VG Frequency

The column’s out on Monday this week, since I got the chance to chill with Vigilante this past weekend. After chillin’ around with my friends here in Connecticut, I headed back with him to Massachusetts on a whim, and had an awesome time in Boston and Cambridge. I got to see and help Jesse work on some Donkey Kong Country remix material, and despite being a fan of the scene for such a long time, I had never actually seen any mixer’s setup before, so that was a pretty cool experience. Of course, the trip wasn’t all about OC stuff (Béla Fleck & the Flecktones and sushi!), so we’ll both post some thoughts soon on how we didn’t get along at all WHATSOEVER for your amusement! One more week until I head back down to Atlanta, so I’ll finally have some cable network speed dammit. Now let’s pimp out what we had for the week ending August 14th:

ABG - Final Fantasy 11 “Recollection (Dynamis Mix)” [VGMix2 #2063]
Shawn Overn hasn’t had too many releases on the scene, but his Res Evil 2 OC mix that came out a few months ago, “Ada’s Groove”, kicked ass so I had to check this one out. Here we have a nice lengthy trance mix of Nobuo Uematsu’s “Recollection”. Thick tracks like these could always use better separation of the sounds, IMO, but for many trance tracks with a good groove and lots of energy, the wall of sound approach works well and is easily accessible to people who like to shake their ass to this kid of music. This is an excellent representation of a dance/trance remix and, at nearly 8 minutes, one that you won’t see at OCR unless an edited version is submitted, so if you’re into the genre, this is an absolute must if you usually limit yourself to OCR material.

Adhesive Boy - The Legend of Zelda 3 & Final Fantasy 6 “Devout Hyrulian Guttersnipe” [VGMix2 #2042]
Here’s a really cool light jazz/fusion style mix of Koji Kondo’s “Church” theme from A Link to the Past courtesy of Jack Ryerson. This does a great job of transplanting the source material into another genre with his trademark sounds, and this does its best to sound natural rather than sequenced. The cymbals are loud, but you don’t see me complaining. Very energetic, work for light jazz, yet engaging and relaxing, and one I think Neskvartetten would be interested in hearing and critiquing. This’ll be on OC relatively soon, but do AB a favor and check it now, while heaping praises upon him via VGMix reviews.

Ailsean - Final Fantasy 6 “Aria” [VGMix2 #2064]
Here’s Sean’s latest covering “Aria di Mezzo Carattere”, which features the guitar rock that y’all like, and is dedicated to Stephen Kennedy of KFSS Studios/Project majestic Mix fame and his new wife, Jana Kennedy. And while Ailsean’s harmonized vocals are a labor or love and friendship for Stephen & Jana, let’s all agree that he never does it again. :-) Some of the VGMix reviews for the mix are downright skewed and/or crazy, but nonetheless, this comes through on the music side even if it doesn’t on the vocals. Not what I had in mind for a song with marriage connotations, but when you dedicate something to a video game music producer, it’s best to go this route. ;-)

Corran - CastleVania 64 “Tribal Center” [VGMix2 #2044]
Some of the electronic sounds are generic, but the overall premise here is strong. I’m not familiar with CV64, so I couldn’t tell you how much of an rearrangement this is. Nonetheless, this is a fairly upbeat, even soundscape-ish track at times, featuring nice thick percussion and the xylophone and that bubbly-sounding thing. What the hell is that beautiful-sounding bubbly thing? Seriously though, this runs well with the percussion-heavy title’s motif as several different sounds give it that tribal feel. Always good to hear stuff from Corran, who’s growing more and more solid with his remix work as the weeks go by. Certainly one to give a listen.

debeerguy (Kevin “Lorenzo” Sisk) - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 “Vanguard Metropolis” [VGMix2 #2051]
Like I’ve said in the past, Kevin’s a bit of a hit-or-miss guy with me, so sometimes I’ll hear a new release he has and I’ll pass. This one has some odd chords and is rough, but shows some good things, so for any “Metropolis Zone” fans, you can check this out for some hard-edged electrorock. debeerguy’s tracks tend to need tons of polish and refinement, but you may be liking this one overall.

