ReMix:Pilotwings "Fly" 4:08

By Palpable

Arranging the music of one song...

"Flight Club"

Primary Game: Pilotwings (Nintendo , 1990, SNES), music by Koji Kondo, Soyo Oka

Posted 2009-08-22, evaluated by djpretzel


Vinnie and Amy, collectively known as Flickerfall, just released their debut album, Delayed Reaction, also available for digital download over at Protagonist Records. Price is reasonable and I *have* found myself humming one of these tracks ever since they first played it for me driving around somewhere in NoVa, where we both reside. Be sure to check that out, but first check this out - Vinnie's provided us with what is somehow, after almost ten years, our FIRST ReMix of the original Pilotwings for SNES! I played this game a ton back in the day... it was a really Zen way to decompress from work, school, or what have you by just flying around, or intentionally crashing my poor plummeting parachutist into the ground. It put Mode 7 to good use as more than just a gimmick, and really did have some solid gameplay; it's one of those games that tried something a bit different, and made it work, and this was before fancy-shmancy motion controllers and all that jazz. Palpable writes:

"JJT was thinking about a Pilotwings project last year and he asked me if I was interested. He had an idea for a jazzy drum & bass arrangement of Flight Club. It must have been a good concept, because I was coincidentally working on a jazzy drum & bass version of Flight Club before he asked me! But the Pilotwings project didn't end up happening so I decided to sub this.

Flight Club always seemed like a song without a melody, so I added one. There's only so much you can do with a 12 second song though, so in the bridge, I threw in the first second of the Opening, slowed down like 4x. Hopefully 13 seconds adds up to a ReMix."

While I like the minimalist "Fly," I still think "You Do Not Talk About Flight Club" would have a been a fun, if supremely obvious and ham-handed, mix title. Funny how things work out - I myself was already "working" (meaning "allowing to stagnate after completing a minute") on 'Short Skirts' when Andy approached me about VotL. In this instance, while the album never came out, we do at least have Palp's mix to listen to, which is great. There's all of the attention to detail, all of the varied, concise, short-release instrumentation, and all of the style, but this mix is a bit jazzier and a bit drum & bassier than what you're used to from Vinnie. It's also pretty clever and interpretive, arrangement-wise, as you might glean from the artist's comments, and packs a lot of material and development into 4'11". The blend of acoustic and electric piano, guitar, and strings along with pristine, meticulous synths at high (temporal) velocity is slick, but the real show-stealer is the abundance of syncopated breaks and fills. At 2'10" things almost go reggae, with a strong offbeat chord and half-time drum groove that lasts a good while. Things pick back up at 3'07" with a cool percolating synthpeggio lick, eventually leading to the reductionist ending and final piano chords. Nice way to tackle the Pilotwings score, and another clean, detail-oriented electronica mix (more or less) from Vinnie. Grab it & enjoy, then check out Flickerfall.

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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eggsngaming
on 2016-04-08 12:21:29

Never played a Pilotwings game (for shame!), but this is one the most pleasant, happy sounding remixes on the site for sure. Bright blue skies, wind blowing in your face, maybe getting some boardwalk fries or driving a jet ski, this mix gets me in that carefree, vacation-y mood. Musically, the fast tempo and light, snappy drums keep everything nice and tight. There's also so many cool fills with the piano, guitar and synth, I feel like there's something new to hear every time you listen to it. All in all if you don't enjoy this remix then you're probably like, dead inside or something:P

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TBsmasher
on 2013-04-19 12:34:53

The beginning of this track totally had me thinking Keiichi Ueno of Bemani fame. Great use of instrumentals with a groovy DB background to fill things out well. 5 star on my playlist!

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Emunator
on 2009-12-21 22:24:35

This whole song feels flighty - your lead synths bounce around like they're floating along in the breeze :-) It's really quaint. The orchestra hit is kind of cheesy and out of place but all the other instruments really jive together and create a great song to lounge around to on a carefree day.

At first I was really off-put by this song, but looking back I can't remember why, it's actually very enjoyable :-) Also, kudos on finding such a laid-back use for a DB drumloop, that's good work! :-D

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metalsnakejuice
on 2009-09-24 02:38:29

Wonderful arrangement, the sounds and choice of instruments is great.

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OA
on 2009-09-23 18:21:28

I absolutely love this mix. Great percussion, nice synth tone, all around class. Arrangement is packed with details, and you'd have a hard time guessing that this was only a 12 second source. ;D

Highly recommended, this is my jam for today!

