VG Frequency

Last week was a nice week for me personally, but things have been rough for us as at Ormgas.com. Fellow Ormgas member Mattias “Sockan” Ström, whom we knew as SockULF, passed away on July 21st after being viciously assaulted on Saturday the 17th by a drugged up man who, seemingly at random, knocked Sockan down and attacked him by kicking him in the head repeatedly. After suffering severe brain damage and only being able to breathe with the aid of a respirator, he passed away this past Wednesday. He was only 22 years old. For his friends and family, along with others such as myself who didn’t know Sockan closely, it’s a very difficult situation made more difficult by how senseless it was. If you need more information about the attack on SockULF, it’s available at Ormgas.com. Even though most of you do not know him, you can nonetheless view the condolences given at http://sockan.ormgas.com. Ormgas went silent from this past Thursday until late Sunday as a memoriam.

The news that I was personally happy about this past week was that I was nominated among a list of candidates and subsequently chosen by the OCR Judges Panel to be the newest Judge with OverClocked ReMix! Without gushing over the news like a fanboy, I have to admit that it’s an honor to be among the people that help in large part on deciding what music is chosen for OCR. After first coming to OC in early 2002 as a guy with a casual interest in video game music, I’ve come about as far as a fan possibly can in the community. I’d like to personally thank my friends Matt Kertz & Joe Mauri, since it’s their “fault” that I found out about OCR, later listened to every OC ReMix ever made, and got serious about playing video game music on the radio. Without them, I wouldn’t have ever found a community with such talent and creativity. I’ll get into some more thoughts about judging later in the Pimp Section, but for now, let’s get into what music caught my attention for the week ending Saturday, July 24th:

ArseAssassin - “Shattered Stars” [http://personal.inet.fi/urheilu] - Feedback
Tuomas’s samples here are pretty generic to me, since I’ve heard a lot of techno and trance tackled with most of the sounds here. Despite that, everything here comes together for some well-constructed, upbeat techno that you can relax to if you prefer something energetic going on. The reverb’s a little too heavy at times, but the atmosphere is good and everything flows through nicely with a pretty comfortable groove. There’s still some additional production work and tweaks to be done by AA since this is for a contest at Mikseri.net, but check out “Shattered Stars” for some very solid original work on the dance techno side.

binster - X-Out “LiquidX Remix (VGMix Version)” [VGMix2 #62]
Along with hanging out with A Scholar & A Physician, Martin Binfield has come out with some impressive stuff in the past few months, so if you haven’t heard his ICO mix “Icon,” you’re doing yourself a great disservice. Following up on the ethnic/techno hybrid of Icon, Binster’s got some thick-sounding techno on deck with the long-awaited release of this X-Out mix on VGMix. At times, this one sounds a little rough around the edges, but the groove is excellent. Hopefully, Binster follows through with this C64 release by dropping this one on R:K:O as well. Martin’s not sure if he wants to submit this as is for OCR yet, so I’ll just have to wait patiently, but you fans out there need to get aboard on this one. I could use a few adjustments on the EQing side to not let some of the end feel as cluttered, but this is strong work overall that you won’t be disappointed in.

Captain Tortilla (Dennis Mott) - “fok the fok” [Melamine EP] - Feedback
If OverCoat’s waiting on pin and needles for this, you know it’s gotta be…decent. Dennis plugged the release of his 2nd EP over at the VGMix forums, which features some short simple tracker work. There are some interesting ideas here, even if a this is a hit-or-miss prospect. Along with the “provocatively-named” track I chose to highlight, the Cap’n has got some other songs you might enjoy, like “another song title” & “shangro-diggalo.”

Disposer - Lufia 2 “Time to Come Home” [VGMix2 #1900]
Just in terms of other material I’ve heard in the past, this sounds more like a Beej/Mustin collab than Disposer’s stuff, and I absolutely love “Time to Come Home” for that. The piano, guitar and string elements here come together very nicely along with cameos by several other instruments. This needs some refining to really go that extra mile (for example, the sax sounds very flat). Pretty damn promising, and lots of potential to be exploited further here.

