ReMix: F-Zero 'The Freedom of Zero'
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- Game: F-Zero (Nintendo, 1990, SNES)
- ReMixer(s): Harmony
- Composer(s): Naoto Ishida, Yumiko Kametani
- Song(s): 'Mute City', 'Select Time Theme', 'White Land I'
- Posted: 2008-01-12, evaluated by djpretzel
Brandon Bush is, simply put, a superhero. Between his formidable academic background, laid back personality, wit, and multi-faceted musical abilities, one can't help feel that a little of that should have gone somewhere else, to someone else, simply in the interest of equity, but it all ended up in one dude; go figure. Perhaps we will eventually find out that he has a small midget living inside his spleen, from whence all his musical ability comes, or that he has subtle but important character flaws, and on one occasion in June of 1996 neglected to help an old lady cross the street. Seriously, ALL of his ReMixes are mini-opuses; he has no single magnum opus, because they're ALL of that caliber. Dragon Song comes to mind as his salient "piece"; I raved about it back then, and I still rave about it today. It's one of those mixes you can queue up for someone totally ignorant of OCR or video game music in general and knock their socks off with. And so it is with great pleasure that I give you his latest ReMix, from F-Zero. Harmony says:
"F-Zero is easily the game that I play most often these days with what little free time I have, so the soundtrack is absolutely burned into my head. That’s great though because it is truly a joy to hum along to. I was glad to hear JJT nail “Silence” but there are some other awesome as yet uncovered tracks that need some love. “White Land” is definitely one of them, and I’ve tried my best to do it and the other tracks I mixed great justice. Thanks Dave, Larry, judges and OCR for listening. I hope you enjoy your ride!
This mix is brought to you by (in addition to my new PC!): SONAR 6 SE, FL Studio 5, Casio CTK-551 (controller), Fender DG-20CE, my sexy man voice and my lovely lady Melissa’s sexy woman voice."
F-Zero indeed retains much of its luster when you go back and play it; they really nailed the concept on the first try, and I hope the series sees a new next-gen entry soon. While a Wii version that did the controls RIGHT would be groovy, I have to admit that seeing something like GX upgraded to 1080 HD would be downright breathtaking. But I digress; this vocal mix features not only Brandon's voice but his girlfriend Melissa's as well, for a rockin' "I had the time of my life" male-female duet, although she's playing the role (quite believably) of "F-Zero shuttle transport attendant voice," for lack of a better phrase, and not singing herself. Harmony provides his own harmony, as well as counter-melody, as there are some rapid, Barenaked Ladies style vocal layerings here. The whole piece is conceptual, as Brandon and Melissa take us on a shuttle ride through the world of F-Zero. There's plenty of variety, instrumental flourishes, and lyrical game references, and production is consistent with the rest of Brandon's oeuvre, i.e. unblemished, rich, and warm. The vocal morph pitch bend slide into the upper stratosphere at 0'40" is not only an awesome effect, it avoids gimmickery by being relevant to the libretto - Brandon's voice literally "takes off"; extremely cool. Organ plays a huge part, but piano, guitar, and especially nice, dynamically adaptive drums are all core elements. The arrangement packs at least a triple punch, probably more, with stylistic variation for each destination on the ride, and the overall work is a ridiculously imaginative and well-constructed homage to the game and its soundtrack. Bottom line: this ReMix is awesome, you must download it now, and if by some cruel twist of fate you've not yet checked out Brandon's other work, ensure that the F-Zero shuttle takes detours to Mana and the Spring Yard Zone on your return trip. Superb.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the This track is awesome. Vocals well done, production immaculate, arrangement great fun. I still get chills when Mute City kicks in: It's just sweet. Come back and grace us with more great music, Harmony!
- KyleJCrb on April 20, 2009
Harmony;391275 wrote: Thanks for the comments KogeJoe, but don’t you think it’s kind of weird to throw out a blanket statement about not liking when things are added to a song that weren’t in the original when you’re on a remix site!? If remixers only used what was in the original song, then we would all do super-conservative covers (a.k.a exact copies) and this would be a very boring place.
