VG Frequency: U Love VGM

[Dyne]

It isn't the size of the controller, it's how you use it.

So say the owners of this beauty:

Oh, I see you've finally found my boomerang. Been wonderin' where it went.

[TCK]

Now's a good time to say that the Dwelling of Duel's June 2005 edition is over. And it's a good one.

[CHz]

Now's a good time to say that the Dwelling of Duel's June 2005 edition is over. And it's a good one.

That link is actually http://dod.vgmix.com/past/june05/.

Also... xoc entered? Freakin' awesome.

[TCK]

My bad. I typed it out manually.

[Kaleb.G]

Also... xoc entered? Freakin' awesome.

I was wondering if he even knew of any of the game mixing community. Guess I know now. The Super Mario World album he did was excellent. I really need to catch up on my DoD; it's possibly my favorite place to go for game mixes now.

[Navi]

Good round of DoD this time round.

[Liontamer]

Considering that I'm about 6 weeks back on summer Pimp Sections, I've need to get back on the horse for a while now. I remember a year ago when it took a full day to write these damn things. I guess judging's paid off this time around, since I only spent a few hours going through everything below. Let's cover the material from the week of May 22nd to May 28th.

ABG - Chrono Trigger "Children of Time" [VGMix2 #4238]

Shawn Overn brings it this week with a nearly 10-minute long trance affair that screams authenticity to the genre. To me, the sound was too swamped when everything came into play, but when I say the sound is authentic to the genre, that isn't a polite way of saying it's generic. The homage to Robert Miles' "Children" was apparent here in this nice take on the often-mixed Zeal theme "Corridors of Time" that your inner Zeality will love. I wouldn't mind hearing Shawn tackle some more material that's outside of the FF/CT arena, but he nonetheless puts out some solid stuff. While I love the superlative progressive trance pieces I've encountered in the community, Shawn can really take it to you in more of a "mainstream" style. It grooves, it morphs, it develops. Perfect for the club, so check it out.

AkumajoBelmont - Jazz Jackrabbit 1 "Have You Ever? (Down in Medivo)" [VGMix2 #4189]

The voice intro here is so awesome, you can help but keep listening in. This is some cool spacey electronic material, so don't let the source game fool you. I thought the drums were the weak link here, very plain jane and not thick at all, but they're at least serviceable. This one's relatively short at 2:48, but the development is substantial enough where you feel that a lot has taken place in this Medivo World remix. The vocal section introing the mix repeated at the end which was a little bit of a letdown (despite the obvious usage of it to give the mix a cyclical close), but this was some solid material nevertheless. I'd love to see this tweaked some more before it hit the judges panel, but Robbie's nonetheless very dependable with this nice non-jazzy spin on the only video game jackrabbit I've ever heard of.

E-Bison - Chrono Trigger "Time Management" [VGMix2 #4191]

I normally don't spotlight re-releases of older material, but Eliot's not very active in the scene, so any release from him is something to look forward to. As one of the few remixers on OCR to have what's considered a legendary mix for their only remix on the site, this complete version of the classic "Time Management" now-available at VGMix is required downloading. Eliot complained that the full version of this mix couldn't be submitted due to the "stupid" no-MP3s-greater-than-6MB rule. Even some of us on the judges panel don't agree with the rule, but if anything it helps establish VGMix as the place to be in order to discover legendary but lengthy tracks that couldn't see the light of day on OCR due to their size. If you've heard the OCR version of Time Management, the extended version is literally all that and more. You won't find yourself disappointed by any of the new material found here.

Fatty Acid & Sephfire - Final Fantasy 10-2 "Under a New Moon" [VGMix2 #3324 (removed) / OC ReMix #1357]

I remembering hearing this one on VGMix and I'll reveal that I done a bad thing by reporting it to the admins as a remix of an already posted mix. Before y'all kill me, it was bound to happen anyway, but one thing I knew as I grabbed the mix was that it would be an undiscovered gem by the time it hit OCR due to my dutiful/evil machinations. [i grin like a cat here.] There really isn't another mix here in the Pimp Section this week that allows you to chillax, so if you're really looking for something light and downtempo, Joe & Dan's collab is where u be at and stuff, receiving the plug from zyko as being great music to slow down the speed of life with. Quite the unique piece as far as OCR's body of material is concerned, it's almost like SimCity music only a bit more active.

