ReMix:Tiny Barbarian DX "'Vators Gonna Bait" 3:03

Tiny Barbarian DX has an excellent original soundtrack composed by Jeff Ball, whose name should be familiar from many amazing ReMixes & performances over the years, so it's great to see it represented with a mix of its own on OCR! Hylian Lemon (Benjamin Hoffman) arranged this "chiptune plus" take on "Haters Gonna Hate," but there's really tons to love about both the source melody and this peppy, enthusiastic rendition:

"Jeff Ball has written and performed in a number of ReMixes here. I'd like to help get him represented as a composer as well, so here's an arrangement I made in early 2015 for shadow24's Artist Appreciation Competition. In typical Hylian Lemon fashion, I started with a plan for one source tune and ended up including two; it's an easy way to churn up arrangement ideas without straying too far from what made the originals great.

And the originals are definitely great. "Rebirth" really stuck with me because it ends with a hilariously well-choreographed moment that toys with your expectations. It's among my favorite examples of good integration of music, gameplay, and emotions. I recommend checking out the game, the soundtrack, and Jeff's beard if you haven't already."

Very classy & deserving concept for a compo, and I'm glad that it resulted in this mix being created & submitted to us. The aesthetic is pure Hylian Lemon, so if you dig his increasingly large body of work - and we certainly think you should - you'll almost certainly dig this, too. Flexstyle writes:

"The chord change halfway through was a welcome addition, and helped the song avoid overstaying its welcome. It's simple, but I'm hearing plenty of source in there, and it's nice to see a Tiny Barbarian mix up in here. Great soundtrack! Mix is clean and nothing is harsh or grating, per usual HL standards. I'm sold."

I too am sold, largely on the strength of the original melodic motif, and how that's been retained & retold here. Last but not least, Larry Oji non-sequiturs on the singular Mr. Ball:

"I've said this many times before to whoever will listen that Jeff - besides being a game composer, and a violinist for Steven Universe and Mass Effect 3 - also gives the greatest massages in human history, 100% no lie. He's also (again, 100% legit) a commercial fisherman, hard work which has gifted him some of the strongest hands known to man. And because Jeff is an awesome person, he chooses to use his extraordinary gifts for good rather than evil and gives out massages. If he's at MAGFest 2016, my grief at the inability to be there will only be compounded by the inability to also be a recipient of the legendary Jeff Ball massage. :'-( Wait, am I going on and on about dat massage? Oh, OK. Back to the action..."

There you have it: a previously unmixed game with a great soundtrack composed by an established & talented ReMixer who is strong of hand AND beard, arranged enjoyably & with style by Mr. Lemon. What's not to like?