GrayLightning & SnappleMan - Secret of Mana “Distorted Star” [VGMix2 #1353 / OC ReMix #1220]
Over a year ago when Gray was relatively new to the OC scene and his new age work didn’t carry as much finesse, Gray suffered two controversial rejections at the hand of the OCR judges panel. The first one of those rejections was for “Distorted Star.” Generally willing to give material he’s not satisfied with another look, Gray had SnappleMan help him out by laying down some guitar alongside the original work. Thanks to Andy’s additions, the track has more energy along with a bit more coherence and flow that the original lacked. (New age…we just don’t understand it. ;-)) The feel is a bit raw, but these two had what it took to get the job done, and this works as a very interesting combination of new age and electric guitar, showing you that nearly anything isn’t out of the question when it comes to remixing.

Mark Vera - Laser Squad “Mission Recalled” [Laser Squad Nemesis OST / OC ReMix #1217]
Jouni Airaksinen’s back in short order with another hot-as-hell space mix, this time covering the Amiga side with Laser Squad. It’s pretty cool that Mark has these connections with European game music composers, as Laser Squad Nemesis is the second game remake project he’s represented on OCR following his massive bunch of submissions from Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters. It’s not often you have a remixer that regularly impresses judges like Protricity & Dan Baranowsky, but Vera’s got a lot of skills under his belt and this one’s another highly proficient space game track that you’ll need to hit up. For quality work on the European scene brought to North America you needn’t look any further.

Ork Estral (Nigel Simmons) - “Funny Crinkle Flakes” [http://nigel.has.it]
Ork Estral (Nigel Simmons) - “Illusory Fields of Pink and Blue” [http://nigel.has.it]
Here’s my pick of the week. For those of you familiar with Ork Estral’s remix work, and even some of his original material, Nigel is here this week to blow you away with experimental stuff that you’d practically never expect to hear from him. “Funny Crinkle Flakes” certainly has a very cool style of it’s own that I can almost guarantee you’ll be impressed by, and dammit, I’m gonna be keeping that one for a long time. But the real surprise I had here was “Illusory Fields of Pink and Blue” which had no orchestral foundations at all. This one’s done in I guess what you would call an avant garde style (since I have no idea at all what you’d call it. The first time I heard this, I said “WTF?” and didn’t really know how to react. The second time I heard this though, and got used to the structure, I loved it. There are lots of guys in the game remix community whom I particularly recommend when it comes to original compositions, including SuperGreenX & Star Salzman. But if you’re going to check out Nigel Simmons, you absolutely have to download every single one of the 30+ originals he’s got available and try them for yourself. These two pieces of his really present a stylistic range you may not have known he possesses.

OverCoat - Azumanga Daioh “Chiyo Runs Away from Home!” [The People’s Remix Competition: Animation 4]
I have no idea what Azumanga Daioh is, but Scott has a cool folk-style mix from the anime for PRC:A4. As the only entrant, SOC was the undisputed winner, but this is some pretty cool stuff nonetheless. You not only get folk guitar for the base with very moody almost ethereal ambiance, but you get some live harmonica work as well for the latter half of the track to give you a different flavor. Aside from watching some of those harmonica levels, everything came together pretty nicely. In order to get something more accessible for the next compo, OverCoat’s chosen a track from Noir as the next source tune for PRC:A5.

OverCoat - “Give Me My Dreams!” [CompoST 26]
It wouldn’t be quite a full week without OverCoat coming out with some distorted ambient material, so you can check out his winning entry for SoundTempest’s CompoST 26, where the genre choice of original game music was that of a dream world. Whereas most people would go for a more lighthearted take on the subject matter, Scott’s instead gone for more of a piece where the dream’s gone wrong, resulting in this sinister-sounding track that was strong enough to take the victory. The odd sounds and rough textures sound much more out of something you could find in the Resident Evil or Parasite Eve series, successfully creating quite the disturbing atmosphere.

OverCoat - Super Metroid “Mommy Dearest” [VGMix2 #1915]
Here’s some industrial-strength horror work from OC to round out his contributions this week (he sure keeps busy). In a tribute to the crazy-as-hell Joan Crawford (awesome!), OverCoat tackles Minako Hamano’s “Mother Brain” with nothing but raw power and some phat samples of Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford in the role that was so damn good that the Blue Oyster Cult paid tribute to it in their 1981 hit “Joan Crawford (Has Risen from the Grave)”. That was a damn good song from the BOC, but more importantly, this is just some cool work from the SOC. As you know, OverCoat’s work isn’t for everybody, but there’s a lot of character behind it, especially this offering. “Clean up this mess.” So good!

OverCoat - “ur2hawt4me” [CompoST 27]
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Turn the volume DOWN!

