VG Frequency’s June 25, 2005 Pimp Section
Look ma, no hands. I did this report (including the typing) with my ears only. Are you not proud of me? I know I am. Now let’s view the goods from June 19th to the 25th in order to achieve karmic alignment:
Adhesive Boy - Kirby’s Adventure “Cosmic Transformations” [Rise of the Star / OC ReMix #1369]
Everything that Jack Ryerson does when it comes to ReMixes is few and far between which means that whenever he drops a track, you’ve gotta be there to pick it up. Welcome to the inaugural track to Rise of the Star, the happiest OCR Site Project you could ever ask for. djp mentioned this one as having some dark undertones, but I don’t think the sheer volume & power should be interpreted as dark. I remember telling Jack that I thought this was too loud and cluttered, and he got pissed off since it was an artistic decision, so don’t tell him that. Just smile and nod at the kickass arrangement, some parts heroic, some parts quasi-industrial. If you’re familiar with “Linoleum Stalactites” or “Cry of the Chasmal Critter Chain”, AB knows all about being able to put complex, intricate work together that’ll easily impress. Don’t miss out on other tracks from DarkeSword’s pet project including Suzumebachi’s “The Ballad of Sir Kibbles” & analoq’s “Creampuff Starship”.
PICK OF THE WEEK: AkumajoBelmont f/Stephanie - Bust a Groove “Bust This Groove ‘81″ [VGMix2 #3391 / OC ReMix #1368]
Hearing something like this completely legitimizes all the time I’ve spent in this community. I heard it a while back and played it on the radio show. Aussie cousins Robbie & Stephanie totally have the whole disco/roller rink/Jackson 5 thing down pat in this superlative take on Kitty N’s theme “Blue Knife (Bust A Move Edit)”. Cleaned up further since the VGMix version, I have to say once again, that I was incredibly impressed by not just the production, but by the idea of turning a futuristic source tune into something so unequivocally retro. If you don’t like the genre, you smell. If you don’t want to check it out because you don’t know the game, you smell. And if you don’t get it now because I said so, you smell worse than GrayLightning, who you should know is a smelly new age hippy bastard.
DarK PurPLe - GoldenEye 007 “00 Agent Life” [VGMix2 #4415]
NICE! Bond with beats, loud and in your face! Such a sucker for this stuff in every way, as GoldenEye had such a great soundtrack. With nearly every track in the soundtrack being an arranged version of the Bond theme, the medleyitis of this mix is more forgivable as the track references one level after another within nearly 7 minutes. The mixing is far from Francis Veilleux Gaboury’s best, as it’s too loud and the high frequencies got cut off for no discernible reason, but it’s the Bond theme in an electronic/club style. OMG, u have License to Listen!
DarkeSword - Megaman X4 “Searching for Light” [VGMix2 #4379]
Fellow OCR judge Shariq Ansari produces the next MMX mix in a now-lengthy series with this downbeat follow up to “The Father of All”. The sampled Japanese vox didn’t really fit the track well being that loud, but it’s alright. This was kind of a darkly-themed mix that doesn’t quite want to embrace that type of imagery but gets you feeling it with a moody atmosphere complete with male choir vox filling things out. This actually didn’t hit me very hard on the first listen, as it genuinely almost struck me as a “throwaway” piece that didn’t possess much impact. But therein lied the conundrum, for as the track unfolded, my interest only increased and I started digging the texture more and more. The soundfield was still a little sparse-sounding to me, but otherwise, I was pleasantly surprised by how the track developed. Not here to punch you in the face, this was quite the sleeper hit.
Das Karl Werk Projekt - “Elektro Lok (Allgemeine Frequenz)” [R:K:O #2734]
Alright, so the intro will likely leave you going “What the fuck?” but STAY with me, you asshole! You don’t like robotic electronica, then get the hell out. The rest of you will pop and lok to this GROOOVY cut from Das Karl Werk Projekt for the win. Out of sheer ignorance, I can’t even compare any other music to this. But analoq might be feelin’ it and because analoq is someone who you fanboys aspire to be like, listening to this will be an important first step to making your life better than it ever was. Retooling the original “Elektro Lok” by Mark “Heinmukk” Waldaukat, this is probably the most unique thing I’ve heard out of Kwed and the C64 community in a while. Damn, DO THE ROBOT! DO THE ROBOT! You gotta get it-get it.