Digital Coma & SnappleMan - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 “Heroes in a Quartet” [OC ReMix to-be-posted] - Feedback
After SnappleMan has really come into his own as a remix guitarist in the past few months, Andy teams up with Binnie for a phenomenal collab mix featuring vocals by Coma and instrumentation by Snap. Everything comes together in the right way, with Coma’s layered vocals and SnappleMan with…you know those guitars that are like double guitars? Anyway, here’s some short and sweet stuff from the familiar TMNT stage select theme where you’re walking around the city. This’ll certainly make a huge impact when it hits OCR. God, that damn game was impossible. I’ll stick with Turtles in Time myself.

Freemind - “Olympiada 2004″ [http://www.bands411.com/freemindlab] - Feedback
Here’s FM’s take on ancient Greek music. If anyone would know, it’s OCR resident Grecian. Named in a timely fashion for this year’s Olympics, this is a nice 2-minute shot of ethnic flavor for ya, which is a musical style I at least have never heard from Freemind before. Pretty chill stuff to be sure, so feel free to vicariously experience the old days of Greece. Nice stuff to actively listen to or just have on in the background.

goat - CastleVania 3 “Emerald Ruins” [Unchosen Paths / VGMix2 #2038]
Chris’s latest release for his CV3 arrangement album is a break from his usual style. Of course, there’s some guitar rock in there, so you don’t be worrying. Yet we also get some more electronic stuff along with strings. Now, the strings and winds are noticeably unrealistic and need attention to dynamics, so this really doesn’t match the quality of the goat’s CV3 mixes IMO, but most of you aren’t gonna mind, so I suppose you can disregard that. Keep looking out for goat as he continues to wind his way through the entire CV3 soundtrack, as the results have been impressive overall!

JAXX - “Life of Wind” [http://www.trulyradical.com] - OneUp Feedback / VGMix Feedback
“Life of Wind” makes it as my pick of the week! Here’s some very cool acoustic string stuff from Pat that carries almost a Spanish/Italian kind of feel to it. You don’t get to see too much from JAXX these days, so when you see his stuff, you’ve gotta be sure to snap it up quickly. JAXX drops some very excellent work here featuring three layers of nicely laid guitar tracks. Be sure to check this out for some nice energy.

k-wix - Noir “Love’s Betrayal” [http://k-wix.no-ip.com] - Feedback
After analoq’s own Noir mix was spotlighted last week, k-wix goes for a composition of his own that, on its own, sounds rather straightforward (even though it’s a medley). Dustin managed to win a competition for actual dolla dolla$ with this Noir medley solo piano mix, and more power to him for making some scratch off it. Situations like that make me wanna remix. :-P Gimme some money! I’m not one to assign broad meaning to music pieces, but I did feel like this one worked with creating imagery and successfully telling a story through music of how one’s love could turn into betrayal. Very cool solo instrument work that you can expect to see on Anime Remix in the near future as it currently goes through the judging process, and one of k-wix’s best efforts yet.

Lix - “Snow Drizzle” Version 2.0 [Levo Lution XII]
Primarily inspired by Robert Miles 1996 album “Dreamland”, Lix Exest drops a decent 7-minute dream trance piece with what (I hope) translates to English as “Snow Drizzle”. I thought the overall presence could have been phatter as it relates to the beats, but the structure is nice and most of the sound choices are relaxing while energetic. If you like what you hear with Lix’s original work (AND you can read Japanese ;-P), check out his very soon-to-be-released 13-track original album Phobos and enjoy his mostly trance-oriented material. Solid original stuff from one of Japan’s more prominent game music remixers.

OverCoat - Vectorman 1 “Ocean Front Property” [VGMix2 #2057]
Scott’s here this week with a short, simple rearrangement of the classic “Tidal Surge” theme from Vectorman, attempting to take a slightly different approach than trance, which is how most people have attempted to tackle the theme (including Strike911 who has his own quality remix). The best part of this is the bubbly/ambient-style melody along with piano countermelody, while SOC’s drumbeat and electrosynth choices at 1:01 somewhat killed off the ambient feel I got. I’d love to hear this one done with better sound combinations, but this is some cool, quick material from my bro that gets it done. (What a sweet close!)

