VG Frequency: U Love VGM

[neminem]

Could this be the mix that Jeremy uses to get back onto OCR after parts 2 and 3 of the FF7 Symphonic Suite didn't make it onto the site?

Um, no...? It wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything special. Whereas the Symphonic Suite part 1 (and parts 2 and 3, to only a slightly lesser extent) were. This one might have made it a couple years ago, but has no chance now. I'd still like to see Jeremy arrange more, of the quality that the Suite was.

[Xerol Oplan]

after parts 2 and 3 of the FF7 Symphonic Suite didn't make it onto the site

When did this happen? Does anyone have any links to these, I'm interested in finding them.

BT Update: I'm going to get my own webspace sometime this summer, probably by the end of June, so I'll have the BT tracker up for sure by July 7th.

Hopefully the episodes that people already have will match up. Let me know if you've got a large collection and you're willing to seed so this can get started pretty quickly once the tracker gets up and running.

[Liontamer]

after parts 2 and 3 of the FF7 Symphonic Suite didn't make it onto the site

When did this happen? Does anyone have any links to these, I'm interested in finding them.

BT Update: I'm going to get my own webspace sometime this summer, probably by the end of June, so I'll have the BT tracker up for sure by July 7th.

Hopefully the episodes that people already have will match up. Let me know if you've got a large collection and you're willing to seed so this can get started pretty quickly once the tracker gets up and running.

Don't have links to those Jeremy Robson tracks, but if you use the search function of OC Works, you many find them. I'll come back to this later tonight and edit some links if I find 'em.

EDIT: Final Fantasy 7 "Philharmonic Suite: Part II"

Final Fantasy 7 "Philharmonic Suite: Part III"

As for the collection of VGF eps for seeding, most of the eps should match up; sometimes I've done small ID3 tag changes on some of the eps, but hopefully that won't be a big deal; worse comes to worse, I could send someone 3 CDs of eps to start the seeding. Species would probably be the best bet for an initial seeding simply for having the episodes, though it could be a strain on his network connection.

Don't you peeps forget this week VG Frequency Pimp Section (5/15) as well. Be sure to sample all of those tracks from around the community.

[Xerol Oplan]

Well, that's why I said I hoped the files matched up. Like with the OCR Torrents, existing identical files count as already being there; anyone with the existing mp3s that match up would be able to host the file they already had downloaded and we would end up with a few seeds to start out with, at least for some episodes.

[Kaleb.G]

It's been cool so far Larry. Shall summer nurture an even stronger VG Frequency for fall.

[Liontamer]

With OverClocked ReMix 4 finally here, it's with great pleasure that I do my small part to promote the music of the game music remixing community beyond the tracks that you may be aware of. Week after week the artists of OCR & VGMix come out with material: some you may be overly aware of, some you may not be so aware of. By no means is this a definitive list of all of the good music out from this past week, but it's at least what I myself have been aware of. Please drop any questions or comments you may have my way on anything you see here. Let's get to pimpin' for the week ending on May 22nd:

Cyborg Jeff - F-Zero GX "Dr Stuard 'Jeff n Toad Air Team Challengers" [VGMix2 #1214 / OC ReMix to-be-posted]

Cyborg Jeff prepares to return in a big way to OCR with this high energy F-Zero GX techno offering that Protricity chose to give a very rare YES Override to on the judges' panel. Pierre (you mean his real name ain't Jeff?!?) makes good use of the occasional racecar sound effects and does a nice job of creating variation throughout the mix, even incorporating a brief SID chip solo at the 3-minute mark before adding the SIDtune very subtly into the background. Good development and high energy that F-Zero fans are gonna enjoy.

Cyborg Jeff - Prehistorik "Prehistorik Mann" [AMIGAremix #103 / VGMix2 #1439]

Here's another short Amiga remix from Pierre also featuring SID-chip effects. Wouldn't have minded hearing another iteration of the music, since it's so short, but this is a nice quick shot that's a lot more reminiscent of original game music. This one's an easily accessible mix and a track that's indicative in many ways of the style of the European/Remix64 remixing scene.