housethegrate - Final Fantasy 6 "Seized with Fury" [VGMix2 #3932 / OC ReMix #1356]

Alexander Liss has been on my radar for quite some time due to his consistently strong DoD work, so I was glad he bit the bullet and submitted the superlative "Seized with Fury". I pretty much said my piece on this one in my judging decision, but with house and his brother Ashane both subbing quality material to the site, it'll hopefully mean that more will be coming in the future. We're not so bad here, are we? In any case, "The Decisive Battle" & "The Fierce Battle" are given the rawk/rok pimpage from house, further establishing the Decisive Battle as one of the new generation of heavily mixed tracks. Alex doesn't do you dirty, including a lil' baby piece of CastleVania's "Vampire Killer" for those of you perceptive enough to catch it. Do the right thing with "Seized with Fury" and take it 2 da house! (God, that was lame.)

Infamous - Xenophobe "There Are Aliens in My Closet and They Won't Leave" [VGMix2 #4121]

Chris hooks it up on the Commodore 64 side with some tight electronica from yet another C64 game with cool music that I've never heard of. Infamous's production has never been poor, but I felt there was some measure of improvement here that made this mix enjoyable. The beats, buzzing synths, and sustained strings were mixed pretty damn well, and I especially loved the bassline. 3 solid minutes of well-developed electronic flavor that'll keep ya moving. Don't let the obscurity of the game for most of you make you pass this up, as Infy's quite the capable mixer representing the European side of the community.

jdproject - "The Way I Feel" [http://www.joedarwish.net]

Joe Darwish, another OC ReMixer with one legendary mix to his name, is someone you'd know about on the original side if you've been frequenting his website. Joe's primary expertise is in making mainstream guitar-driven pop, so if you're interested in hearing him slow things down as compared to "The Ken Song", this is where you need to be. Joe could easily pass for a mainstream pop act, which is exactly what he'd like to be in a perfect world. The mixing is pretty good, especially since Joe's been handling it himself. If this guy had money thrown behind him, he'd be pretty damn dangerous, and I can tell you that's not an exaggeration (hey, I can't listen to non-mainstream music ALL the time). Best of luck to jdproject as he continues work on his second EP. I'd love to see him make it in the big-time and sell out for the $$$. We don't deserve to hide him.

Kevin Stephens - Xenogears "Knight of Fire" [splendid Performance: Audition 1 / VGMix2 #3023]

Kevin continues to impress on the arrangement side with this Xeno mix featuring the piano doing its thing. The transitions at 1:08 was way too sudden, so you don't really get much breathing room or notice before ideas change, but there weren't any other sweeping changes going on here, so you may be thrown for a loop at 1:08 while listening to this, but you'll just as soon regain your footing as you continue onward. The human touch on Kevin's pieces is one that others have criticized in the past, so those among you who don't like the velocities here may have qualms, but I was all about it, 'bout it here. I won't lie, as I don't quite get where the imagery of a Knight of Fire comes into play here, but that's a relatively insignificant part of the picture. I always look forward to Kevin's work. Have you downloaded this yet...?

mellogear - SimCity 3000 "Sim Shitty (in-stereo)" [VGMix2 #4200]

Haven't heard a damn thing in a while from Jon Delvaux, so you take the mello style and mix it with a underappreciated favorite like SimCity and you get some dope results. Hell, for a groove-biased gentleman such as myself, I don't really mind that this is mostly beat kwak. No matter what, you'll be nodding your head, even during some of the freestyle work thrown in from 2:08 to 2:50. And just to point out, the "(in-stereo)" portion of the title is far from a simple redundancy. Can you handle the drastic panning effects thrown your way fron 3:33 until the end? There's only one way to find out, isn't there?

mv - "Star Wars KWAK" [http://mv.vgmix.com]

Xavier drops a mere 2 hours of work making some brief but nice mixage of some John Williams Star Wars material. If Star Wars gets ya off, you'll only need 1 minute and 11 seconds when mv's done with ya. Cave in and get this ear candy. I'd tell ya what particular track this movie mix tackled by name, but hey, I don't speak dork.

