[djpretzel]

On judges FTP and vgmix if the link don't work. - djp


Hey there, Dave. Got a hot-off-the-press submission for you. I think it's my best. Anyway, here are the details:

Artist: Beatdrop feat. MC Mouse the Mighty
Game: Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix
Remix Title: "Dazed & Destroyed"
Original Song: "Hysteria" by NM190 (Naoki Maeda)

And now for my personal comments on the song:

I originally started on this back in May or thereabouts for reasons I can't even remember. I honestly have NO IDEA why I chose to remix Hysteria. I got some work done, and before I started on the vocals, I put it on the back burner for about a month. Then, after I moved, Bemanistyle.com started up a remix contest, and I figured I'd enter this song simply because the timing seemed right. So I sat down one day, cranked out the verse from the original and the chorus, tacked on a synth solo that wasn't in the original, put an ending on it, and submitted it to them. However, my plans for this song hadn't been completed at this point. My room mate, Walker (aka MC Mouse the Mighty), happened to have written some compositions of his own, and I found out shortly after I met him that he's heavy into rap music (not the crap on MTV, the real stuff) and had written some lyrics of his own. Now, at this point, I had originally asked AE to record some rhymes for me, because he fucking owns. But since AE's always busy and I wanted to get this thing done, I turned to my room mate to hook me up. Just the other day, he did. And then he formatted the lyrics from his computer by accident and had to rewrite them from memory. I went to work on the recordings, and here's the result.

And there you have it, Mr. Lloyd. Hope you enjoy it.

--
-Dain

[analoq]

tasty in-your-face big beat electronica.
vocals don't always cut above the mix, but the emceeing at ~3.30 is phat.
ending feels a bit abrupt, but i'd say this is ocr material. quite enjoyable.

yes

[Liontamer]

Like I was telling Dain a little while ago, this is mastered really loudly, enough to bug me anyway, but I'm making sure that it won't affect my vote, as other judges didn't have any issue with it. Would have still preferred a less-agressive mid-range, but it's all good as the production is pretty solid.

This one really takes the source in a new direction but I hear connections to the source in the more liberal/different sounding areas starting with the note pattern at :25. Nice way to stick with the original lyrics in a new style at :57, as well as doing the same with the chorus at 1:30. Cool stuff. I thought the lyrics from :57-1:50 should have been louder as the music was obscuring them a bit, but the original lyrics coming in at 3:07 were where I felt they needed to be.

Great shit here. I loved the source tune and here the arrangement is quality, the production is agressive but well made overall. I felt like this deserved more of an ending that this got at 3:56, but whatchu gonna do? No particularly noteworthy problems here to hold it back. Can't wait to play "Hysteria" back to back with this on VGF.

I think it's unfortunate this didn't get more attention when it was posted at VGMix, but a lot of people aren't DDR freaks there. I'm not saying that it'll get infinitely more attention here, as a lot of people aren't familiar with DDR stuff, but I'm sure SGX can tell you that a lot of people will nonetheless come out of the woodwork to hear this. Along with some stepfiles at Bemanistyle, it'll probably show up (along with other OCR stuff) in Flash Flash Revolution if it hasn't already, and the kids who play that will bug you more than that weird guy from Chile. :-D Great work, bro.

YES

[Malcos]

Yeah aggressive style is how I like it. I'm very familiar with the source tune, completely different take on it.

Production is crisp, nice arrangement. Like the effects and processing used on the vocals to make them stand out more, although the first set of vocals (0.57 onwards) were a little hard to make out at first.

We need more DDR stuff people! Good work Beatdrop.

YES

[danny B]

Was this song made for DDR or a preexisting tune used within DDR?

[Liontamer]

Originally Posted by Daniel Baranowsky

Was this song made for DDR or a preexisting tune used within DDR?

Considering that when Beatdrop was on the panel, he was the information source for whether a DDR mix was valid for the site, I doubt he'd mix a source tune that would make his mix a violation. I'm sure it's fine.

[zircon]

I'm not sure if I feel as certain as some of the other judges. My problems; Beatdrop always does great technical work, which you really need when you're working with edgy sounds, but sometimes I think he goes a little overboard with distortion. Vocals aren't that great here either except for the stuff from ~3:00 - 3:40, perhaps because they are sung by a male and have massive processing. I think at times like 2:09 the mix is really cluttered soundwise, partially because of all the distortion and heavy processing. I'm not a fan of the rapidfire kicks that don't really fill up the low end. I also agree with Larry that the ending was somewhat lackluster.

On the other hand, the synthwork here and choice of sounds is good all over. Excellent usage of effects and down-n'-dirty lofi sounds. I'm not a huge fan of this style, but this mix really does rearrange and retool the original very well. The minor issues I have with the implementation of some of the sounds are not enough to prevent a YES vote.