Lint
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Posts posted by Lint
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The whistle lead is very pretty, definitely sounds synthesized though. The drum loop kicks in at all the right places, but is still a very simple drum loop. The guitar is a nice little touch that feels very nice, it accents the song in a way that I normally associate with bells. The heavier synth background during the second half of the song changes it up a bit, making it feel more sinister.
Hmm... the song is a pretty piece, I don't think that it stands out by itself though. It's a good arrangement, but I think that if it were done with live instruments it would be a lot more intense and "Timeless".
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Driving techno ftw. Classic Wily's Castle remix
I really like this synth melody. I think that if it had been put over a less generic techno beat I would have loved the song more, but when I'm in a techno mood I'll put this track on. The drums are fairly minimal, but they're another great part of the background.
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The drums are a great hook at the beginning. The synth line feels like a safe melody, and the samples a a good touch. Nothing feels out of place in the song, but the only thing that really stands out is the great drums.
It's a fun piece.
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Definitely an interesting introduction. Everything hitting at 1:00 and getting louder grated on my ears for a second. The synth set-up is very nice, but the "crunchiness" can get a little to much for me. Other than that it seems like it has a continuous drum loop and leads into a little sound effect section that is an interesting portion, but doesn't really seem very impressive. The ending part feels like the most fleshed out part of the song.
I'm not really interested in listening to the mix that much.
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No matter how hard I try, I can never live down my shame that I confused it with a D12 beat.
I like the sample, it would be a good beat to rap to. The mixture of other instruments that go over the main line are cool little portions, but I never really think anything fleshes itself out as a lead until 1:52. At that point the mix is almost over and it feels like wasted potential. That last 30 seconds is really cool, but I think that the rest of the mix could have a lot more done with it.
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Very sinister first minute. A lot of the source tunes here (or is it just a synth line that sounds similar?). The bells parts have an ethereal quality to them. The piano part has this cool alternating intensity underneath it. First the bass drum hits and then a synth line comes in.
So much going on here, combining to form a quality ReMix.
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A rocking classic djpretzel track that always has intensity permeating it. The short break just seems to threaten the return of the main beat with a vengeance.
The solo synth at 2:00 is a great touch that always gets me.
Definitely have to agree that this mix must be blasted. Its power is maximum.
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Nice synths. A collection of parts that build off each other quite well and culminate to underwrite the melody quite well.
I don't really feel like anything in this mix stands up and smacks me in the face with awesome, but it's a very listenable piece that I enjoy.
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Wizards and Warriors, great source tune. The Pulp Fiction quote was a great introduction to this pulse-pounding rave piece. I love how the instruments fade in at 1:30. The break section at 2:00 was a neat part with the mix driving without the pulsing beat. The melody portions alternate very well in the mix, without overriding each other.
Of course, like most rave songs, it feels somewhat repetitive. This one less then most though, because it has a lot of nice alternating parts.
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This is a fun mix. It's pretty simplistic, but it's also very light and with a little bit of intensity. Actually, it really feels like the kind of piece that I would download back in 99 or 2000.
So, nostalgia factor aside it's not a bad mix, I think that my 6 and 8 year old nieces would love to dance around to it. That's meant to be a compliment.
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Lo an behold, I think that this mix has been in my favorite tracks for the last few years.
That initial piano lead with the slow cymbal sample is a nice intro that leads into the beat backing everything up. When the song kicks it up a notch, the piano keeps pace relentlessly while the beat sets the pace. A few background elements popping up and a slowdown minimize the piano for a little bit while the beat pulses behind the melody.
A cool piano part over an intense techno beat. Still one of my favorite tracks.
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Alright, I'm starting to feel extra bad for Mutagene here. This is the third of his mixes that don't seem to have jack for reviews that I've reviewed in the past few days.
It also has some very neat sections going. The bass drum is contrasting against the little synth sounds, the straight drum loop keeps the tempo going, and the miscellaneous percussion provides nice background. All of it flowing aroud this kind of eerie background melody that sinks into the skull real nice.
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It's dark, it's foreboding, it's got some intense organs and timpanis going.
It's not my cup of tea, but I can't fault the mix itself really. Lotsa foreboding though, I feel like a boss is coming up.
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Hmm.... this mix is a really pretty piece of keyboard work with drums that feel like they're trying to accent the atmosphere. There's parts in it where I feel like the drums throw me off (mostly at the intro), and then there's parts where they're sucking me back into the mix (from 1:15 - 2:00). After that I feel somewhat meh about the whole piece. It's alright, but I definitely don't feel like it's any of djpretzel's best work.
