ReMix: Mega Man 5 'Derailed at Wily Temple'
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- Game: Mega Man 5 (Capcom, 1992, NES)
- ReMixer(s): Phonetic Hero
- Composer(s): Mari Yamaguchi
- Song(s): 'Charge Man Stage', 'We're The Robots (Dr. Wily Stage 2)'
- Posted: 2013-02-22, evaluated by the judges
Phonetic Hero (Pete Lepley) follows up his 2012 debut Pitfall ReMix with a Mega Man 5 (& 9) arrangement from the Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet compo organized by DarkeSword, melding electronica with a lot of Eastern/Indian flavors for a mix that genre-bends quite a bit; pH writes:
"This was my third piece for the WCRG (which was a ton of fun and really forced me to up my game, and I hope it's apparent), and for fun I wanted to revisit the vibe from Mayan Malfunction; turns out, it's a style I really really enjoy, and it would seem that the Pitfall soundtrack has had more of an influence than I previously thought. This one's obviously not as over-the-top glitchy, but there's definitely some saucey glitches and gating in there, especially on transitions. Ethnic drums are unbelievably fun :D I also enjoyed adding in the sitar and shakuhachi (Japanese flute). Also, on a more personal note, this mix was a sort of break through for me, since I made all my own synths...all the while I've been trying to up my production game, which is far from good, but I'm learning.
Source Breakdown (and a good one, since I left it out of my last sub):
0:06 - Wily 2 transition at 1:11 in the source
0:31 - Charge Man intro melody, minorized/interpreted
0:47 - Charge Man melody 2, again, minorized/interpreted; 0:11 in the CM source
1:00 - Sexy ethno-break; Charge Man melody 2B, 0:22 from the CM source
1:13 - Same thang, just with different instruments
1:25 - Back to Wily 2 transition
1:38 - CM chorus, 0:54 in the source, heavily interpreted
2:03 - Uh, I guess the same thing interpreted waaaay differently. I thought I switched it up more than that, but apparently not :P
2:15 - Pretty straight forward Wily 2, 0 :46 in the source
2:41 - Back to CM melodies from earlier, although the first is interpreted a little differently
3:05 - More straight forward Wily 2 with a bit of interp, 0:13 in the source
3:44 - Still Wily 2, looping back to the first part at 3:05 of the mix
3:56 - Back to the Wily 2 transition from the beginning of the mix to finish things out"
Quality source breakdown; appreciated, and probably quite useful for those who love to dissect arrangements for potential ideas - or just because it's fun. Shariq ran the compo, so let's see what he thought:
"Pretty cool. Nice interpretation and arrangement of both themes. Electronic drums seem to be fighting with the ethnic drums for attention, but it's not a dealbreaker. I do like the ethnic sound. Sounds good."
That didn't bug me much, personally, but I did agree with halc's subsequent comment that the application of dblue/grossbeat style glitching could have been handled with a bit more craft & specificity - it's an interesting effect and I think it'll have staying power as a production technique, so I'm not saying it should have been excised completely, but I think at times it can feel gratuitous or isolated. Some production issues here & there, but a very creative arrangement and melding of themes that has a lot of the same appeal as Pete's previous mix - good stuff!
Discussion: Latest 5 comments/reviews; view the - Crulex on April 13, 2013
- timaeus222 on February 24, 2013
- Gario on February 23, 2013
- SuperiorX on February 22, 2013
