ReMix: Metroid Prime 'Lone Star'

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Game: Metroid Prime (Nintendo, 2002, GCN)
ReMixer(s): Pyro Paper Planes
Composer(s): Kenji Yamamoto (I), Koichi Kyuma
Song(s): 'Ending Staff Roll', 'Temple Collapse ~ Epilogue'
Posted: 2013-01-24, evaluated by the judges
Album: Featured on Harmony of a Hunter

Pyro Paper Planes (Christopher Foss) debuted last year with a beautiful solo piano arrangement of Metroid Prime 3, from Harmony of a Hunter, and follows it up with another arrangement of the first Metroid Prime that's also beautiful (though considerably more aggressive), also solo piano, and also from HoH - no complaints here! He writes:

"I can remember that, as a child, when I first sat down in front of a piano, the only song I wanted to play was the menu theme from Metroid Prime. Of course, I expanded my musical horizon over the years, but the Metroid series never quite left my heart. And just as I have grown, the Metroid series still lives on as strong as ever. It's hard to believe that the Metroid series is now 25 years old now. So, for this special day, I decided to celebrate by arranging this piano solo, in dedication to the childhoods of the many who loved (and hopefully still love) the Metroid series like I do.

The track was close to being scrapped more times than I would like to think. Originally, I found the piece too repetitive. To complicate matters, the original track has a complex rhythm and beat, which made it very demanding to perform on a consistent basis. Even after all my work, I wasn't very satisfied with the final mix, feeling that it went on just a little too long for its own good. However, with a bit of convincing from the community, and a lot of magic from The Orichalcon's mixing abilities, I'm very proud of how Lone Star has turned out.

Special thanks must be given to the project leaders of "Harmony of a Hunter" (especially Darren), and to my friends, as the song would never have been finished if it wasn't for their help and kind words."

Nice, enveloping stuff; runs a little long, but also has a lot of dynamic variation, and the atmosphere is dark & filled with tension, like the game. Emunator sums it up nicely:

"I really enjoyed your work off of Harmony of a Hunter, you've got a very expressive, dynamic playing style and your songs are produced just fine. Keep sending stuff our way man!"

PPP definitely has his own style, which is key for a solo piano specialist, and I'd love to hear more of his work, from other games/franchises, too. Strong, moody stuff that helped endow HoH with its considerable musical depth & expression!

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 4 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.

I've always had a soft spot for solo-piano ReMixes done right, and this is one of them. I would have to say that the very middle of this song is the part I thought was played the best, even though I'm fond of the whole thing. Nice work with the Temple Collapse as well.

- Crulex on March 26, 2013

I really love this track, it was one of my favorites in the Harmony of a Hunter Album. It has such emotion to that I can't help but be moved by it. I look forward to what else that you create Pyro Paper Planes.

- BaconProcurement on February 4, 2013

This mix is gentle and unobstrusive, and those aren't bad things, but in this case, the music did not really hold my attention. I found myself turning up the volume to hear it better in several parts. To me it would be a nice "palette cleanser" between more engaging, bolder (not necessarily "louder") works.

- WesternZypher on February 4, 2013

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

- djpretzel on January 24, 2013