Posted 2011-05-03, evaluated by the judges panel


The Wingless? Who's that? Sum n00b? Nah, in this case, one "Butoh" makes all the difference... this is actually an odd, odd debut mix from newcomer Mikeaudio, aka Michael Isel. Not so much for the genre, although it's certainly not your run-of-the-mill electronica, but more for the combination of sources - Sonic Heroes, Kingdom Hearts I & II, and Final Fantasy VII?? It's a VGM ménage à trois! The artist writes:

"The only difficulty that came while remixing these sources, was finding a balance, especially between songs like "One Wing Angel" which could have a remix of its own, and songs like "Hang Castle" which is filled with traditional i-v-i chord progressions. I had to listen to all the melodies, then after stringing them all together, make a composite. Once that was finished it wasn't long before it fell into place. To be honest, most of my time went into thinking and not really mixing or writing anything at all.

Regarding my choice of source material to remix, it was actually a request mix from a user on newgrounds. Personally, I love doing requests for the sheer fact that you learn and improve more, because in order to deliver (unless they request something you love and could remix a Million times) you have to look at the source and find qualities you like or don't like and then make decisions. Making those decisions unbiased will give you more freedom.

Regarding the mix title, Butō (Butoh) is a performance art that has no bounds really, originated in Japan, and most of the time is accompanied by grotesque imagery. Because of the pace of the mix, I decided to call it "The Wingless Butō", Wingless hinting to Sephiroth. Enjoy."

Very interesting... I must say, while there are specific sections of this mix that don't work as well for me as others, the concatenation & integration of themes is never much of an issue - Michael did a great job linking everything up and weaving it into a plausible arrangement, and that's a serious accomplishment. So is the sheer variety... this starts off with almost a cinematic vibe, then goes breakbeat, then channels a bit of a rock vibe with some elec. guits, gets a bit heavier with some powerchords, then busts out a catchy pentatonic East Asian groove, then goes more epic towards the end as OWA rears its head. This could really have been a massive trainwreck; I'm amazed myself that it holds together as well as it does, which I suppose is a testament to the artist's considerable planning phase... as a debut mix, it exhibits a veritable arsenal of ideas, techniques, and textures - along with the kitchen sink - but is most impressive in its glue, i.e. its ability to tie everything together coherently. I like Jill's initial reaction:

"Holy crap, are you serious? I can understand mixing source tunes from the same series - but SIX, all from different games? I'm not sure what to think. The production is excellent, and listening to it as a song without paying attention to sources it does seem to flow well. I just don't know how to approach judging this..."

Shariq gives it a shot:

"What a weird collection of tunes. But hey, it works, so why sweat it? Seriously, I'm surprised to see such a cohesive piece. Transitions are good, there's excellent development across the entirety of the piece, and the performances are extremely solid all around. Very nicely done. I don't usually like medleys, but this works really well as a piece of music on its own."

On paper, this mix would look like prohibitively schizophrenic, almost arbitrary, even... in practice, Mikeaudio has got me scratching my head, because it all somehow worked out... enjoyable, solid ReMix that at its best moments manages to defy "arrangement gravity" with some nice twists & turns. Very interested in seeing what Mike sends our way next!

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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Black_Doom
on 2015-12-07 23:42:33

I'm big fan of Mystic Mansion theme, definitely my favourite from SH, and I was really pleased when I saw this mix, even though it incorporates a bunch of other sources as well. It's pretty amazing, how Michael managed to tie them all into one cohesive track, that's actually quite good to listen to. I really love how it evolves in termes of dynamics - it starts off very quitely, with nice minimal electronica, then guitars join this action to bring in some energy and finally the orchestral-infused part makes it appearance at 2:48, and this is where the mix becomes epic as hell. Awesome!

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Crulex
on 2012-10-31 11:35:19

Now this is a freakin' megamix! The intro was paced very nicely, beforing bringing in the energy and some good electronic arrangement. The guitar was pretty sweet, and I do like how you switched things up one right after another. Quite a lot of variation and direction changed, and it still sounds amazing, so aces to you, man. The flow and the amount of sources put into this with the level of production shown, this is a hell of a debut. Yeah, all I can really say was that this was awesome.

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Mirby
on 2011-12-23 09:02:43

I'm surprised that all these songs work together as well as they do here. I think you're a veritable songsmith here; you've forged a great song out of several other great songs. What a wonderful job!

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Bahamut
on 2011-12-21 18:40:21

Whoa, that's a lot of sources packed in 4:42. The song starts off nice minimalistic, although that changes once the guitars enter in. It turns darker as it goes on, enhanced by the vocal grunts. I like how the artist mentions that he focused on thinking when arranging this - I like that approach to music the most, as it shows that the artist is consciously thinking about a goal and trying to execute as best as he/she can towards that goal. This flows well and just is a great listen overall. I think it's a great job and I hope to hear more :) .

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Martin Penwald
on 2011-07-12 15:47:54

The transitions are insanely well done; it never occured to me that the remix uses that many sources (guess I forgot about that; djp's "wingless" insider in the write-up must've been too much to actually remember what else he wrote). The only part that seems a bit strange to me is the outro; the piano does not gel that well with the heavier sound of the remix IMO.

The guitar around 1:50 is fat, the breakdown right after that delicious, and the juxtaposition of the two brilliant. Very dramatic strings around 2:50.

Good stuff.

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genius11433
on 2011-06-16 17:39:22

I am speechless and literally almost to tears. This is an amazing arrangement. A welcome addition to my folder indeed.

...

:shock: THIS WAS ONLY YOUR FIRST REMIX?! :shock: How are you ever going to top it?!

Alot of brainstorming for one thing. The amount of thinking that went into this mix was insane haha.Also, it took alot of trial and error.

