ReMix: Ghosts 'N Goblins 'Wanka Factory'

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There are incontrovertible and mysterious laws governing our universe which dictate that it can only contain a single Shael Riley at any given point in time - something that allows all of us to sleep more soundly at night, to be sure, but also a credit to his wholeness and oneness of being, so to speak. For better or worse. It's been two and a half odd years since Shael last graced our halls, a fact which he croons lamentably yet musically about in a lovely original self-deprecatingly titled "World's Worst Drum Programmer" that I had the pleasure of enjoying awhile back. In one line of the lyric, herein negated, Shael sings "and they don't post my ReMixes anymore" - so, one has to wonder, was this a successful illustration of reverse pscyhology, or does his finally-approved-by-the-panel GnG ReMix cut the mustard? To answer the question of whether Shael truly has a golden ticket and bears gobstoppers that indeed last forever, we need to take a step inside his Wanka Factory and do a little exploring - all euphemisms reconciled at the reader's own risk... First thing to note is that this is a collab with Compyfox, who pulled his usual assist on the engineering/production side of things. One thing I'll say about Compy is that, when I've been privy to the before and after results of tracks he's helped out on, his contributions invariably do make the mix stronger, crisper, and cleaner. He's mixing the mixes - he's actually churning the mixes! This is a strange little track which attempts to blend hip-hop, electronica, and various samples from soon to be Tim Burton-ized Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It ends up reminding me at times of Cibo Matto's "Candyman", a similarly irreverent construction which also drinks from the lore of Roald Dahl's celluloid interpretation. With a glassy glide lead, ensemble strings, heavy beats (which incidentally dethrone Riley from contention for world's worst drum programmer), an orchestral break down at 1'21", and most conspicuously a last minute that as previously mentioned quotes the great Gene Wilder at will in addition to some seemingly random words that begin with "T" (because hey - why not??), it does actually work pretty well, and I again think back to Cibo who play around with vocal samples in a similar fashion quite often. Mr. Riley revised this several times, with feedback from judges and myself, so it's been in the works for awhile. The final product is considerably more polished and artistically cohesive, but there's things like the vocal samples that are really a matter of personal preference - you're either cool wit 'em or not. I think they're at least well-implemented here, and contribute to the playfulness of the overall vibe. Quoth zircon:

"...there are a lot of strong points here. Very interesting uses of effects and soundclips, for instance, and the layering of the different instruments changes rather than repeating again and again (which, given the simplicity of the original, could have easily happened). The overall production is solid, and the arrangement is certainly strong."

With Shariq adding:

"The synths in this piece have a nice balance; they lock together quite nicely. You would think that with all the stuff going on stuff would sound messy, but it doesn't.

Oh man Gene Wilder; wtf awesome. XD"

Wonkabiased? Perhaps - you be the judge. It's certainly a different take on a well-known theme, it certainly represents a strong revision process that also benefitted from collaboration, and it certainly contains that essence, that nature, that effervescence that can only come from a man who wrote a song about how Link smells like his parts. Good stuff.

― djpretzel