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/shiver. Eerie piece that's really reminiscent of a classic slasher movie, I feel like I'm just being hunted and waiting for something to jump out and attack me. The samples are great bits of the song, and the winding melody during the middle-end of the song is very unsettling.
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The mix is a very quiet piece. I think the bells make it perfectly aligned to be a holiday-season piece. The drums accent the synths and vice-versa in a mellow techno beat.
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I like the windy beginning, though it does go on for a good 1/4 of the mix (which I thought was a little bit unnecessary).
The beat kicks in a little bit heavy for me, and the high pitched drums don't really click with the flowing winds in the background. I did like the big melody portion, but I just think that more could be done with this mix. It feels like it's on a saddle point between getting really heavy or being a light, melancholy piece.
I put the tracks on endless repeat when I'm reviewing them, in case something strikes me in the heat of the moment, and I do really like the drums.
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Props to Rayza, I like how when I searched my winamp library for the game title only his two mixes came up.The piano is neat, and then it gets going into a head-bopping (bobbing?) beat that is classic work. The mix doesn't really try to push boundaries, but it alternates sections nicely and flows easily. Now I just want to find the original soundtrack to see how much this really worked the source material.
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Alright, I haven't heard the source for this piece, so I can't make any judgments on that front.
I love the intro portion and how the midi-sounding portion keeps going in the background for ~30 seconds after the main beat starts up. The synth line starting at 1:30 is awesome, and then the higher melody that comes in afterwards is a nice break. The quiet portion starting at 2:10 is another neat touch to bring the mix back down to basics and rebuild the whole arrangement of synths. Throughout the whole mix the drums stay very unobtrusive but really provide a flavor to the song that is cool.
The last 2 minutes of the mix bring a piano to the lead and its a great slowing element that allows the song to easily segue into another track without any major shocks to the system. The ending flows well, without feeling forced or sudden.
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This album is definitely a milestone for OCR and the fan communities of the world. I respect and commend it for that fact. I'm quite sure that the album is full of quality arrangements and very well-designed remixes.
I just don't enjoy listening to most of it very much.
For a few of the themes I blame the source material, since I just didn't like a few of the themes back when I started playing (for these ones that hasn't changed). T. Hawk, Dhalsim, and E. Honda come to mind here, though I do admit to being entertained by djpretzel's "High-Five... Hundred" version. The other two just never stood out very much to me, "New Mexican Thunderbird" and "Reaching for Nirudha" didn't spark anything on Blood on the Asphalt, so they had pretty low chances of sparking much here.
Some of the songs in SFII have always stood out, and I just accept the fact that remixes of them will often be enjoyable just because of how much I enjoy the source. Ken, Guile, and Cammy fit that bill pretty well. "Army Girl" and "Made in USA" were some of my favorite tracks from Blood on the Asphalt, and my opinion remains the same. I did miss "Guile's Mile Long Dong", but I think that "Combat and Service" definitely made more sense for the game.
The rest of the tracks are just hit or miss based entirely on their own merit - at least for me.
"Reinterpretation" is fun to listen to; the Heavy Damage variation did get a little bit grating, but I think part of that was playing a match at heavy damage long enough that it looped
"Street Market" is a miss, I just don't enjoy it. The low note pattern just grates on me a little bit.
Actually, I think that "Docks Day" is the same kind of thing, but to a lesser degree. Maybe it seems less overwhelming in Blanka's theme or something.
Lol at "Red Cyclone". I like the scratching at :59, but I just don't find the whole song to be very appealing. It's definitely something I'll put on when I listen to this album next, but I just don't find the song very entertaining. It's fun though, I kinda wish there was a long version of it to see if it would get more intriguing.
Fei Long's music is a lot more obtrusive then it was. I recall basically always fighting Fei Long in SSF2, but his stage music never stuck with me. "Flying Heaven" is definitely a track that will stick with me, but I don't think it's in a good way.
José the Bronx Rican's pair of instrumental versions make sense in the spirit of the game. That being said, I loved the lyrics to both and really find the very silent versions to be far less entertaining. I even caught myself rapping the lyrics to myself during a match on Vega/Claw's stage. I like the tracks in the game, and they make sense.
"Sexy Trunks" is mellow. I feel that it is too mellow. Balrog is a boxer. He punches people in the face for a living. His theme song makes me feel like I'm shopping for shoes or something. I know his stage represents Vegas and a club atmosphere, but it just feels too mellowed out.
"Sagat's Moonbike" is very well-named. That being said, I didn't particularly like the song as an OCRemix. This is another song that just feels like the remixed version lost a bunch of the intensity from the orginal for no particular reason. That being said, the Heavy Damage version was just too much of that bassline.