Ork Estral - "Rotating Room of Invisible Cats and Toking Centipedes" [http://nigel.has.it]

When I think of avant garde style orchestral artists (and I'm PROBABLY grossly misusing the term avant garde, but WORK WITH ME), Shnabubula tends to come to mind, but as far as I'm concerned Ork Estral, otherwise known around these parts as Nigel Simmons was the innovator. I've always been insanely biased towards Nigel's original work as opposed to his remixes, because Ork really cuts loose on some of his original stuff, and Rotating Room was no exception. If you love off-kilter orchestration that would fit right at home in a professional movie score, download this one immediately. This original composition never stays in the same place for more than a fraction of a second.

Patrick Wagstaff - Donkey Kong Land 1 "Funky City" [VGMix2 #4193]

The groove is too plain, so it's not gonna kick your ass, but Pat gets a little light-hearted with Gameboy mix of muzak from the character I had the privilege of impersonating for Kong in Concert. The arrangement took an unsettling turn via a key change around the 2 minute mark, but things soon got back into the swing of things. Nothing great here, but still worth checking out, as Patrick's a name to watch on the development side, as he's not afraid to try any and all ideas with his mixes. He really needs to step it up with synth design and production here, but hey, it's better than I can do, eh?

Rexy & KyleJCrb - Dragon Warrior 4 "Requiem of a Warrior" (Version 2.0) [VGMix2 #4195]

Talking to Kyle on VG Frequency #60, the scene's most knowledgable rock enthusiast could only crap on his own guitar performance the first time around when this mix was entered in the Dwelling of Duels Dragon Warrior competition. While serviceable the last time around, here, Kyle's performance better accentuated the material compositionally, though for some reason the recording on it sounded a lot more lo-fi and distant this time, so it doesn't really sit well amidst the synth orchestration. Meanwhile, the synth strings could use some further work on the note-to-note movement to evoke more realism. Aside from those particular issues, you get to hear some interesting stuff as the track really does come across as one of those rock/orchestral hybrid pieces, not in the sense of most of the scene material you've heard, but more analogous to classical music being used to accentuate a rock piece. You also get to hear Bev with some brief vocal work near the end, so there's a lot to check out in one sitting. Needs some real refinement with the synth strings in particular, but this was some ambitious stuff from Bev alongside Kyle, who I also hope to hear more from in terms on actually contributing to future arrangements.

tefnek - Contra 1 "Snow Field" [OC ReMix #1355]

Jack Kirkpatrick surprised me with this one in my inbox, which allowed me to play it for VG Frequency #50, and the world was beautiful at that moment in time, for who among you can lay down the big beats like this man? Transposing the original Contra material to big beat did kind of take the "tenseness" out of the source material, as you're not gonna listen to this and feel like part of a crack commando squad set out to destroy alien forces with hot ass weapons and a spray power-up. But in fact, you're still on the squad. No, you're not gonna run and jump around everywhere. But you're still gonna dodge every laser and bullet fired at you. Cuz with these beats, you're gonna do it, and you're gonna do it while struttin'.

zircon - "Hourglass" [impulse Prime]

PICK OF THE WEEK: zircon - "Studies in Ether" [impulse Prime]

Fellow OC Judge Andy Aversa dropped two more releases from Impulse Prime my way with the awesome beat-driven "Hourglass" as well as the more ambient "Studies in Ether". If you're any fan of felloe big beat ReMixer tefnek, "Hourglass" will keep your music collection some excellent company featuring some impressive synth design, some meaty production, and enchanting female vox sampling courtesy of the industry staple vocal library Symphony of Voices. Meanwhile, continue your muzak education this week with the very enveloping "Studies in Ether" featuring some more quality beatwork, modulating synths and beautiful ambient pads, all coming together to provide my personal favorite track on the album. Studies is a track you can really put on in the background that relaxes you yet remains active enough to keep your mind engaged. Hell, I'd love to drive down a long, deserted stretch highway at night with this song providing the soundtrack. Impulse Prime continues to impress me, so head over to Zircon Studios to get more information on the upcoming album.

zykO - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "Mysticism 2000" [zykO zone / VGMix2 #4227]

weed absolutely warps the Mystic Cave Zone with this heavily distorted Sonic 2 mix. It even features some Oil Ocean references. Part of what I like about zyko's shit is that he's not afraid to absolutely cut loose and not give two shits about mixing or production when his primary concern is putting out the music as a sheer form of expression. If you're looking for refinement, weed might say "go fuck yourself", as a full minute of this was nothing but the crunchiest of crunchy guitar work. But stick around for things; 5 years in the making, this isn't meant to please ya aurally, but it's much like the car accident where you can't look away. Gotta love that plucky finish too.

