ReMix: Pokémon Red 'TEEM.ROKIT'
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- Game: Pokémon Red (Nintendo, 1998, GB)
- ReMixer(s): Tweek
- Composer(s): Junichi Masuda
- Song(s):
- Posted: 2007-08-01, evaluated by the judges
Ladies and gentlemen, Tweek has done the impossible. In the seven plus years OCR has existed, we've received quite a few Pokemon submissions, but while at times we've had some close calls, none have ever made it past the curmudgeonly judges panel and onto the site proper. No longer can accusations of the panel being haters of small, furry, mass-marketed creatures be considered credible, however, as Mr. Arnold's ReMix is here to represent in style. Jiggles McPuff, this one's for you! This is actually a revision of a previous effort Brian put together a good long while ago. The ReMixer writes:
"I decided to do a complete overhaul on the mix, and here you have it. I had just finished working on REAKTR.1 with sephfire and I was on a DnB fix, so I decided to stick with the genre and revamp this track (as you will probably notice the similar title names). I wanted to keep the same sense of uneasiness that the source and my original attempt possessed, but I wanted it to rock a bit harder. So, after a year, two months, and seven days, here is the final product!"
Awesome. Actually, when I was in the signature lineup at VGL in DC, I was evangelizing the site and how we had mixes from almost every game you could think of (marketing hyperbole, but we DO cover a lot), and this nine year-old asks me if we have any Pokemon, and... totally deflated. I had to explain that we're working on it. That we're failures, and that we go to sleep every night wallowing in our own inadequacies and dreaming of the day we can call ourselves men... more or less. Well, little buddy, wherever you are... your ship's come in!! I just hope you like DnB, as that's what Tweek's cooked up for you. Jesse's not really a fan of the Pokemon soundtracks, so his YES vote was rather colorful, and warrants repeating here, with apologies to "good taste":
"Yeah, so the thing with talented remixers remixing Pokemon...at the very best it's like you're molding the venus di milo out of a giant pile of poo. Sure you've got some chops, but you're putting them to waste on this crappy material. Imagine how much better your art could be if you had a better source to work with. I feel like this remix is a skanky hobag dolled up with makeup, sexy lingerie, a corset maybe, which make her look tappable under the dim maroon lights of a sleazy bar with a broken jukebox and a sticky floor, but tomorrow morning you KNOW you're gonna feel dirty."
... how visceral. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beer holder, and many intelligent folk surely differ with Mr. Taub's eloquent assessment of said source material, so let not his fecal comparisons trouble your delicate sensibilities. Lee had more topical, musical criticism to offer:
"You've simplified the mix a lot from the source. You have a rich soundscape going on here, I'm enjoying the thick textures and the crisp clear industrial sound. But there's really not a lot going on in terms of the arrangement. You flirt around with the synthy leads from the source in sections, but where you could've really built it up into something complex, you always jump away into a weird break or drum solo.
Take no fault from this. I really enjoy this mix and I think it's passable as it is. But it pains me to think that this could be a lot better than it is at the moment. ie: a little more work on the arrangement can push it from being a B track into an A+ track as far as I'm concerned. Really work on getting those crazy fast synths going in some of those sections."
I'd personally say that the strength of this track is in its similarity to REAKTR.1, as is its weakness; Tweek definitely drew perhaps too heavily on ideas and sounds from that arrangement here. However, given that so few have been able to push the Pokemon source into this realm, I'd qualify such critiques with a dose of kudos for being able to arrange such apparently troublesome source material into pretty kicking electronica. Larry didn't like the reverse section at 2:44-2:51, but I sort of felt like it was riskier than some of the other production decisions and added some character, albeit of a rather odd persuasion. The whole piece has a sort of enigmatic, shadowy feel to it, lacking dominant melodic direction; it's more of an expanded BGM that snakes in and out over a complex bed of dark textures and percolating beatwork. However, Tweek can make that sort of thing work rather well, and does so here, earning him the fame/infamy of having the first Pokemon ReMix on the site. It may not cause epileptic seizures or earn Brian great gobs of cash money (or any, for that matter), but it's pretty tight nonetheless, and thus: We choose you! Tweekachu!