Shnabubula - Guardian Legend “Red Spiders” [OC ReMix #1218]
With a name only a mother could love, Shnabubula makes his debut on OCR with what he self-described as a half-finished submission from the NES classique, Guardian Legend. With something this eclectic and scattered, I’m really glad it’s not longer than two minutes. That’s NOT to say that this is bad, because this is actually a pretty kickass idea here, but there’s only so much that’s acceptable when the construction is purposefully disjointed like this. This is pretty hot work that I’m sure the majority of listeners won’t understand at all, but give it more than a mere chance. I thought this was odd, but the style grows on you and sounds a lot more logical as you get used to it. Short but sweet.

Star Salzman - Xenogears “Pillar of Salt” [VGMix2 #1934]
This here is, at this current point in time, what I’d consider the magnum opus of Star’s mixing career. I’ve liked other tracks more than this, sure, but there is NOTHING that even touches the effort and creativity of “Pillar of Salt.” With all the food, sweat and beers poured into the creation of this one, everyone knew this would be great. Like I said when I pimped the WIP of this last week, this is a hybrid of both Dazil & Omen from Yasunori Mitsuda’s Xenogears soundtrack featuring two time signatures, 3/4 & 4/4, AND both Arabic & Hebrew lyrics (which can be found in full at the VGMix page). Seems like everything works in pairs. If you know Arabic fluently (zyko), you’ll have to forgive Star for any pronunciation errors in the work (zyko), although it’s great work especially for someone who isn’t familiar with the language (right, weed? :-)). Meanwhile, the Hebrew sections are immaculate. Dive in and prepare to hear Xenogears on an entirely different level. Truly excellent work that Star’s got every right to be proud of. (But stop gloating in my face, bro! I don’t care how many groupies it got you!!! ;-))

tefnek - “Para Bellum” [http://www.tefnek.com]
tefnek’s latest original release is a dope breakbeat track with some ambient underpinnings that features samples of Dwight Eisenhower’s D-Day speech 60 years ago. Fans only familiar with tefnek’s big beat style from his Streets of Rage mix “Drop and Roll” get a slight change of pace here, although Jack actually produces breakbeat work just as often as he does big beat work. The tempo’s at a nice pace here and the music get a little bit harder around the 2:40 mark when tefnek engages in some quasi-Crystal Method style action. This is certainly one you’d wanna check out to further familiarize yourself with tefnek’s work. Keep on the lookout in the near future for his recently OC-accepted Raiden II remix “Airborne” as well.

TO - Max Payne 2 “Keep on Distorting Everything” [The People’s Remix Competition 20]
Lee’s winning entry into PRC20 took on the very challenging Max Payne 2 ending theme “Late Goodbye” by Poets of the Fall (a very, very nice track picked out by Bladiator). TO himself said this was crud, so we’ll leave it at that! (Oh come on, it’s not that bad dammit.) Check out PRC21 and follow the progress as TO’s source tune choice from Descent gets the PRC touch.

trickwaters - “A Final Fantasy Wedding Processional” [VGMix2 #1925]
Pat’s back at VGMix with his second orchestral-style release, this time with an ambitious FF medley that’s titled in such an abstract manner that I have no conception what it’s about. Seriously though, this is quite the lengthy piece that works as well as something like Jayson Litrio’s “Dr. Wily’s Wedding.” Dear God, I don’t plan on getting married, but I’m sure that this mix will serve some heartstruck gamers very well as they walk down the aisle and make the worst mistake of their lives…I mean…um…take on the vows of holy alimony…matrimony. Commenting on the actual mix, TW’s samples at times have some flaws, but overall, I thought the progression of theme was excellent, with several false finishes that worked quite well. If u in wuv, u git it 4 yo BF/GF n say i luv u! … I luv u.