DCT & GrayLightning - Astyanax "Journey to Remlia" [VGMix2 #1460]

The Big Shot, DCT, collabs with GrayLightning on this new age/orchestral remix from Astyanax (also known as The Lord of King) that's a huge breakaway from DCT's normal hip-hop influenced style. Retaining a much more relaxed and somber tone, this mix is stark contrast to Protricity's old school take on the same theme "Danger in Remlia." After working with a more melodic, emotional feel for most of the track, things take a more energetic, militaristic feel with the presence of drums, prominent horns and later some low-sounding strings. DCT committed the lion's share of the rearrangement here, with GrayLightning coming in to add his own touches and embellish an already strong work. This high-quality effort has already been submitted to OCR, and looks like a strong candidate for approval, yet, in all fairness to DCT, does not indicate what he's capable of with his primary strengths on the hip-hop end of music creation. Once DCT gets some studio time, look for even more prominent hip-hop cuts to be dropped on the community later on with the forthcoming rap remix of DarkeSword's original jazz track "The Alleyway." For more information on that and other works of his, visit DCT over at http://www.thebigshot.com.

Digital Coma - "King of PAIN" [http://members.cox.net/skaddi]

Though he traditionally spends much more of his time in the community as a judge as OCR, Binnie also creates several diverse, high-quality tracks on the side, both remixes and original works. This is a brief demo cover of the classic Police song "King of Pain" that will be one of many tracks featured on a forthcoming full album release, "Vox of the Subaquatic Transcemeral Dimensions" (or "V-STDs" for short). Here Coma develops several harmonically layered and panned vocal tracks in tandem with Sting's own trademark voice to provide a very pleasing personal tribute to The Police that works the original song in lush new dimensions. You won't want to miss out on the work for this album as it progresses, as, throughout the course of the summer, Binnie hopes to complete the majority of work needed to spread V-STDs to everyone involved in the mixing community.

Fray - Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind "Fear Not" [VGMix2 #1357]

Another pending OCR submission just completed, this mix from Jeremy Soule's Morrowind is from mixer-hopeful Nathan Monteleone, aka Fray. Attempting to expand the out of the confines of the source material's genre, Fray starts this mix off in a trance/electronica style incorporating several different instrument/synth combinations, along with various melodic switchups. Fray's actually conducting a poll on whether "Fear Not" can make it past the OC judges' panel. If you're interested, drop your $.02 on on how YOU'D judge Fear Not's fate. Artists registered with SectionZ can check out more of Fray's stuff over at http://fray.sectionz.com.

Gecko Yamori - Zool "Elektrorock" [VGMix2 #1466]

Gecko hits VGMix with a nice synth rock take on the Amiga title Zool, featuring a nice electrosynth SID-style melody along with strong synth percussion and well-programmed synth guitar as well. GY's mix starts off with a lo-fi feel that eventually escalates into the electronic rock Dan ultimately ends up with. For a 3-minute mix, the song's progression seemed very quick, and if you're a fan of Gecko's work you'll find that the variation is good and the track seems to end in a much shorter period of time, a testament to how well Gecko can create fast-paced energy that engages the listener. Excellent work hearing GY add some rock flavor to his already solid list of predominantly electronic mixes.

goat - Castlevania 1 "The Raven" [VGMix2 #451 / OC ReMix #1173]

I'm sure people have punned off of goat's name enough so that the analogy may be a little tired, but nonetheless goat shows how much of an animal he is with another heavy rock remix from the Castlevania series. Though he'll be tackling the entire Castlevania 3 soundtrack for a larger solo remix project, "The Raven" is another high octane submission to OCR from the first CV game displaying goat's acclaimed guitar skills. Regulars at the OverRocked ReMix music links page and anyone that prefers guitar arrangements are gonna enjoy this one, while game music purists can enjoy some of the other elements involved as goat uses quite a number of in-game sound effects to add a little something extra midway through the mix. This one's yet another track that solidifies goat's status along with zykO, virt, Midee, prozax & Ailsean as a top name for guitar-driven remixes in the rearrangement community.

GrayLightning - Final Fantasy 1 "AfterLife" [VGMix2 #1133 / OC ReMix #1174]

Gray has said that many fans of his body of work haven't liked "AfterLife" as much as the rest of his remixes. That's not a way to prepare you for some sort of disappointment, but rather a disclaimer that GL's take on Final Fantasy's "Dead Music" is not his standard fare. Much like DJP called CotMM's "Pure Lands (Total Darkness)" something he could have envisioned as a 68030/GrayLightning collab, at some points "AfterLife" sounds more like a GL/Ziwtra collab than a Gray solo piece. Though retaining several ethnic musical elements and many of the hallmarks of GrayLightning's new age background, this remix is not the norm for GL. Therein lies the intrigue of this mix, as it's a nice change of pace for Gray, moving outside of strict new age/orchestral work and leaning more towards a techno/electronic style. Gray's been on an absolutely huge tear in the remix scene in the past year, and, with the consistently growing amount of work he has to show, that momentum's not looking to stop any time soon.