"Tribute to the Master" is a mix that I appreciate a fair amount. I like the winds <-> strings alternation a lot. The brass is also quality, for the simple part that it consists of. It's (the brass part) not a particularly interesting part to play, but it does sound good.
"Mountain Breaker" is definitely a piece that I think fits into its place in the game well (at least it does if the arcade requirements for fighting Akuma are the same). Intense, dangerous sounding and a couple sections that are pretty striking.
"The World Warriors" is a great throwback. The track fits into the game like a glove. "The Select Few" is a piece that I think it would be interesting to hear an extended version of, but then I remember that it's the music for character select and feel like an idiot. "Rock the Asphalt" was good before, it's still good now.
I think I listened to all of the character endings, and based purely on the fact that none of them seemed particularly bad or good I just give them a pass. Character endings will probably be seen very little by me, so during actual gameplay I don't know that I'll give them much attention either way. Some of them spawn lulz, and others spawn pride (though hopefully beating the game will cause that to spawn in the first place.)
Overall, I think that most of the tracks will probably fit the game better then my Ipod. During the game I won't be devoting my mind, body, and soul to listening to the music and how I feel about it. Hopefully the music will bring me just enough focus to succeed at the game without being distracting.
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It's not dead, mostly thanks to handhelds and a few nostalgia titles. Mostly, I think that 2D platforming appears to have struck some of the limits that can be offered by pure platforming. I just can't see many of the new places the genre can go, so I'm content with some minor gameplay tweaks, rehashed concepts, and reskinned levels/enemies/bosses.
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With the mass of source material out there, I don't usually I spend the time to get many of the original songs. Unless the song is something that I really love, I usually just let it join the masses of other tracks. It's not that the remixes are superior, it's usually just that I don't want to spend the time looking for the source unless I know that I'm going to listen to all of it - fairly often. There's a lot of good original music made for video games, and the knowledge that I'm in some way appreciating that is enough for me.
Plus, I don't see the point in downloading a soundtrack (no matter how small the file is) for one song. There's a fair amount of remixes that stand alone, or are one of less than 5 songs from any given soundtrack. I equate it to buying an album for one song, which is always a gamble. I don't need to have the soundtracks of ~470 games on my hard drive. You can listen to over 500 OC remixes without ever leaving mainstream Square (Final Fantasy/Chrono), Nintendo (Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong), and Capcom (Mega Man, Street Fighter) games. (There's been 3 Square albums and 3 Nintendo albums, along with the Duck Hunt album).
I think the remixes found here are as diverse as the source material. The source materials don't always seem to focus on making the tracks full or complex, since they usually get looped after you spend 1-3 minutes in an area. I don't know if I could really loop the remixes and keep focusing on the game. I'm not even sure that all of the remixes would necessarily fit in the games they base themselves on. The recent Guilty Gear remix (Alpha Blade) is a good example for me, I love the remix - but playing Guilty Gear with it playing would feel different and distracting (of course, this is coming from someone who spent 4 hours searching for a rip of Robo-Ky's theme from GGXX). The other Guilty Gear remix Destroy Movements would be a little jarring too. Not to mention playing through Spittin' Narcissism from Blood on the Asphalt.
Not all of the remixes are so distanced from their source material, and quite a few of them are right at home in the original setting. What I'm saying is that the remixes have the strength to stand alone, with or without the strength of their source material. I was pissed that I bought Jade Cocoon, yet People Made of Stone is still quality. Playing Perfect Cherry Blossom is an insane experience in bullet hell, Icy Peaks is relaxing, even a little tragic. I love Chrono Trigger, but Chrono Symphonic has yet to really grow on me. Voices of the Lifestream was a very diverse collection of tracks, but I think my general dislike of FF7 has skewed my opinion of it. I had never heard of Cauldron 2 before I listened to It's Binary, Baby! Album Mix and I was tapping my foot to the track for weeks.
So, back to answering the question. Yes, I've listened to remixes before listening to the original song. I don't think it takes anything away from the experience, and it might even add a little bit of mystery to the experience. Listening to the source material has just as much merit as listening to anything else though.
OCR00325 - Radical Dreamers "Industrial Promise"
in ReMix Reviews & Comments
Posted
This piece is eerie. The whole piece has a very dark feel to it. For a one and a half minute song I feel like this piece is so much bigger. It doesn't speed through its time, rather it flows nicely even with it's industrial beats.
It gives me the shivers, but I think it's a great piece. The only complaint I can think of is the length. The song is very self-contained and feels like it could extend its deep ambiance to more time.