ReMix: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night 'Nothing but a Pile of Dance Moves!'
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- Game: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Konami, 1997, PS1)
- ReMixer(s): NoppZ
- Composer(s): Jeff Lorber, Michiru Yamane, Rika Muranaka, Tomoko Sano, Tony Haynes, akiropito
- Song(s): 'Bloody Tears (Stage 10 Clock Tower BGM)', 'Dracula's Castle'
- Posted: 2007-05-09, evaluated by the judges
SOTN, baby! I recently downloaded the Xbox Live incarnation of the classic PSX platformer, a definite high point for the series, so NoppZ' groovetastic dance mix of one of the score's more memorable tracks is perfectly timed. For those not in the know, the mix title alludes to a fairly AYBABTU quote from one of the game's scintillating dialog sequences. Some translator dudes at Konami scripted the following for the big D man himself, Mr. Count Dracula:
"What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!"
How true that is. While the head honcho of all things vampiric can wax existential all he wants, Filip's cooked up a pile of beats that have started to move. This is far less 19th century Romanian Vlad and far more 20th century Studio 54 John Travolta, rocking a solid disco/dance vibe, complete with a kick/snare combo that drip with polyester. There's a fade-in intro, but it gets out of the way pronto so SOTN can start working its magic. There's some interesting breakdown material in the middle, with a sweet doubled organ motif, and then Super Castlevania IV decides to show up and take over the discotheque altogether, splitting the arrangement effectively in half. The downbeat alternates and the tempo is faster, providing a good amount of contrast with the previous section, even if the instrumentation remains largely the same. If you were dancing to it, which would seem appropriate, you'd certainly have to change your style mid-song though... otherwise you'd look like you were having a slow-motion disco seizure. The initial submission had some production problems, with sizzling highs and somewhat anemic lows, but Filip got back to us with an edit that addressed these concerns. Of this revision, Sir Oji writes:
"Philip got back to me with a newly mastered version that got rid of the production concerns I had. The treble's toned down so it isn't so sizzly and the bass is way phatter. Stuff like the strings are way more audible during the fuller parts as well. It's a lot easier to hear how everything works together, and the end result is a lot stronger. Thanks a lot for your patience, NoppZ. It was worth the wait, bro."
It was also worth the wait for NoppZ' return in general, as he's come back not intermittently but with a steady line of inventive AND fun ReMixes that are just as awesome on the dance floor as off. It's all about the Belmonts, baby.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the The whole jumping from idea to idea, tempo to tempo is very rarely pulled off as well as it is here. It's bizarre yet completely sensical at the same time. Strings and synths are sweet. Real sweet. The drums in the first third of the mix are somewhat fizzy, which I don't think sounds too hot. It doesn't kill the blazing heat of the mix though.
Basically, the mix is crrrazy good. Which is signifcantly higher regarded than regular, non-crrrazy good good. And NoppZ is godlike, in my view. One of his best.
- Marmiduke on March 5, 2009
Way overcompressed I think, but it's catchy as hell, which I suppose is a suitably appropriate way to describe such a mix, with the vampires and demons and all. Nice variation between the 2 sources, and the transition was drawn out long enough that it wasn't noticeably apparent until the shift had already occurred.
Arrangement-wise it's completely solid, with some great additional ideas thrown in, and a disco party beat to boot. You don't hear castlevania music arranged like this often, and it's really a cool direction for it to go in.
The only issues I have with it is production. It hurts to listen to for extended periods of time. :-(
- OA on February 5, 2008
Basically it kicks ass. It's hands down my favorite Castlevania arrangement.
Fantastic work.
- Flare4War on December 3, 2007
The strings at the end of the breakdown (up to 2:48 ) could be a little more powerful.
Very weird tempo change at appr. 3:00; however, it works really well with the source tune. Not as catchy as the first part, but close to the original song. Nice drums coming in at 4:06.
Here's to hope that NoppZ continues his output of amazingly well done songs in the future.
- Martin Penwald on May 27, 2007
9/10
- Ness757 on May 15, 2007
Haven't heard anything with trip-hop and CV together before.
Holy water!
- Kadosho on May 11, 2007
- DragonAvenger on May 10, 2007
Some parts sound like something out of Diddy Kong Racing. But a bit of cheeze isn't necessarily a bad thing.
- Geoffrey Taucer on May 10, 2007
One of the funny things about this is Dr. Acula is quoting a French author, Andre Malraux. So the writing is actually brilliant. Ok, it's still not brilliant, but still.
Anyway, as usual Noppz delivers. More SotN remixes please.
The answer is:
http://pics.livejournal.com/mrfurious/pic/0018bxd3
- chrisswiss83 on May 10, 2007
I would have preferred hearing a more "open" version of the tune. Overall nice job, I can dig it..
- Rayza on May 9, 2007
herograw;269314 wrote: Is it just me or are all the links to this mix missing a ".mp3"?
I think it died.
It's still up on the SuperTux mirror, though.
- Black Mage on May 9, 2007
