ReMix: Streets of Rage 'Elevation [groovepump mix]'
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- Game: Streets of Rage (Sega, 1991, GEN)
- ReMixer(s): DragonAvenger, ambient
- Composer(s): Yuzo Koshiro
- Song(s): 'Violent Breathing'
- Posted: 2008-09-19, evaluated by the judges
Hopefully by now you've seen our announcement of a recent interview I did w/ Martin Sargent on Internet Superstar. Martin's been a fan for awhile, having pimped the site wayyyyyyy back in the (glorious) days of TechTv, circa 2001. Larry and I ran into him at the ROFLCon afterparty where, strategically stationed next to the open bar (with Maker's Mark!), we shot the shit about the good old days, etc. He looked us up for an interview many moons later, and the rest is history. I think he did a pretty awesome job of covering the basics, and while I (tragically) stumble over pronouncing Uematsu's name, after watching the whole thing over I think I did okay for my first video interview. I suppose on some level it's objectionable in that I'm not really a "superstar" - it's more about the site/community itself than any one artist, or even the founder - but whatever.
I get asked about my favorite mixes from time to time in interviews, and Mr. Morse seems to think my answering such questions is contrary to the site's policy of not picking favorites or doing numerical ratings... let me emphasize that *I* am not "the site" - like anyone else, I can have favorite mixes, and my personal opinion only carries the weight people grant it. The site policy is designed to prevent formalized, aggregated favoritism i.e. ratings/rankings, which devolve into a popularity contest pretty quickly. The policy is not intended to prevent me - or anyone else - from having mixes they like a lot, and saying so. Sorry if that's tangential; I'm sure there *are* instances where I'm hypocritical, but this ain't one. I get asked this question pretty often, so I thought I'd clear that up since it's likely to happen again.
Right then, greener pastures: this is a REALLY fun mix. Like, stupid fun. Not fun that's stupid, but rather fun that's SO fun, it's stupid just how fun it is. ambient teamed up with DragonAvenger for some classic Yuzo Koshiro action, w/ vocals. Alex wrote quite a bit on the sub letter, but it's all pretty juicy so I'm going to lazily copy the whole thing:
"I know, I am submitting another mix, even though last year I was convinced that I had pretty much retired from mixing, and I indicated that in my submission of Back 2 Skala. And I actually didn't touch anything related to music until a couple of months ago, when I felt this craving to do something creative. Not so easy to give it up, remixing is quite addicting. Unfortunately, I noticed that my skills got rusty even in such a short time, and I couldn't start a mix from scratch. Or maybe I was just lazy. Either way, I decided to dust off an old mix of the elevator stage from SOR that was rejected back in Jan/Feb 2006, and fix it up. I replaced the drums, gave them a lot more pump, added some transition (including a section from SOR2 - Dreamer), and was pretty much ready to submit. But, somewhere in the middle of that, I started listening to a little more of vocal house, and started kinda digging it. So, to make a long story short, I got in touch with DragonAvenger, who very kindly agreed to help me add some vocals to the track. She was great to work with and I'm looking forward to working with her again soon. Here is what she had to say about the mix:
"This was a first time for me doing a song like this, so it was difficult at first to come up with something that was short and sweet. I knew the basic idea of what I wanted to go for, but finding the right words took some time. It was pretty sweet to see how my voice could be manipulated in the end."
I am very happy with the result, and I hope you guys are too. This is a fun little track. It is not quite as edgy as B2S, but I hope you find it funky and energetic. Once again, zircon helped a great deal with this remix. His advice pushes my work beyond what I would be comfortable with. Tamer also had some useful advice that I have implemented. Special thanks to Skryp for hosting the submission file, and Nina V. and Will H. for exposing me to some good house music.