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Martin Penwald
on 2009-09-14 12:17:56

Wonderful arrangement and perfect choice of instruments. Very reminiscent of racing game-music from the late 90's, particulary Ridge Racer Type 4 and X-treme G 2; I guess it's the piano and choice of synths.

Awesome track, and if you haven't checked out the OSTs from the games I mentioned above, you should do so ASAP.

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Nobbynob Littlun
on 2009-08-27 02:12:24

Kind of repetitive, but that is to be expected from the source tune... love the "instrumentation" though. Lots of nice little touches. I'd love to hear this kind of attention to detail in a more complex melody.

I should probably just download everything

Abso-spankin'-lutely.

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ZealPath
on 2009-08-23 21:46:23

Really diggin' this one. I don't generally download mixes from games I've never played before (I remember being mildly curious about Pilotwings back in the day, but never did try it), but this mix is continued proof of the fact that I should probably just download everything, I clearly don't know what I'm missing.

Normally I like to comment on how a mix compares to the original, this time I'm just going to have to say I really enjoy this track. Very upbeat, a little more jazzy than I might have expected from a "flying theme" but it certainly goes down smoothly. The variations with the piano and synth are really awesome, this won't be leaving my regular playlist for a while.

Time to check out the rest of the Pilotwings soundttrack...

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Palpable
on 2009-08-23 20:38:29
stylistlcally it's verrrrry similar to "THE CUBE" by DJ SUWAMI, an equally awesome tune - in fact the similarities are so rife that I'd be surprised if you hadn't heard this track before.

Great ears - I was indeed inspired by the style of that very track, which has been one of my favorite Bemani tracks for years. Probably should have mentioned that in my submission e-mail if you think it's that similar, but I suspect if someone is mixing DB and jazz, they'll probably end up using a lot of the same instruments.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

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Dave Harris
on 2009-08-23 15:35:49

Great to finally see a Pilotwings mix appear on the site (basically any Soyo Oka remixing goes down well here in dave-central ;) I like the direction you went with this - stylistlcally it's verrrrry similar to "THE CUBE" by DJ SUWAMI, an equally awesome tune - in fact the similarities are so rife that I'd be surprised if you hadn't heard this track before.

I guess the only case I'd have against your arrangement is the sparsity of the original material; you've almost made an entirely new track, since you're essentially taking those chord voicings and building around them. I'm guilty of doing exactly the same thing with F-Zero's rankings/select time music too though. gulp

my favourite thing on OCR for probably a few years, nonetheless :)

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Ascendancy
on 2009-08-22 16:10:31

i'm loving this, its very enjoyable and has a nostalgic feel to it. great work.

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bLiNd
on 2009-08-22 15:03:42

Palpable you are great sir for remixing this track. Pilotwings is an amazing soundtrack and you chose one of my favorite tracks in the whole game haha. I like the changes you made to the original progression and once that fast arp comes in im sold. great work dude.

ps - i will be peeping your album as jade checks it out, looking forward to it. Also thanks for the comments on golbez! glad you like path of deception 33 gotta submit that one hehe

great works!

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JenZ
on 2009-08-22 13:28:47

Dang, a remix by Palpable. Amazing. I love it. The sounds you chose are perfect, I think. But Pilotwings? That surprised me - it's soundtrack is good and no remixes up yet until now. Great job Palpable! :)

And what's also amazing is I got the Flickerfall album in today on top of all this. It's just a lot of Palpable goodness! :D Thanks for sending the album so quickly.

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metaphist
on 2009-08-22 12:19:25

YES!! FINALLY!!

Why did it take so long? Palpable, your my hero.

This is also now my favorite remix of yours.

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LuckyXIII
on 2009-08-22 11:51:24

I really dig this style. Reminiscent of the game, nice, smooth, reminds me tonally of Phantasy Star Online Ragol Weather by Zircon.

I was confused when reading the write-up. It took me a couple of times before I finally read Flight Club rather than it sans "l".

Great mix!

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Pilotwings (Nintendo , 1990, SNES)
Music by Koji Kondo,Soyo Oka
Songs:
"Flight Club"

Tags (3)


Genre:
Jazz
Mood:
Instrumentation:
Electronic,Synth
Additional:

File Information


Name:
Pilotwings_Fly_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
6,038,065 bytes
MD5:
3b5e65606a49cac229d3c1896be40d12
Bitrate:
192Kbps
Duration:
4:08

 

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