OCR01294 - *YES* Crack Down '4:20 AM'

[zyko]

whats up folks. this is from crackdown on the sega genesis... a pretty old school game with awesomely addictive gameplay and a badass soundtrack. very underrated, forgotten game.

this piece is a different version of The Man who broke his Smile at vgmix. whereas the former is a centric arrangement (A, B, C, B, A) this is a further interpretation of just section C of the original arrangement. the original clocks in at a whopping 12 minutes but i felt section C got lost in the midst of the original mix rather than stand as the climax as i had intended it as...
and so i bring you the climax of The Man who broke his Smile at 4:20 AM.
enjoy ;)

[Liontamer]

http://www.zophar.net/gym/crackdn.rar - Crack Down 04.gym

Good entrance going on for some cover-style expansion on the source material. Just listening to the GYM, the original was one of those sparse-as-shit tracks, like Eternal Champions' music.

Hot little riffs briefly at :54 & 1:11 to play around with things, before hitting the real frestyle bwomp-chicka hotness at 1:22. Very nice and very expansive, going off on your own thing while retaining the source material as the base, with some of the not-as-easily observed usage being the light strings reprising 1:03-1:18 of the source material, and the bwomp-chicka groove arranging :31-:47 of the source.

Nice how many of the subtler support elements under the lead guitar were being played differently each time from 1:22-2:53, though the basic patterns (strings/percussion/sythn playing the source melody pattern) definitely went long, staying around until 2:53. The percussion pattern in particular definitely could have used something to keep it fresh around the 2:20 mark, which was when I noticed the repetiveness.

Good, but all-too-brief play on the source tune with the guitar work from 3:16-3:30. The sudden dropoff at 3:48 could have functioned more smoothly. Nice samples for the intro and outro too.

This might get called out for being "upgrade + freestyle" and leave you to the tender mercies of the fellow Js, but a closer look at the source and how it was used here led me away from any huge concerns on those grounds.

I felt that the new material gelled fairly naturally with the source material, and that the source coverage gave enough additional depth to the original.

YES

[Malcos]

This was fun to listen to. A lot has been done to the track here, as Liontamer said, the original was very sparse.

Drums get a bit repetitive, a breakdown or a change of beat for a little while might have been an idea. However it doesn't detract from the groovy guitar improvs.

LOL for the predator sample at the end.

YES

[GrayLightning]

Excellent, I thought the arrangement was right on. My only criticisms are the drums get extremely repetitive and I wasn't digging the sampled voice materials.

That aside, this is really great work, might be one of my favorites of zyko's. Good stuff all around. I have no reason to no, so it's an easy YES.

[Vig]

funkified.

the guitar's clearly bring the thing alive. It's definately a jam track, but it never becomes dull, it keeps moving.

I like the vocal clips, although i think they could have been integrated a bit better with a fadeout, because the fuzz from the samples sticks out when the clip ends.

great stereo work, although i think some of the guitars sound a bit dry. i would have thrown on some intense stereo delay on the guitar around (:35)

this track definately keeps you moving.


YES

i wonder what's so significant about 4:20 am?