Unknown - “The Phantom Forge” [CompoST 25]
Ty took first place for C25 early in the week with his take on an abandoned factory theme. Spooky st00f featuring eerie ethereal ambiance, bell tolls, some brief drums and a very “hollow” atmosphere if you get what I mean…of course you don’t. Just go get it.

zircon - Chrono Trigger “Calamitous Judgment” [VGMix2 #1594 / OC ReMix #1219]
I’ve been with this one since it was first released last month, so let’s go back to what I had to say about in for the June 26th Pimp Section:

Liontamer wrote…

Pretty much anyone who’s a fan of OCR knows of Spekkosaurus’s CT remix “The Trial in Concert,” which is a very high benchmark when it comes to touching the “Kingdom Trial” theme. I can’t say I can recall anyone else ever touching the theme, but Andy here comes out swinging with his latest release. Spekk’s treatment of the source music was much more of a laid back affair while “Calamitous Judgment” involves a strong but simple beat foundation along with orchestral and electronic elements. If you enjoyed Star Salzman’s hybrid arrangement style with the Megaman 2 soundtrack with mixes like “Tickle My Wily” and “When You See the Flashman, Duck and Cover,” then I have a feeling you’ll really enjoy zirc’s own approach, which means that you absolutely can’t pass this up.

Luckily, I got to show my appreciation for this mix by helping to approve it for OCR, which you can check out here. This is straight up awesome work that finally makes zircon a breakout name!

Zoast - Final Fantasy 6 “To All My Past Loves” [VGMix2 #1908]
I took a closer look at this mix from Marshall Thorne once mv gave it props in his review for it on VGMix. With someone as proficient at mixing as Xavier endorsing it, I knew this would be pretty solid. This is primarily an acoustic guitar shot of “Forever Rachel” with some reverbed vox near the end provided by Zoast himself along with a touch of organ. Ironically enough, this is also the second piece this week with wedding written all over it, as Marshall specifically created this as music for a friend’s wedding reception. This is some pretty relaxing stuff, and a good effort from Zoast, who I’ll be keeping an eye out for from now on. It’s FF6, you know you people out there want it.

Zoltan Vegvari - Mega Man 3 “Intro Jazz” [OC ReMix #1221]
For quite a while, I saw that this mix had been passed by the OCR judges panel, waiting to be posted. Yet it never went up on the site. Why why why? The wait was because they needed confirmation from Zoltan himself that this could be posted. As far as I know, this was only the second mix on OCR that was actually submitted by someone else for a friend (the first being Stephen Kennedy’s Batman “Music of Funk” by Mustin). The production is meh, but that’s not what’s important here; this is some strong work led by Vegvari, a Hungarian jazz pianist turned music professor, featuring some light percussion and wind support. The pace is excellent, and the sounds work together nicely. Though I’d give anything to sharpen this track up with some remastering, Zoltan & crew won’t do you wrong here. This is a nice, refreshing take on Bun Bun’s MM3 intro that you might wanna plug to fellow (non-VGM) music enthusiasts.

zyko - Faxanadu “Sketch of a Potentially Contrived Memory” [VGMix2 #1938]
Crazy. This is some odd stuff from my man weed that takes all sorts of interesting turns as he cycles through several tracks from the Faxanadu soundtrack. Much like “Red Spiders” from Shnabubula, you’ll appreciate this one if you can get past the perpetual style clash that seems to be going on throughout the track. Unlike Shnabubula’s mix though, the style changes are even MORE dramatic and spontaneous. zyko must have been on the GOOD shit! I’m not trying to sound artsy-fartsy, but you can only appreciate this hybrid rock/piano/Spanish/acid smorgasboard after several very involved listens. The question for you is, are you up for the challenge?

With the pimps out of the way, I guess I’ve gotta pimp myself as the newest OCR Judge. I’ve been regularly reading OCR judging decisions for over a year, I’ve listened to every OC ReMix, along with countless other VGM mixes & originals, I’ve given listener-based advice to tons of people in the community, and I feel I know the music standards of OCR better than any other person who actually doesn’t create phat b33tz. I’ve been judging at OCR for less than a week, but it’s already a lot of fun. I’ve managed to get through all of the current voting so far (give me a prize!), and a lot of the rendered decisions I’ve participated in have already been released to the public. Check ‘em out (July 20th and after) over at the OCR Judges Decisions forum. Thanks to djpretzel for the welcome I got within zircon’s debut mix, “Calamitous Judgment”, along with Protricity & the other members of the panel for considering me for the job. I also don’t wanna forget all the people who make the VG Frequency radio show what it is (the mixers & fans; we’ll be back on in September), along with a big thanks to ravon and my fellow staffers at Ormgas.com, where VG Frequency has a true home. As far as hobbies go, a lot of people played important parts in getting me to this point. See ya next week, bros and sisters.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 25th, 2004 at 11:39 am and is filed under Arrangers, Compos, Free Stuff, Larry Oji (Liontamer), OC ReMix Judges Panel, OverClocked ReMix, 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.