Well, keep up the good work...and your soul! :grin:

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Mikeaudio
on 2011-05-12 11:17:22
I don't...what is...what the Hell? I can barely catch every source tune in your mix, but this all sounds cohesive...what in the Hell?

If you sold your soul to Satan for being able to cohesively mix six different tunes together, then you certainly got your money's worth!

Taken on its own merits, this is the first OCremix song in some time to actually catch my ear (not that the others aren't deserving of merit, just that they weren't quite built for me). This, on the other hand?

No, seriously, how in the Hell did you do this and still have it work?

Alot of brainstorming for one thing. The amount of thinking that went into this mix was insane haha.Also, it took alot of trial and error.

I never reply to remixes, ever, but this one deserves serious props. More mixes like this are welcome in my music folder any day.

@KyleJCrb: I loved Sonic Heroes as well; it's one of Sonic Team's better 3D productions.

I appreciate the good words, thank you :)

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NintendoMasterGC
on 2011-05-06 21:30:34

I never reply to remixes, ever, but this one deserves serious props. More mixes like this are welcome in my music folder any day.

@KyleJCrb: I loved Sonic Heroes as well; it's one of Sonic Team's better 3D productions.

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Firefeng
on 2011-05-06 13:11:27

I don't...what is...what the Hell? I can barely catch every source tune in your mix, but this all sounds cohesive...what in the Hell?

If you sold your soul to Satan for being able to cohesively mix six different tunes together, then you certainly got your money's worth!

Taken on its own merits, this is the first OCremix song in some time to actually catch my ear (not that the others aren't deserving of merit, just that they weren't quite built for me). This, on the other hand?

No, seriously, how in the Hell did you do this and still have it work?

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Kadosho
on 2011-05-05 11:03:10

Definitely a surprising tune, but as a mix I never expected this.

Just checked my YouTube, and in the header.. this Sonic Heroes / hybrid.

I really enjoy the mixture of several tunes put together like a yummy sandwich.

(dare I admit!) This tune even carries off as a possible boss theme!

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Mikeaudio
on 2011-05-04 16:47:36
I liked it. I liked it a lot. It was strange, though, as I didn't quite get any of the

KH of FFVII out of it (except for One-Winged Angel at the end). Strangely enough, I completely recognized the music from Sonic Heroes, a game I haven't played in years... Ambiguous source material aside, I enjoyed this song. Looking foward to more of your work!

Glad you like it :).I kept OWA to a minimum, simply because of all the material.The parts of OWA that are used, are the ones that are able to stand alone away from the main body of the source material.If I were to have used more material from OWA, I would have gone too overboard with the mix.As far as kingdom hearts goes, for those particular sources there wasn't much material to sort through.So it felt natural to use the kingdom hearts material as the introduction for the OWA material(On both accounts,mid section, and outro).The piano section is using tension rising (KH2), just rearranged to fit the properties of the mix.Because I didn't want the mix to sound like a straight foward medley, I had to have a source to repeat itself, hence why I chose "Mystic Mansion".

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Watarimono
on 2011-05-04 15:44:57

I liked it. I liked it a lot. It was strange, though, as I didn't quite get any of the

KH of FFVII out of it (except for One-Winged Angel at the end). Strangely enough, I completely recognized the music from Sonic Heroes, a game I haven't played in years... Ambiguous source material aside, I enjoyed this song. Looking foward to more of your work!

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Mikeaudio
on 2011-05-04 08:08:48

Thank you to everyone for your comments!!!I'm glad that it was enjoyable. :)

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Chernabogue
on 2011-05-04 02:54:00

Impressive. The way the very different sources were mixed together is perfect. Diggin' the genre and production. Keep at it, man! :)

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SwordBreaker
on 2011-05-03 22:05:52

Not familiar with the source tracks except for One-Winged Angel of course. I went into this mix without listening to the sources, waiting for the only one I know of to appear. Echoing what everyone else has been saying, the transitions are excellent. As far as I know they're all one track...but even when I spotted OWA mid-track and at the ending, I felt that they didn't stand out and melded into the remix well. Overall, I like the catchy electronica/rock hybrid, with a bit of orchestra thrown into the mix.

I'm really fond of medleys and I kinda wish OCR accepts more of them, even if they're not strung together as solidly as this one. As you can see, a piece like this one is such a rare exception.

Sources Arranged (6 Songs, 4 Games)


Primary Game:
Sonic Heroes (Sega , 2003, GCN)
Music by Fumie Kumatani,Hideaki Kobayashi,Jun Senoue,Keiichi Sugiyama,Mariko Nanba,Naofumi Hataya,Teruhiko Nakagawa,Tomoya Ohtani,Yutaka Minobe
Songs:
"Stage 11 : Hang Castle"
"Stage 12 : Mystic Mansion"
Additional Game:
Final Fantasy VII (Sony , 1997, PS1)
Music by Nobuo Uematsu
Songs:
"One-Winged Angel"
Additional Game:
Kingdom Hearts (Square , 2002, PS2)
Music by Hikaru Utada,Yoko Shimomura
Songs:
"Forze del male"
"Guardando nel buio"
Additional Game:
Kingdom Hearts II (Square , 2005, PS2)
Music by Hikaru Utada,Kaoru Wada,Nobuo Uematsu,Yoko Shimomura
Songs:
"Tension Rising"

Tags (6)


Genre:
Mood:
Epic
Instrumentation:
Electric Guitar,Electronic,Strings,Synth
Additional:
Arrangement > Medley

File Information


Name:
Sonic_Heroes_The_Wingless_Butoh_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
6,714,663 bytes
MD5:
1ec1299c77079e98b6f36ff93ff0f314
Bitrate:
192Kbps
Duration:
4:36

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