Emunator

Some very comprehensive votes from the previous two judges makes this pretty easy for me. I like the vibe you're going for here, the jungle-style beats work pretty well with the orchestral instruments you're using for melody/backing parts. It's a cool style fusion, but as mentioned, the samples are pretty low-quality without much expression, and the arrangement itself stays pretty static throughout. The lead string section is the only part that really changes up much throughout the song. Considering the runtime, I feel this warrants some additional variation and/or trimming the arrangement down. Some cool ideas here but it needs some additional time in the oven. Good luck, hit up the WIP forums if you need additional assistance from community members, or for suggestions on how to get more mileage from your samples. NO (resubmit!)

Haha, I'm glad I caught that extra source usage, it's kind of tucked away in the source tune. Really fantastic work here, I can't praise you enough for this remix. I've been terribly impressed with everything you've done lately, I'd love to work with you on a project someday

Hey man, just so you know it's generally considered a faux-pas to post a work in-progress from an upcoming album project on the forums without permission from the album directors. You might want to check with The Damned if you haven't yet and see if he's ok with you posting this here. Just some friendly advice. Nice choice of source, btw!

Not surprised, if memory serves it was OCR musician Vigilante who did a lot of the production/back-end on Zedd's latest album!

Everyone's reviews have been awesome thus far, keep it up! Except Brandon. Mirby, I owe you the WIPs package, as promised. I'll get that to you in the next couple of days, harass me if I slip up and forget!

Yup, I no can do no more Next year, hopefully!

Hahaha, awesome!

This is fucking awesome. YES

For some reason, the stereo/frequency balance in this mix really hurts my ears on headphones. I'm not sure if it's just a frequency range I'm overly sensitive to, or if there's something going on with the balance of elements in the track, but I physically can't make it through this track on headphones. Am I just high or something? Not sure what's going on here but I wasn't able to listen more than 1/4 of the way through on headphones. Can anyone corroborate or explain what might be going on? (I dug what I heard on the writing for the first part, for what it's worth!) ???

It's nice to see more of a return to classic Blue Magic style of fusing soft electronic elements with acoustic instruments, I've always been such a fan of your work. The sequencing on your lead instruments feels a bit mechanical at times, but in a weird way it actually works with the unconventional drum patterns you've employed. I'm feeling the same uneasiness that Larry pointed out, but for me it felt more deliberate and actually contributed to the overall effect. Instrumental samples are nothing special but you've worked with them well in the past, and that assessment still holds true with this track, as well. The vocal effects toward the end were really neat. I dig it! YES

Uhh, yeah Brent... this is pretty out there As usual, you demonstrate a lot of creativity, and as a fan of IDM I think you pretty much nailed the Aphex Twin sound here. However, speaking strictly from a ReMix perspective, things don't click quite as well. There's certain parts toward the end that felt more cohesive but overall I'm with OA on this, as much as I want to pass this! Really cool experimental track in a bubble, but overall I just wasn't really feeling this for the site. Sorry! NO

I'm still hearing lots of minor issues that trip this one up. I'm going to bullet point this one because a lot of it has already been covered by other judges: Piano sample doesn't jive with the soundscape, something brighter or more percussive would suit this a lot better. Drums sound hollow. Bass/rhythm guitar/drums combined create muddiness. The bass frequencies are overcrowded. Timing is very loose at times, e.g. :58 where none of the patterns seem to line up right. Acoustic guitar performance feels rough overall. It shouldn't have to be said that this arrangement is fantastically creative at this point, but I'll reiterate it again because I really do love that part of this track. One of the best arrangements I've heard from either of you. But these little niggling grievances are hurting my enjoyment of the track overall and need to be addressed before this is ready for primetime. One more pass should do it! NO (please resub!)

