ReMix: Super Metroid 'Lonely Petals'
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- Game: Super Metroid (Nintendo, 1994, SNES)
- ReMixer(s): DrumUltimA
- Composer(s): Kenji Yamamoto (I), Minako Hamano
- Song(s): 'Brinstar - Red Soil Wetland Area'
- Posted: 2009-07-14, evaluated by djpretzel
- Album: Featured on Super Metroid ~Reserve Tank: VARIAtions~
Doug writes:
"So this one is a piano improvisation on the second Brinstar theme which I did for Reserve Tank: VARIAtions. I was reluctant on submitting it but I think now perhaps it's worth a shot. I'm sad to admit that Metroid is another game that I haven't played. However, I love this track and decided to see what I could do with it! Enjoy :)"
Wat!? Ain't played no Metroid? Or Super Metroid, rather? ShameUltima. It is, as they say, all good, however, since DrumUltima makes the excellent musics, regardless of his empirical experience with the games he happens to be arranging. Piano here is a little distant/watery, but that does jive with the title - it does sound lonely, perhaps fitting background music to a film scene in which a melancholy dowager walks down a leaf-covered sidewalk on a cold Autumn morning... alright, you got me, I just wanted to work the word "dowager" into a writeup... somehow. It's a little ironic that, while Doug's last mix was ALL drums, this one has none... although piano does often get categorized as chromatic percussion. For a first solo piano mix, this is some very solid stuff, and it's all the more impressive as an improvisation. It's simpler & rawer than Doug's other, more elaborate arrangements, and it leans effectively on performance for impact, with dynamics and tempo both keeping things wonderfully human. Some of the modifications to the progression & intonation are really fascinating - I could see building additional, complete arrangements of the source around these ideas, milking them for even more, which is definitely a compliment to the artist's creativity.
This is brooding, dark, stewing source material, and while Doug definitely keeps the brooding & and the dark, he's altered the stewing to more of a full course dinner: something with more range, emotion, and development. That's exactly what you need to do to pull off a solo piano piece, in my opinion, so kudos for a wonderful take on a classic theme and for showing even more versatility as both an arranger and a performer. Now go play the damn game already :)
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the OA;664479 wrote: Somehow i missed this the first time around- :O
Same. Saw this come up and was like "Lonely petals? Nyo~~?"
This is a great, personal arrangement of a well-worn source. The mood is fantastic, I love the upbeat nature of the improv, serves as a contrast against the plodding, methodical, and lonely nature of the original.
I guess I am going to have to go and listen to the entirety of reserve tank. I started into it, but there were so many bad tracks that I ended up only going for the artists that I implicitely trusted. Guess I can add Doug's name to that list after this.
And his chrono trigger all-percussion mix. Actually, in retrospect I should have trusted him after that alone...
- Master_Yoshi on August 13, 2010
- tweek on August 12, 2010
- MechaFone on May 29, 2010
This is really nice improv, and a great feel for the chords. Very nice stuff, emphasizes and enhances the moodiness of the original while still keeping it mysterious and intimate.
- OA on April 8, 2010
and if you have the chance, check out the original game. It's still as much of a masterpiece to this day as it were in its heyday.
- namekuseijin on April 5, 2010
The piano tone, reverb, and everything about it made it feel like it's being played underwater, which is pretty cool given the way the song plays out :-)
This one, as well as your DoD solo from Mario Galaxy, has proved to me that you really are as much of a Renaissance Man as you claim to be... watching you jump from pure electronic to percussion-only to something like this, and touching on every genre in between, with each submission is what draws me to your music. You never know what you're gonna get, but you know that each new song is going to take things to a whole different level of greatness!
- Emunator on December 22, 2009
. .I love Charlie Brown . .
Oh right the mix! was this rehersed? There doesn't sound one intonation mistake !! And there's a climax to the piece and everything :))
Nice work DrumUltima this shows ur mellow side for all it's wonderful. . mellowness..
- Mtlbro on August 10, 2009
Lucentas;566875 wrote: There need to be way more piano arrangements of Metroid stuff than there currently are.
I agree. Super Metroid's music lends itself very well to being arranged as a piano or jazz remix.
I thought that the remix at hand was a little too long, to be honest. The first two minutes are awesome, but at some point in the later half, it starts kinda meandering, and the last minute is like a really, really dragged out outro.
Still a nice remix.
- Martin Penwald on July 28, 2009
- JaDE ARaN HaRuNo on July 22, 2009
Keep it up!!
- jintoreedwine on July 20, 2009
Only gripe I have is the recording quality, but the arranging makes up for it! :D
- Matt E. Waldman on July 18, 2009
Rozovian;568292 wrote: We're so not friends anymore, Will. :P
This is beautiful. Unfortunately it clips, and is pretty heavy around the low-mid area. Despite that, it's one of my favorites from VARIAtions, so much emotion. Reminds us that not everything on OCR has to be orchestra+guitar+a dozen different synths+sidechained to six layers of bass drum+three levels of EQ per channel+kicthen sink... :D He also did that with his last controv... I mean remix. :P
Beautiful, dude.
Then I guess we're not friends anymore either... except I have played Chrono Trigger and a little Super Metroid. BUUUH!
And you nailed what I was saying earlier.
- Neblix on July 18, 2009
Willrock;566933 wrote: Btw don't be ashamed about not having played super metriod. I haven't played it either.
Or Final Fantasy.
Or Chrono Trigger.
Or Donkey Kong.
Ok i'm going to stop now :tomatoface:
We're so not friends anymore, Will. :P
This is beautiful. Unfortunately it clips, and is pretty heavy around the low-mid area. Despite that, it's one of my favorites from VARIAtions, so much emotion. Reminds us that not everything on OCR has to be orchestra+guitar+a dozen different synths+sidechained to six layers of bass drum+three levels of EQ per channel+kicthen sink... :D He also did that with his last controv... I mean remix. :P
Beautiful, dude.
- Rozovian on July 18, 2009