Grey - "I Can't Sing" [http://pixelated.myrmid.com/users/jigginjont]

JigginJonT's tentatively-named band releases its third track from their forthcoming demo EP, and this one is really high energy with funk undertones and a nice reliance on electric and bass guitars for the meat of the track's body. Of course Jon works all the time on improving his singing power and skills as Grey the band also develops further as a unit, yet this track uses its excellent lyrics and energetic flows to playfully poke fun at JigginJon's vocals with this funked up, tongue-in-cheek release that you need to pick up. A JJT-style offering wouldn't be complete without some quality piano work as well though, so there's a tight keyboard solo within the middle of the track that you definitely have to check out as well. Don't miss out on this or any of Grey's other recent cuts.

Itopia - "Oblivion" [Means to an End]

AmIEviL and his bandmates are back with another cut from their recent run of releases, this time featuring a different style of vocals. Oblivion's breathier vocals and the nature of the lyrics remind me vaguely of Alice in Chains and give off more of a grunge feel then their previous tracks. Though the mastering can be tightened up, Stefan Ajax and company have another solid release that's sure to please rock fans, and those curious to hear AmIEviL involved in a different type of musical setting. Check out the latest in Itopia's series of demo tracks along with the rest of the band's demo work over at http://www.itopia1.com.

Jared Hudson - "A Summer Dream" [http://www.hudsonstudios.net]

Jared's big into Joe Hisaishi's musical style and attempts to ape it once again with this melodic, orchestral piece. Going for something reminiscent of the "Spirited Away" score, this is a brief but very playful, upbeat and adventurous sounding track that you absolutely don't wanna pass up. I'd definitely love to see a longer version in the future, since I know Jared could easily play around with the current ideas here and go in some other exciting directions. This piece certainly bodes well for Jared's continuing efforts to gain a foothold in the professional music composition business, so swing by Hudson Studios and pick this one up, especially you anime or orchestral music fans.

Leifo - Street Fighter 2 "Sagat's Theme" [http://www.leifo.com]

bLiNd's frequent trance collaborator, Randy Oxley, has taken Sagat's theme, which has emerged as of late as popular source material for remixing, and has infused it with mad jungle goodness. Working outside his standard trance setting like he's used with mixes such as Chrono Trigger's "Timing is Everything," this time Leifo has pumped out a thumping (some could even say rave-able) Street Fighter mix that with unique rhythms and lots of power behind it. Though this is essentially a completed mix, Randy might be doing a few tweaks on this in the near future. Thus, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions for Leifo on this mix, feel free to drop him an e-mail at aismackdemhoes@optonline.netNOSPAM.

Ork Estral (Nigel Simmons) - Super Castlevania 4 "Into the Corridor of Shadows" [VGMix2 #1493]

Ork is back again with a very nice-sounding mix from the SNES classic. Ditching the Gothic music style found in the game, Nigel offers a well-developed orchestral (what else?) remix featuring little bits from the large range of symphonic instruments. There are some very nice builds and tempo changes throughout and the piece easily could pass as a wholly original orchestral composition rather than a Castlevania medley. Ork Estral always comes out with well-produced music, whether original or remix, and this looks (and sounds) like it doesn't disappoint.

OverCoat - "Edge of the World" [http://rks.no-ip.com/~seattleovercoat]

OverCoat works his trademark ambient ways on another original piece of his, this time using a keyboard for the melody of the piece. Some more attention to the keyboard dynamics would have really strengthened Scott's overall effort, yet this is still another one of Scott's quality soundscape compositions, matching up an understated, almost white noise background with a simple downtempo melody to create a relaxing atmosphere. In other words, the isn't "The Brinstar Beat." But then again, nothing's really like The Brinstar Beat.

qaid (smh) - "a ditty" [box of sunlight ep]

I wanna thank Gwilym for bumping the thread for this over at VGMix, otherwise I would have never been aware of this right here. Of course, that's also because Sam NEVER PIMPED THESE TO ME! Now is not a time for humility, boy. When you come out with good eclectic electronic stuff like this, you should be promoting it more. Whatever he's calling himself on a given day of the week, smh/qaid has a great group of tracks available from the "breaking windows ep" & "box of sunlight ep." For any fans of Shadow's original material as well as Ziwtra's remixes, qaid's stuff here offers some of the same attention-grabbing breakbeat and cutup techniques. "a ditty" is one personal favorite of mine, which is why I picked it specifically, yet there are lots of good tracks you'll find if you enjoy qaid's style like "bromine lullaby." Check out the tracks from both EPs at http://smhuse.no-ip.org:84/qaid.