...
ouch.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the - metalsnakejuice on September 26, 2009
- yosefu on September 26, 2009
Marmiduke;503461 wrote: Its 2009, where's that Pokemon Project Album already?Shut up, it's coming. Art and webpage need to be finished first.
And I happily repeat my approval of this remix, for it is good in many ways.
- The Damned on February 5, 2009
Anyways, I wouldn't call the Team Rocket Headquarters theme DYNAMITE source music, however Tweek has transformed it into a really nice piece of electronic spasticity that I have a certain affinity for. The source can get pretty damn repetitive in the game, but never does in the mix. Handfuls at a time of different ideas and interesting variations and techniques are thrown in at no expense, which is most important when dealing with a source tune that isn't very captivating and more on the verge of just annoying. I especially love when the mix goes into rewind. It seems like its something that won't work for a lot of ears, but for mine, I really dug it.
Always good to see under-represented games in the spotlight, and hopefully this and the other Pokemon remix on OCR wakes a sleeping giant. Its 2009, where's that Pokemon Project Album already?
- Marmiduke on February 5, 2009
Listening to this reminds me why I sunk soooo many hours into these games and makes me want to go dig out some of my old Gameboy carts.
Ahhh, good times, good times. :grin:
- 42 on February 1, 2009
- Corporal Keith on October 19, 2007
Liontamer;308921 wrote: Nah, I mean, what was the setting where all those people inquired about the mix? Were you guys at a party? What was going on, and what were some reactions to the track?
Well, I was at work originally when this remix was released and my co-workers are all into electronic music (in fact, that's all that we listen to collectively - - except for a few jazz and old-school hip-hop moments) and when I was taking a personal listen to this song, my co-workers stopped what they were doing (piles... of paperwork, mind you) to see who was it that made this mix.
The first question that came up was "Is there anything else by that artist? That was hella-good and I hope that's not his/her first one." The rest of the day pretty much entailed them listening to it off and on for the next 6 hours.
Then, when I brought it to their attention that it was a remix from a game, they just... did not... believe me. Got a chiptune of the original track and let them listen to it. Then I had them sit through the remix for at least 2-3 more times. On the level, they were seriously struck by the originality of this mix and have been frequently looking on the site for anything that they can remember. (gamewise)
Bear in mind, out of 79 people who work at my job, three people including myself avidly listen to game soundtracks considerably. The rest of them left video games behind with their childhood.
That was until my co-workers found OoT's "Prayer" by Pixietricks. I've heard it every other day from each of their ipods since the 6th of August.
Edit: I'm sitting in my office as I type and Teem.Rokit's playing upstairs... and it's not me.
- Shining Mirage on September 14, 2007
Angelic Sound Factory;307657 wrote: (My bad, LT):oops:
Nah, I mean, what was the setting where all those people inquired about the mix? Were you guys at a party? What was going on, and what were some reactions to the track?
- Liontamer on August 20, 2007
- yoshi1001 on August 20, 2007
Liontamer;307635 wrote: More background information please.
I personally had difficulty trying to figure out what this track was at first, due to the beginning up to about 1:14. I had to break my neck to find a source tune of Team Rocket's theme so that I didn't get totally confused. After listening to that tune, the remix became so much clearer. The added expansions are slick. Especially from 2:02 into 2:40.
What I was trying to imply (before the 404 got me) was, this was more than a shock to me (not in a bad way, either) since for a while I was wondering if Team Rocket's theme could ever be remixed. But I was thinking more of a metal theme, though.
There's going to be a fair amount of people who might turn their noses up to this remix, but I don't think there's going to anything that'll top this anytime soon. Nice.
(My bad, LT):oops:
- Shining Mirage on August 16, 2007
Angelic Sound Factory;307626 wrote: I gotta give it to ya, this track stopped a room of 22 people to rush over to this laptop, listen and ask me from what album this was from. They still don't believe that it's from a video game...
More background information please.
- Liontamer on August 16, 2007
- Shining Mirage on August 16, 2007
- DragonAvenger on August 12, 2007
I've listened to remixes where the source is much more masked than this one.
- Chickenwarlord on August 11, 2007
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