To any judges who are borderline on source usage, I'm also hearing source usage from this iteration of the track (for example, the drone in the intro of the remix seems to be referencing it.) Additionally, I'd also count :32 - :38 as a reference to 2:17 from the source originally linked in the OP... I think you missed that one Vinnie. Even if you don't count the intro drone or the chords, that's going to add the following timestamps to the source usage: :32 - :38 [6 sec] 1:37 - 1:58 [21 sec] 2:15 - 2:20 [5 sec] 4:22 - 4:40 [18 sec] Which puts it over the 50% mark for me, without even counting any non-melodic source usage. I can sign off on the original being plenty present in the mix. Source issues notwithstanding, I loved this. I've been waiting for a highly expansive, interpretive take on Chozo Ruins for a long time that still retains the iconic Metroid Prime sound, and you nailed it. You make the most of the limited melodic material in the very-atmospheric source track, and imbue it with direction and a more deliberate purpose. I strongly disagree with the judges that have said this is too plodding; in fact, I find it to be very driven and climactic, particularly thanks to the dynamic drum writing throughout the track. I feel like the percussion is very well-produced, well-written, and full of surprises throughout, and one of the strongest elements of this remix. Vinnie is right about the leads needing to come up during certain parts. Truthfully, I found the tapestop transitions to be the only painful part of the remix. I don't feel like those were executed very well, and 2:30 particularly could have been executed much better. Minor quibble, but that's really the only part about this mix that didn't quite click with me. I'm much less reserved than most of the other judges here, I really hope to see this on the site soon. Good luck! YES

Sci, I really love your music and I'm so pleasantly surprised to hear this on the front page. As someone who has never played any of the games you've remixed so far, your music still feels incredibly nostalgic and heartwarming nonetheless, as if it's been part of my life for ages. I can't say that about very many artists, but that kind of instant connection has drawn me to listen to this one over and over again. Incredibly fresh, unique, and comforting. A rare example of where the artist's motives resonate almost perfectly with me as a listener.

Also, I'm available for quality assurance for WIPs if you'd like to hit me up on AIM sometime and send me works in-progress. Feel free to get in touch if you'd like to discuss progress or get some advice from someone who's been around the block a couple of times

Good luck! If this gets off the ground and you can't find anyone for Fungi Forest, I've got a 2 minute WIP that's semi-polished in the works that I could attempt to revive.

Cody, the tracks weren't updated, you were probably just listening to the non-gapless playback mixpost versions of those songs. The ones on the album are crossfaded at certain points.

Nope, no "deadline" or anything

The strong suit of this remix is how you've adapted the Kraid melodies into such an unusual context. It works very well for a song that sticks with such a basic sound pallet. There are some appropriate critiques here that I won't spent much time retreading, but I can cosign with my fellow judges on this. Unexpected, and surprisingly enjoyable Congrats. YES

It'd be cool of anyone to touch on the bonus tracks as well, but in order to get the bonus track perks it'd be sufficient just to cover the main album tracks

A superb album-ending track that, I must reiterate, was unquestionably worth the time we spent waiting for it. In fact, this is perhaps my favorite remix to date, period. I'm so proud that it's a part of the album I hope others can enjoy it as much as I do. Also, someone caught this on Youtube, but I'll point out the little bit of continuity for anyone who didn't notice: Kong in Concert - "Beneath the Surface" Serious Monkey Business - "Beneath the Canopy" Double the Trouble! - "Beneath the Moonlight" Each of which are ambient/rock hybrids that are all standouts on their respective album

Hope you're all enjoying! Just a reminder, I've got a nice goodie bag of extra unreleased materials waiting for anyone who's brave enough to do individual track reviews on the album! Even if you can't do that, we'd all really love to hear your thoughts on the album in as much detail as you can muster. Feedback is very welcomed here!

Just want to point out that, since it wasn't mentioned in the writeup, that this track features more credited artists than any ReMix to date. Pretty incredible that Dave Wise of all people was willing to be the one to raise that bar. It really was a pleasure working with everybody involved here. Absolutely incredible remix, here were my director comments that ended up not being used in the writeup:

It's pretty cool, I guess.