And with that, I bid you adieu for now. ‘Till next time (whenever that is).

[ThatPaige]

I must choose between Judge Judy and Liontamer???? Oh cruel world...why must you make me pick between the one...a hot little judge all in black with an attitude to match, and a hot black judge who purrs so sweetly "hey baby wanna hold my gavel?"

::sigh:: out of duty (and any hope of future sumpin-sumpin) I choose Liontamer-- but my heart bleeds for abandoning dear Judy to the Pit of Unsexiness.

[The Orichalcon]

Judge Judy is my idol. She puts up with no shit.

You know I love you Larry, but Judge Judy would probably burn me if I didn't vote for her.

[Rexy]

Who's Judge Judy? Some n00b?

And don't panic too much about the pimp sections, we understand the waiting procedure given the long wait for the final few aired episodes. Haha; nuff said?

[GrayLightning]

Two polar opposites, Judge Judy is "decisive" in contrast Liontamer is the "flip-flop" judge.

Judge Judy wins!

[Antonio Pizza]

I choose Larry, but only because of the penis.

P.S. Paige, please tell me Lawrence doens't wear that in bed.

[GrayLightning]

By order of the highest court in the land, Liontamer's judgetacularness has been thrown out. The high court cited mr. oji's several underhanded methods that include accepting bribes, flip-flopping and groove bias. He is clearly in contempt!

Replacing Liontamer is Judge Judy's sidekick, Bailiff Byrd.

[Rexy]

Who's Bailiff Byrd? Some n00b +1?

Meanwhile, the synth strings could use some further work on the note-to-note movement to evoke more realism.

Eh, yeah, I think that needs some explaining. ^^ What I attempted to do here was string texturing, where I had one patch panned half-left and a different patch half-right. I basically performed separate takes of the progressions on both sides before taking advantage of the volume wheel to soften out some of the end releases and generate some softer attacks on some of the opening section movements.

I know this isn't a critique thread, but I thought it was worth mentioning

[NuGeo]

I choose Larry, but only because of the penis.

Judge Judy may lack a penis, but I know for a fact she has HUGE balls.

[Compyfox]

"Stop it! You're irritating me!!!!"

[CHz]

Tough one here. There's something about ex-judges that always make you crawl back and beg for them to return, and Bailiff Byrd is the hot mansecks.

But then again, Judge Judy makes my loins afire with thoughts that are ironically against the law. Vote.

[Liontamer]

Bah, fuggin' touching my poll! Dammit, I'm gonna kill u Gray and/or Navid!

[Antonio Pizza]

Judge Judy may lack a penis, but I know for a fact she has HUGE balls.

A fact, eh? Whatever floats your boat dude. Just stay the crap away from Indianapolis.

[GrayLightning]

Bah, fuggin' touching my poll! Dammit, I'm gonna kill u Gray and/or Navid!

Do not oppose the ruling of the High Court, of which I am the most eminent representative. You, Mr. Oji are in contempt! Bailiff Byrd in da house.

[The Orichalcon]

Bah, fuggin' touching my poll! Dammit, I'm gonna kill u Gray and/or Navid!

Do not oppose the ruling of the High Court, of which I am the most eminent representative. You, Mr. Oji are in contempt! Bailiff Byrd in da house.

"You there, what's your name?"

"Uh.. Anthony?"

"Anthony, you're irritating me"

".. Sorry."

Judge Judy in da house.

I was watchin' this one episode yesterday, Judge Judy thought the defendant was so stupid she had Byrd explain it to him instead.

[sgx]

New poll: who thinks mr. 'tamer should do a podcast?

[SirRus]

Larry 4 Supreme Court Justice!

[GrayLightning]

Since larry continues to feign ignorance and continues his pattern of contempt, the high court has ruled that the People's Court Judge Marilyn Milian and her sidekick Harvey will enter the voting fray.

[The Orichalcon]

What's wrong with her eyes.