Depeche Mode f/tefnek - “I Feel Loved (tefnek Remix Extended)” [http://www.tefnek.com]
I covered the original remix earlier in the month, so we revisit those comments and perhaps…extend them…
Liontamer (6/4) wrote…
Depeche Mode f/tefnek - “I Feel Loved (tefnek Remix)” [http://www.tefnek.com]
Jack Kirkpatrick takes an approach I’d yet to hear from him, remixing some mainstream a capella lyrics with his own material. I feel like the synths used here didn’t stand out as unique, and I would have loved to have heard the lyrics a lot more prominently, but the beats are still dope and on a compositional level the music fit the lyrics like a glove. Personally, I dunno whether the music here is also remixed from the Depeche Mode original, but in any case this is one to scope out for more from OC’s resident big beat champ.
Lengthened by almost 3 minutes, this new version definitely adds some new ideas to the picture that make the overall package more unique. If you passed up the opportunity on the prior offering, don’t be such a dumbbutt this time. You don’t wanna do that again. Please…let Jack feel loved.
Flik - “They Lumbered On” [Thematic Original Music Competition 2]
Chris Serani is a man. Chris Serani is a man’s man. And only a MAN’s man like Chris Serani could lay waste to the competition like this, not caring if it was fun-loving Trenthian, fair maiden pixietricks or crazy Aussie TO being leveled by this asskicking gloomy/mysterious forest theme. Yes, they lumbered on, but only one MAN truly lumbered like the best! You want rain SFX? You want beautiful ethnic percussion and woodwinds? Then you want this. “Chris Serani - Reason files the size of grapefruits!”
Ichitootah - The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang “Bat Cloud of Morning” [The People’s Remix Competition v2-18]
Nice stuff here with the piano on the opening, along with some organ stuff that doesn’t quite sound like something Adhesive Boy would do, but had some similarities. Some fairly upbeat stuff here for PRCv2-18 tackling Spike McFang’s boss theme. The Casio-style keyboard and drumloops were meh, but the rest of the package had some good touches. The use of xylophones is always a plus, and there’s even a non-sequitor key change around 3:10 just to mess with your head. Can’t say it actually worked, especially because the last minute or so wasn’t very well-written, but it is worth talking a look it.
JD Harding - Mega Man 3 “Sparkman” [VGMix2 #4361]
JD’s returned to VGMix in order to start revisiting and revising older material of his, starting off with this…creatively named…[looks around]…remix of “Sparkman Stage”. The melody surprisingly doesn’t play as much of a factor as I thought it would/should, and the synth design here was pretty lackluster to be honest. The soundfield was pretty cluttered, making sounds hard to distinguish from one another, but the main incentive for checking this out is to see how JD has reworked this older material for re-release. Especially if you were familiar with his former OC ReMixes before he had them removed, see what The Artist Formerly Known As Kendri now has up his sleeve.
LastUnicron - “Present” [http://www.sonicevolver.com]
Being so used to electronic material from Andy Wood, the last thing I expected when discovering a new original on his site was a piano-based opening. Now the cymbals added behind the piano are nothing but crappily added, doing nothing but exposing the disparity in sound quality between the cymbals and piano. Fortunately though, Unicron made up for it by transitioning into some other synthetic elements and interlacing them much more skillfully with the piano work. And some woodwind usage! What a nice present, y’all. (Get it…?) Short stuff that on some level sound underdeveloped, but it’s good to heard LastUnicron still keeping ‘em coming.
Makke - Dizzy the Adventurer “Mix Dizz” [VGMix2 #3798 / OC ReMix #1367]
Marcus is a refreshing artist in the community. Like I said when I judged this mix, he’s one of the more consistent vocal mixers out there, but for some reason I don’t even think of him as a vocalist. His music is usually so catchy on it’s, I almost forget it’s him. Makke is fearless; he has and will tackle any and all genres. Need some modernized doo-wop? He’ll takes a random source tune from an NES game he never even heard of and he runs with the entire concept. While I’ve more commonly seen people in the community hating on lyricized mixes, I’ve been recently seeing a lot of people specifically gravitating toward them. Malcos thinks it’s where a lot of future VG mixes are headed. So there you have it: join the wave of the future with OCR’s resident Swedish superstar.
pixietricks - “The Rainforest Song” [http://www.fayhaven.com]
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Jill Goldin is CUTE! And I don’t mean in that teenage crush kind of way, because while she’s a beautiful lady, my girlfriend would kill me. We’re talking about murder here. So let’s figure out how to handle this without macking on adult Jill. Well, for those of you that have yet to get this track, you’ll find not the lady singing in “Prayer” but a lil’ kid! So CUTE! Indeed, the cuteness is revealed in this classic cut from lil’ pixiesticks. Jilly sang this for the closing credits of a production her father made and it still sounds all cuddly and Star Search worthy today. The word “hamburger” is in there! How can you go wrong? So don’t slash it and burn and cut it. Download it! (I amuse me!)
