ReMix: Highway Hunter 'Fast Cars, Russian Cigars'
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- Game: Highway Hunter (Epic Megagames, 1995, WIN)
- ReMixer(s): Bladiator
- Composer(s): Serge Shishkin
- Song(s):
- Posted: 2007-06-23, evaluated by the judges
For those not in the know, PRC or "The People's Remix Competition" is one of many competitions held regularly involving remixing of some kind. You can browse them on our Competitions Forum and see what's been going on lately; PRC in particular is very well run and has been both persistent and consistent for a goodly time now, often yielding results that end up being submitted to OCR proper and, in cases like this one, passed. Bladiator, whom we last heard from back in March with an excellent FF8 collab with Tepid, brings us this ReMix of... Highway Hunter. If you've never heard of much less played HH, you're not alone... one of the great things PRC does is attract attention to ReMixing more obscure games, which has specifically been lacking lately. Karl writes:
"I hadn't done a remix in a really long time, not to mention a PRC, so I decided to give it everything I had. This is reminiscent of Moontang although it's more screeching violin rather than slow melodic. The intro was supposed to sorta lead the listener off-track by giving it a rather French street corner amour, and then jump right into the frantic melody and the accordion player in the background who wants his chance in the limelight but usually is overshadowed by the violinists so he makes up for it by playing wild chromatic runs."
Nothing like inter-musician dynamics involving overshadowing violinists and compensating accordion players to liven up your day. Really groovy harmony work here, and awesome breaks toward the end like 2'28" which play with your expectations. Speaking of such, I saw Joey DeFrancesco at Blues Alley on Thursday night, and they did a fair bit of that sort of thing. At one point during a short rest in a piece they were jammin' out to, where you would have expected a slide or riff, Joey turned on this little techno preset pattern on the Korg X50 he had sitting on top of his B3... friggin' hilarious. Definitely recommend catching these guys; they played an amazing set, and I thanked Joey at the bar afterwards for incorporating EP, flute, strings, and analog synth parts using his Korg - a lot of times synths are seen as toys by "true" jazz musicians, but if you see Joey D play, you'll know better. Right, back to the mix... as Karl himself acknowledges, the instrumentation here is similar to his other FF8 mix, so if for whatever reason you weren't diggin' that, this might not be your cup of tea. Blad's got the Au Bon Pain European street band thing going on big time, and kudos to him for having the cajones to so visibly spotlight accordion in his arrangements. This piece is playful and fun while at the same time musical and well-constructed. Most of the judges felt like sample quality could have been worked on; while the material used does fit the arrangement, the arrangement deserves a better implementation. But this isn't prohibitive by a longshot; Malcos summarizes nicely:
"Frenchy jazzy classicky thingy. Excellent arrangement, and the samples fit the instrumentation well. No brainer."
Imaginative arrangement combines with beyond-competent musicianship and a sense of humor to boot for a good time; you may prefer slow cars and cigars of non-Slavic origin, but you'll probably dig Karl's mix either way.
Discussion: Latest 11 comments/reviews; view the - DragonAvenger on September 4, 2009
I was initially hesitant about putting this on my MP3 player. The sample quality was meh and it wasn't really my cup of tea. But I put it on anyway. Since then, the mix has grown on me like some sort of parasite. It's great, it's quirky, it's charming and most importantly, it's FUN.
I can totally picture stereotypical french violinists/accordionnists (?) dueling for the spotlight while playing this. Awesomeness.:grin:
- Jaybell on July 31, 2007
Also, I don't mind the synthy fell it has at all. Works well with the atmosphere.
Nice work.
- Martin Penwald on July 4, 2007
I'm now also envious of Karl's salary in addition to his talent, kudos to Mr B.
- Tepid on June 26, 2007
Liontamer;287205 wrote: Not sure how appropriate it is to acknowledge Karl's salary, but if he's ok with it, that's fine.
I'd say you're looking too deeply into it. You weigh both issues (production/arrangement) and judge accordingly. In this case, there's a nice amount of realism in the sequencing, even if the sound quality is lacking. The sample quality could be improved, but the samples are used very well. You don't need hotter samples, just use them effectively.
A couple things:
- I published my own salary in another thread so it's ok. :)
- How's the gf, Larry?
- I appreciate that the judges still let my low tech music through the panel. I appreciate you guys.
- bladiator on June 26, 2007
Dhsu;286495 wrote: Awesome arrangement as usual, blad. Was definitely a little disappointed in the sound quality[...], and it seems pretty borderline in terms of the 50/50 rule the judges have been citing. I'm almost positive they've NORESUB'd other submissions for lesser evils. Perhaps this represents a subtle change of focus in the panel? Or perhaps B-Unit was holding Larry's girlfriend hostage for vote ransom?
I'd say you're looking too deeply into it. You weigh both issues (production/arrangement) and judge accordingly. In this case, there's a nice amount of realism in the sequencing, even if the sound quality is lacking. The sample quality could be improved, but the samples are used very well. You don't need hotter samples, just use them effectively.
- Liontamer on June 25, 2007
- OA on June 25, 2007
Silly me for doubting the writeup. Lesson learned. :-)
A delightfully upbeat and considerably..."Frenchy" tune. Very awesome.
- MrBond on June 23, 2007
Awesome arrangement as usual, blad. Was definitely a little disappointed in the sound quality though (can't afford some strings with your 38G's/year? :P), and it seems pretty borderline in terms of the 50/50 rule the judges have been citing. I'm almost positive they've NORESUB'd other submissions for lesser evils. Perhaps this represents a subtle change of focus in the panel? Or perhaps B-Unit was holding Larry's girlfriend hostage for vote ransom?
In any case, glad to see this on the site. Not to mention Karl himself...good to see you're still around. ;)
- Dhsu on June 23, 2007
- Geoffrey Taucer on June 23, 2007
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