Rad. This isn't a mix that'll change your life or elicit introspective revelations... it's dance house. Which, more or less, is basically designed to be groovy, not overly complicated, and have as low a threshold to danceability and enjoyment as musically possible. Which is not to say it's easy to make - common pitfalls include monotonous repetition, going too far off the cheese-o-meter, or involving one too many vocal snippet samples of soulful (ok, fine: black) people shouting one-liners like "Can you feel me?" or "Move to the rhythm!," etc. I'm happy to report that none of these faux-pas are an issue with this track, which remains true to the synth/dance energy of Yuzo's original while prompting the 90's to call and ask for their production back - in a good way. Though there are certainly some common meat-and-potatoes elements, not everything is staple foods: the dissonant sweep transition starting at 1'52" struck me as rather cool, in particular. Vinnie (who saw David Byrne with Anna and my friend Joi Wed. night in Baltimore, which rocked) is far more of an authority on dance house than I am:
"Oh I really dig this one. Has that club banger sound and the filtered pads and synths all fit together to make swirly goodness... I was waiting the entire song for DA's voice to get glitched and I almost thought it wouldn't happen. Then it happened."
Brief gating effect, really, but it still fills the gratuitous vocal glitching quota admirably. Fun stuff from ambient - very glad he couldn't stay away - and a nice vocal collab w/ DragonAvenger that really brings the genre to life.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the "Feel the rhythm of the night,
Hold me close and let our hearts collide.
Feel the rhythm of my moves,
Let me show you what my body can do.
Your voice takes me higher,
Makes my heart accelerate.
My soul is flying,
'Til you bring me down again."
Thanks to everyone who reviewed. This was a different and enjoyable experiance for me. I look forward to working with Ambient again, he did an awesome job.
- DragonAvenger on March 12, 2009
- Shadow Wolf on November 3, 2008
- Master_Yoshi on October 20, 2008
patella femoral syndrome;465176 wrote: The elevator music was always the weakest and most (only) forgettable track in the game to (perhaps intentionally true to the style of elevator music?)
WHAT?!? God, no. :tomatoface:
- Liontamer on October 17, 2008
- patella femoral syndrome on October 17, 2008
The vocals could use more effects/filters/etc, though. Maybe I'm spoiled by all the French House from the 90s (and current J-House), but I think that this song would've benefitted from more effects like the one at ~1:02 and 3:37.
Anyway, this is a great song, and I hope we'll get to hear more of this kind of music here.
- Martin Penwald on October 15, 2008
That being said, WOW. I love this mix, I find it to be incredible in music, and equally impressive with the vocals. Very, very impressive.
- MechaFone on October 10, 2008
I encourage you to do more in a similar vein, marry Sega beats with that voice and recreate a lost era of late-night 32-bit Sega dream music!
- majin_lyndon on October 9, 2008
- Dhsu on October 1, 2008
I actually love the tone of the vocals the way they are. They just seem to fit so well with the lyrics that seem to suggest either a song about love or an anthem for Streets of Rage about beating somebody up (hearts collide, showing what my body can do etc.). I love how it works on both levels. Great work from both of you.
- DuskyFerret on September 30, 2008
Production was good with an uber kick and some great synth flourishes. Vocal processing was good, with some cool effects, and overall this is a fun party track.
- OA on September 29, 2008
To ambient, I'd like to offer my maddest props for an incredibly danceable mix with copious amount of variety. As DJP said, this is a really fun mix. I could listen to it for hours without getting bored; in fact, I think I will. Catchy doesn't begin to describe it, it's too delicious. I thought the mixing was done well, a very good blend of instruments, and I loved the way you incorporated the voice. Splendid job.
More on the voice: DA, I don't use net acronyms much...that said, OMFG. Your vocals came out better on this one than I've heard them before. Very clean, it gets the real quality of your voice across. I'm impressed with the high notes too, they sound nothing like the somewhat wispy ones which were characteristic of the poorer recordings of your talent I'd heard in the past. In stark contrast, this mix gives me a much better understanding of how good you are. They weren't even manipulated a whole lot, it seems, just brushed up with verb, some occasional flange, and the glitch work near the end. Seriously, you added SO much to this song. I'm glad to hear you in another work of such high quality, having heard only two accepted mixes involving you prior to this one. Please keep doing what you do, because you do it well! =D
Excellent work, both of you. More in future from each would be lovely.
- Karth on September 27, 2008
I wouldn't've thought that any of the SoR tracks lent themselves to vocals until this mix, by the way. Great work from both ambient and DA. KF
- Kizyr on September 24, 2008
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