RoeTaKa - “A Hero Decides Fate” [http://www.soundclick.com/roetaka]
Alex releases something on the original side here with this brand new orchestral arrangement. Usually, Roe’s pieces are too heavy on the volume, but while this was definitely loud, it wasn’t ear-breakingly loud. Perhaps we’re learning! While most of the phrasing here doesn’t really produce anything melodic or driving, the composition here is somehow interesting. It really sounds like it would function well as background music for a large scope of combat simulation games, which is excellent. Noticeable dynamics were present as well, doing a nice job of lowering the energy level before building things back up. So despite there not being any real hook in the package, the track is really worth checking out. Even though I’m just creating a function for the track’s form in my mind, it really works well as BGM and you could leave it on loop for quite a long period of time. Some of the best stuff I’ve heard from Roetaka yet that you can’t miss.
Skrypnyk - Donkey Kong Country 2 “Vociferous Storm” [VGMix2 #4385]
You may be surprised, but I actually haven’t heard too much straight trance in a while in this community, so Andy’s latest actually took me by surprise. The melody doesn’t actually kick in here until about 1:30, and even then it’s kind of fighting to be heard. Took me a little while to realize it was “Bayou Boogie”. For those expecting a hugely interpretive mix as far as the melody goes, nah. Skrypnyk mostly deals with a small piece of the pie in terms of the source material used here, but if you like the oomp-tss, you’ll be in oomp-tss/electrosynth heaven.
TO - Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee “The Monsaic” [VGMix2 #4394]
There’s nothing more indicative of skill than fashioning a lot out of a little, which is why I appreciate the arrangement involved in Lee Barber’s latest from the never-covered-as-far-as-I-know Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee. Going the new age route with Ellen Meijers-Gabriel’s “Monsaic Lines”, TO goes for a delicate build over the course of the 5 minutes, with the only thing disturbing the peace being a potentially overbearing snare drum. Great job turning such a brief source tune into something a lot more substantial, so click the link and put some roo in your doo.
Vampire Hunter Dan - Chrono Cross & Chrono Trigger “To Times Once Forgotten” [VGMix2 #4416]
It’s my understanding that some of you old-schoolers have been waiting patiently for new material from Vampire Hunter Dan. In the VGMix1 days, Dan Barnaba was someone you could turn to for consistency and professionalism. Luckily for you, VHD hasn’t forgotten about the little people, fusing 5 arranged Mitsuda pieces into the orchestral behemoth you see before you. It builds, it declines, it makes your ears want more. At a (mere) 8:26 you’ll get all the Chrono you can handle unless you’re Zeality or some permutation thereof. In any case, Dan is back for one more and he’s making sure you noticed.
Xoc - Super Mario World 1 “Chocolate Island” [SMW]
“Holy shit, have you heard of this stuff from Xoc?” That’s all I was hearing in post after post across several forums after the community at large caught wind of Jason Cox and his tribute to Koji Kondo in this swanky set of covers that are so thoroughly and uniquely stylized track by track that no two track approaches are similar. 21 tracks, 26 minutes, lots of ear candy. I picked “Chocolate Island” as my personal favorite for all the chocolate people around the world such as your humble Judge right here. Look, I do the work for you… Pick your poison. Man, if someone could make some looped copies of these…
zykO - Super Mario Bros. 1 “ReMix” [VGMix2 #4404]
Hahahahaha! Full Metal Jacket clip to open, so I’ve gotta stick around. weed handles some predominantly synth material in this thank you to VGMix featuring some lyrical bits and a nice, cheesy tropical vibe. Oh that’s pure fun! Judges aren’t allowed to have fun, weed! Stop having fun! I’m always a fan of zyko’s more serious work, but this has the “hoo-hoo” sounds in there non-stop and surf-style guitar. That’s the way to close it.
Lots of Mario pimpage to end things. I’ll make sure to feature more Burgertime for the next batch to balance things out. Now get a goin’!