mix” [AMIGAremix #107 / OC ReMix #1215]
I just wrote about this gem last week, so let’s see what I said about it then:

 

Liontamer wrote…

This recently OC-approved mix is Marcus Nilsson’s second contribution to both AMIGAremix & OC ReMix, though if you frequent the C64 scene, he’s already an established name there. This homage to Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” is very well-produced and grew on me a lot with repeated listenings. The lyrics seemed odd at first, since one is likely used to the note pattern of Phil Collins lyrics, but the minor-key vocal stylings sounded better and better over time, so that’s just my personal disclaimer for anyone who’s initially put off by the style here. I’m lucky I’ve had this for a few weeks, as I’m sure my enthusiasm for this one would be a lot less if I only heard this a couple of times. The top names of the European game mixing community have the best production anywhere, and this is another one of those excellent sounding efforts. Don’t you have a thing for the 80’s anyway? Aren’t you a child of the 80’s??? See if this one rekindles some old memories for you.

The one other thing I wanted to say was that I’m surprised that Protricity was the only judge to recognize the Phil Collins homage in this mix. Are you kidding me, yo? [shakes head] C’mon, I’m half-black and even I know it.

Neskvartetten - The Legend of Zelda 2 “Ormbossa” [Ormgas Jingle Competition]
We got a lot of cool entries over at Ormgas.com for our month-long radio jingle contest, and the NES4 (or in this case, the NES2) managed to take the cake with this bossa nova jazz mix referencing Link’s Adventure. We got some excellent entries from others like SgtRama (Donkey Kong Cereal!), Bladiator & 3rd place winner ESHbyESH, but I have to point out that nothing was funnier than Antonio Pizza’s Final Fantasy I runner-up entry “It’s Alright to Like the Prelude.” In it’s own way, it’s a genuine indictment on how many goddamn people like that track. Props to everyone who entered the contest; thanks a lot for supporting Ormgas, the unofficial OCR radio station!

OverCoat - “Jormungand” [http://rks.no-ip.com/~seattleovercoat] - Feedback
Here’s some more quality ambient synth stuffs from the kid with the long coat, the title of which is derived from Norse mythology. The mood here is a LOT more tense than some of the other forays Scott has made, and I certainly got a Dust Brothers/Fight Club soundtrack vibe from it as the track kept moving and really got going at the 5:20 mark. If you’ve got something morose and/or sinister goin’ on and need background music, give OverCoat 11 minutes of your life. You won’t regret it.

OverCoat & Destiny - Seiken Densetsu 3 “Angels Dear” [VGMix2 #683 (removed)] - Feedback
Too hot for VGMix, it’s Scott & Helen, whose SD3 collaboration got the boot from this site this past week (since it was a revision of an already-released mix). Because of these unfortunate circumstances, OC asked me to pimp this mix out. Y’all are the beneficiaries of their misfortune, but have no fear! Destiny plans on re-doing the vocals in the near future, so keep on the lookout for an ever better version of “Angels Dear” to surface in the coming months.

Rellik - “Thee Stylish Scalawag” http://www.tjhsst.edu/~alederer - Feedback
On the original side, Adam comes at you with some very chill electronic/synth instrument action (with a great title too; when was the last time you heard someone use “scalawag?” Yosemite Sam?). This is very, very interesting material for a hybrid piece, almost something I could hear in a Volkswagen commercial or something similar. Well, shit, I don’t know what else to say except that this is pretty sweet. This isn’t for everyone, but Rellik’s got my pick of the week. You’ve gotta check this one out for yourself.

Star Salzman - “The Message” [http://www.starblast.org]
So early in the week, Star goes, “Larry, check out my new song,” and in the OCR channel comes up Star Salzman - The Message. I go, “Oh, are you trying to rap in this one at all?”, thinking this could be some sort of homage to Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. He says, “What are talking about???” Goddammit, bro, don’t push me, cuz I’m close to tha edge. (Coincidentally, I’m tryin’ not to lose my head.) In any case, what in the HELL is up with this? Star apparently smoked the good stuff as he came up with the most nonsensical WTF I’ve heard in a long time. Although I have to say, there aren’t too many things funnier than hearing two harmonized Stars singing “cookies!” If you’re a weirdo, stand right in line for this one.

zircon - “Goofy Ghouls” [CompoST 24]
Part Zombies Ate My Neighbors, part Ghostbusters, this dope lil’ track was the winning entry of CompoST 24, as zirc provided a nice piece in the style of a “boy has to beat up zombies” game. This submission really hit the nail on the head in terms of the style, so ZAMN fans should get a kick out of this one.

We’ve got a few interesting tracks on the work-in-progress side. The fan-favorite or eclectically inaccessible (depending on your tastes) Ziwtra has some quality Terranigma WIPs that need your feedback, including a redux of “Blue.” Check his WIPs out and let Youngjin serve you up a BIG heaping of breakbeats.

Star Salzman is brewing up his best mix yet (and he’ll definitely tell you that himself). Check out the new Xenogears work-in-progress, “Pillar of Salt”, featuring a hybrid of both Dazil & Omen from the XG soundtrack along with two time signatures, 3/4 & 4/4, AND both Hebrew & Arabic lyrics. (The guy’s ambitious, what can I say.) Taxing his computer’s resources to the limit, Star aims to push the bounds of remixing and get you to kiss his feet in gratitude! Be sure to listen to the progress so far, as it’s very, very close to complete; it’s the right thing to do. [/hero worship]

Children of the Monkey Machine fans, you have something to anticipate:

 

#ocremix IRC channel wrote…

GrayLightning: CotMM, when can we expect a new mix?
CotMM: Gray, “when”? No clue. I can tell you what it’ll probably be though.
Liontamer: It’s all about Pure Lands (Total Darkness)
CotMM: I’ve got this symphonic/industrial track kicking around in my head and in a few doodle MIDIs on the machines here at the office
dhsu: shyeah, pure lands was tite
CotMM: called “Sanctuary (Unsafe)”, from Resident Evil 2.

zircon’s been requested to send some music to the Weather Channel for potential use on the Local on the 8s weather forecast. If you’ve ever heard some of the Weather Channel’s choices for music, you might understand that there are actually legions of fans who literally wanna collect everything the channel’s ever played. (Protricity *cough*) It’s almost as far-fetched as a bunch of Star Salzman groupies. :-) Seriously though, many of you would be surprised at how much attention getting your music played on the Weather Channel provides, so good luck to Andy with this very unique opportunity.

Thanks to exposure from SoundTempest (!) OverCoat’s been propositioned with joining a Swedish music label Waerloga Records, a label focusing on (check this out now) “Dark Ritualistic Fantasy music.” :-D That’s fucking awesome, I shit you not. I dunno if Scott’s gonna take them up on their offer, but it’s interesting nonetheless. In the race to get signed by a label, OverCoat is currently beating 95% of the remixing community, 1 to 0. ;-P

See ya next week.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 18th, 2004 at 11:44 pm and is filed under Arrangement Albums, Arrangers, Compos, Larry Oji (Liontamer), OverClocked ReMix, Record Labels, VG Frequency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.