I actually agree with you 100% Harmony.. BUT i have realised what makes me like some remixes that have lyrics and what doesn't.
if a remix contains lyrics that are printed down on the exact (or almost exact) melody in a song - it sometimes sounds odd, because the melody itself is not a melody that is "singable" .. some melodies weren't just meant for a human voice .. this happens alot in videogame music .. there are a few tracks on this site i could use as an example but i don't want to flame anyone
this remix uses a perfect "singing" melody, i don't know if you wrote it or if it's in the game..however, in this case it doesn't matter .. because the melody is "singable"
that's what i think
- Platonist on April 9, 2008
- Lancer on April 8, 2008
All in all, I've got to say that although the lyrics felt a little superfluous to me, I will certainly concede that you did a positively kickass job with the lyrics, regardless of how I feel about them as a part of the song. Your girlfriend also provided the voice of the shuttle announcer very convincingly, so additional props are in order there.
Overall, this was an unexpected, but pleasantly so, direction for an F-Zero mix, and adding the fact that it was a medley makes it even better.
- CobaltDelta on April 8, 2008
KogeJoe;390400 wrote: I just, ME MYSELF, do not like to hear lyrics on tracks that were meant to be lyric-less
....
The back-ground voices are actually a nice addition.
Thanks for the comments KogeJoe, but don’t you think it’s kind of weird to throw out a blanket statement about not liking when things are added to a song that weren’t in the original when you’re on a remix site!? If remixers only used what was in the original song, then we would all do super-conservative covers (a.k.a exact copies) and this would be a very boring place. I find it even stranger that just about every time someone has given me a comment about never liking lyrics in songs, they qualify it with “but I liked your lyrics” or “I thought these lyrics were a cool addition.” What’s up with that?
In any case, I’m glad that I’ve had the chance to help a number of people re-examine their preconceptions about lyrics in songs (even if they don't know or admit as much). Hopefully, future remixers will hear a few less “I hate lyrics in remixes” comments as a result. In fact, tearing down all musical preconceptions is one of my favorite contributions of OCR to society at large. Gotta love this place :)
OverClocked ReMix -- Obliterating “I hate [blah] in music” comments since 1999.
- Harmony on March 30, 2008
Music was nice and mellow... until the lyrics started.
Don't take this personally? I just, ME MYSELF, do not like to hear lyrics on tracks that were meant to be lyric-less. It ruins a piece when something that isn't supposed to be there is forced on there by aspiring artists that think they're embellishing something with their own lyrics that don't even appear in the game. And on top of that, I DIDN'T like the pitch bends in the vocals. Can't people sing without the need for electrical enhancements? SOMETIMES it's cool, but like, I thought that was too much, even for lyrics. :tomatoface::tomatoface:
Other than that, I liked to hear all the different variations of musical styles. Different instruments, esp. the jazz tremolo organ. My favorite part starts at about 2:05 when it kinda goes into rae-gae/ska and I hear a familiar melody. Mute City is one of my all-time favorite F-Zero tracks. Always brings back memories of playing my SNES after school. The back-ground voices are actually a nice addition. It was a SEXY voice. Mmm hm. 3:27 has a nice relaxing feel to it. Again, could do without the vocals. If there were less vocals, and the cool parts would be longer I'd like this piece more.:<:<
- KogeJoe on March 27, 2008
The only gripe I have is that your voice is drowned a little in the part from 1:36 on; it should be standing out more.
Great ideas, great work.
- Martin Penwald on February 3, 2008
- Fritz the Cat on February 1, 2008
- Palpable on January 27, 2008
-The announcer--totally awesome non-melodic vocal inclusion, and the performance is spot on!
-drums (snare in paricular) adds a quirky and fun vibe - song really has a personality of it's own built upon a great groove
-The general direction of the track - the mix makes me feel like I'm having the time of my life at a theme park or something.
-The vocal slide. I'm totally going to rip that off at some point in the future :D
- big giant circles on January 26, 2008
- MisterBiggler on January 18, 2008
For some reason, I like this one.
Think I would have prefered it with only the song and no other voices. But still, I like it.
- zukhramm on January 16, 2008
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