Quinn Fox - Phantasy Star 1 “Phillibuster” [VGMix2 #2069]
Thank you God, I’m so glad Quinn Fox is back. :-D Like I mentioned last week, Quinn decided to forgo his long hiatus from the music scene. Even deciding to go back and purchase the equipment he actually sold off, Fox’s return was even more unexpected than I thought, so it’s great to hear him back. This Phantasy Star mix is very rough, and is thus a more WIP-like level of quality with the mastering seemingly unaddressed, yet Quinn trademark sounds and style are apparent throughout, so I’d love to see this retooled and in a more presentable package. This is a somewhat meandering piece, so it does need more focus, though I believe a re-EQing would be enough to create the separation needed to bring out the potential here and make this much more cohesive-sounding. Y’all don’t know how glad I am to know that Quinn not hanging it up for good. Remember this mix as you could potentially see it improved in the future.

Rellik - Final Fantasy 6 “Dancing Mad” [VGMix2 #2056] - OCR Feedback
Adam has Kefka’s theme (yes, I know you see the mix title, but that’s right) done with strings and some thick dance beats, giving the source material quite the revamping. Rexy, burgeoning remixer and reviewer du jour of VGMix, felt this sounded stylistically similar to Rellik’s EarthBound mix from earlier in the summer (“Dreaming on Distant Shores”), yet I thought this did a great job in sounding nothing like that mix, and I know Rellik is working to diversify his style and not fit too comfortably into a given genre or formula. “Dancing Mad” is some pretty uptempo work that’s really accessible thanks to the source tune choice, and should definitely let you see Kefka’s theme in a new light. I’d personally like to see the strings more humanized, but aside from that and a few other minor issues, you should be liking what’s going on.

Reuben Kee - Street Fighter 2 “Ryu for Four Pianos” [VGMix2 #1662 / OC ReMix #1230]
I plugged this way back in July, and was glad to see this unique mix arrive at the OC judges’ panel shortly after I joined. Firing it up again to be secure in my vote was a welcome obligation. Let’s check out what I said about this one way back on June 19th:

Liontamer wrote…

After being in the WIP stage for a while, Reuben’s released the final version of this ambitious Street Fighter remix where he played 4 different layers of piano in one take apiece and merged them to form this remix. It obviously takes a lot of effort to play each section live and have everything synch up properly, so props to Reu for making the idea work from conception to finished product. Don’t be intimidated by 4 different piano tracks at once, folks. Two tracks provide background support while the third provides countermelody.

While a little scattered during some of the very active sections, everything generally comes together nicely as Ryu’s melody is accompanied quite adeptly with Reu’s three other piano lines. If you’re looking for a very fresh take on Ryu’s theme, look no further.

Ryan8bit - The Legend of Zelda 2 “All Else Failed” [Dwelling of Duels: Legend of Zelda / VGMix2 #2052]
Here’s Ryan’s entry from the most recent DoD compo covering Zelda music, and it’s a straightforward but enjoyable rock arrangement of the Dungeon music. Not much to say on this, which is not to say that it’s bad at all otherwise it wouldn’t be here on the Pimp Section, but if you’re looking for a quality mix with very capable axe work, nice varied percussion support that doesn’t drag the energy down, and some familiar game coverage, give Mr. 8bit a DL and enjoy what he had cooking for July’s Dwelling of Duels. August’s compo is focusing on military games, so expect to see some attention-grabbing, high octane work from the premiere live instrument mixing competition.

Sephfire - Kingdom Hearts 1 “Above the Rising Falls” [VGMix2 #1303 / OC ReMix #1229]
Daniel Floyd finally brings some VERY anticipated Kingdom Hearts action to OCR with this suspenseful orchestral-style piece covering the Square game with everyone’s favorite Disney characters. Any game where you can use Donald Duck in a combat situation is the WIN! I played this mix on VGF way back in April at Debotron’s request, and knew it was OC-worthy material back then, thus I’m glad to have gotten the chance to YES it as a judge. I’ve pretty much said everything I wanted to say about this one via my judging decision, so go ahead and read that for the technical stuff. As it stands, this one has gotten an excellent reception that should serve to get Sephfire’s name even more out there. If you’ve been waiting for some well-made KH material, your prayers have been answered. Snap this up immediately.

TO & FIDGAF - Seiken Densetsu 3 “Electrion (Guitar Mix)” [IONCROSS: Total War OST] - ZIP of the full OST / Feedback
Lee Barber & Damon De Maio have collabed on a full soundtrack for a mod of the space-based strategy game Freelancer, with this remix of Hiroki Kiukta’s “Swivel” functioning as the Rheinland theme and representing only one of three remixes in the mostly original soundtrack. I don’t mind saying that this mix should eventually have to-be-posted status at OCR, so you should give it a look to preview some quality upcoming material featuring FIDGAF with some powerful guitar support and TO providing engaging ambiance and beats in the front, transforming the (shitty) original into a completely different monster. After hearing this mix, there’s no doubt the rest of the IONCROSS: Total War soundtrack will be good, so if you have a good connection, go ahead and download the 50MB ZIP featuring the full OST. Get more information on the full Freelancer mod from the IONCROSS development team at http://www.ioncross.com.

On the WIP side, top C64/R:K:O mixer Larsec has a cool FF7 “You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet” mix in the works, while fellow C64 mixer cohort Makke continues his trend of vocalized homage mixes with an Arkanoid mix in the style of Faith No More’s classic single “Epic”. Now let’s enjoy the laundry list of works-in-progress to check out: ms0k (melody) & MaJIN_SaN (drums) - Destiny of an Emperor (history theme), ziwtra - Secret of Mana, ziwtra - Soukaigi, zircon - CastleVania Adventure, Mythril Nazgul - Xenogears, Suzumebachi - Donkey Kong Country (Kong in Concert), Ashane - Street Fighter II, Shadow - EarthBound, DCT - Silent Hill 2, Kadmium - Final Fantasy VII, Sefiros - Final Fantasy VII

I wanted to wish Haroon my best wishes after Hurricane Charley tore off part of the roof of his family’s home this weekend. Tons of people in Florida, Georgia & the Carolinas unfortunately felt Charley’s fury and the hurricane ripped apart tons of communities. Haroon even has some pictures of the damage to his home and around his neighborhood at the OneUp Studios boards. Here’s hoping anyone in Charley’s path or anyone you may know in that area came out safe and sound. We don’t get many hurricanes in Connecticut, but Hurricane Hugo about 15 years ago practically decimated Hamden and parts of New Haven around where I live, so I know it’s a shitty situation when it happens.

EdgeCrusher’s one of those guys who’s on top of the scene, so I found out from him in the #ocremix IRC channel that Stemage of Metroid Metal fame has to delay the final track of the remix project until…get this…his fingernail grows back. It seems that Grant accidentally burned off half the fingernail of his main guitar finger on his girlfriend’s oven range. Shit, that’s gotta hurt. So we wish Grant the best on his grueling :-) road to recovery and know that once he has time to lay down the final cut of Metroid Metal, all will be right with the world for the rock remix enthusiasts out there.

DJP and OCR finally got that mention in SPIN magazine I was hearing about with the subscriber release of the September-dated issue. Man, those guys need to do a real article and not just some bootleg timeline. Bleh on it. Any publicity is good publicity, but I would have liked some BETTER publicity. :-P Check out a scan of the video game music timeline via the OneUp Studios boards. The OneUp Mushrooms, the NESkimoes, Minibosses & Game Over were also mentioned.

Hope everyone also had a good time at the OneUp Studios BBQ last on the 7th as well. I don’t know anyone from the OneUp crew well, but it’s always cool when mixers and fans of the community get together like with MAGFest, the FF: Dear Friends concert & E3. Progress is also coming along with ideas and potential contributions to the upcoming Xenogears piano album, so keep an eye out at http://oneupstudios.com for more info from Mustin and crew as it develops.

Aight bros, take care.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 16th, 2004 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Arrangers, Compos, Free Stuff, Larry Oji (Liontamer), 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.