Quinn Fox - Gunstar Heroes "Redrun Green" [VGMix2 #1484]

My personal pick of the week. Quinn's got a very distinct sound that I've always enjoyed a lot. He uses some of the same instruments as he did within "Mode Serpent" and "Vibe Victory," yet this remix is a much more up-tempo offering than you may be used to hearing from most of Quinn's OC mixes. Quinn somewhat downplayed how much people would enjoyed this one compared to the source material, but I personally didn't like the instrumentalization of the music from Gunstar Heroes, so this is a very welcome track. It's great to see Quinn working on new material, cuz you know it's gonna be good, so do not be stupid and pass on this.

SEDUCTiON - Megaman 2 "Chillout" [OC ReMix #1175]

This newly-posted mix is OCR's formal introduction to the chillout genre of music (another great example of which is FFmusic Dj's dynamic remix of BT's "The Great Escape"). SEDUCTiON's mix here is a really excellent example of some of the more straightforward genre adaptation remixes on OverClocked ReMix, taking "Dr. Wily Stage 1" and applying the source material in a style that you wouldn't be used to hearing. The guitar samples used within the mix even sound ABBA-like in their usage, and any real child of the 80s knows that ABBA had some great shit. Protricity didn't care for it, so, like djpretzel alluded to in his writeup, a good cross-section of fans can find Joni Anttila's spin here either hit or miss. Personally, I found this to be a very solid effort that you'll be more likely to keep and even refer to others, and the direct posting of the track by djp is a good indication of the quality you can observe from this one.

Silent - "end of time" [http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/thesilentresponse.htm]

Yes, there are many tracks named "End of Time" out there. Jae contributes to the proverbial "glut" of them by coming out with his own track of the same name. Yet for those of you that enjoyed Silent's well-written lyrical remixes, like "Torian Love Song" and especially "In the Atrium," you'll be interested in this rock track featuring a small amount of electronic elements. If I understood him correctly, Silent isn't done tweaking some bits and pieces of the track for the near future. Check this one out to get a feel for Silent's non-remix offerings. As with Fray, artists registered with SectionZ can check out more of Silent's work over at http://silent.sectionz.com.

SgtRama - Dr. Mario "Chillax Biatch" [http://www.musicv2.com/artist/sgtrama]

Celebrating Doug Arley's 19th birthday early this past week, here's a quick old-school remix in honor of SgtRama himself from one of the old #occompo competitions, this one tackling Dr. Mario. Checking out Rama's music page, I scrolled down and saw the title for this mix, which is just one of the funniest fucking titles I've ever heard. If you liked the classic source music, "Chill", sit back for a minute and a half and check this one out. And if your ho starts yakkin' in your ear, tell that bitch to chillax!

Tranquil Chaos - Eternal Champions 1 "The Eternal Struggle" [ironMix Challenge XVIII: Eternally Yours / VGMix2 #1474]

Chad Hultgren has been pretty quiet on the remixing scene, with his last big victory in TimberWolf's IronMix Challenge coming way back in 2002 with his winning entry from IMC1, "Devil's Groove," remixing the well-known "Devil's Lab" from Final Fantasy 6. With IMC finally making it's big return earlier this month with IMC18, Tranquil Chaos is done layin' low. His next winning IMC mix effort comes from the legendarily bad (or great, depending on who you ask) Sega Genesis fighting game Eternal Champions. Taking on the introduction theme, this is a well-crafted, somewhat moody guitar-led mix that's way better than the actual game Eternal Champions ever was. Performed in an actual studio, this one's definitely a good look for rock mix enthusiasts.

Unknown - "The Day of the Gathering" [CompoST 17]

Unknown - "Song of Fury" [CompoST 18]

Tyler is always coming out with solid original compositions for SoundTempest.net's CompoST competitions and yet again is victorious by successfully fashioning ideas that are evoke the feel of various in-game scenarios. Enjoy his driven, militaristic and serious vision of a heroes gathering theme for CompoST 17 in addition to his harder-edged idea of side-scrolling beat-'em-up theme music for CompoST 18.

Xerol Oplan - "Streets of Tracheon" [Xerol's Quest OST]

Helping to head up Level Ground Gaming, Xerol Oplan plans on having the original RPG, Xerol's Quest, ready for a July 2005 target date, so of course, among other things, production is underway on composing the music for the soundtrack. Xerol, Red Omen & Mythril Nazgul are on board handling most of the music responsibilities for the project, with "Streets of Tracheon" being XO's third completed and publicly released work for it. The track here is certainly a good fit for walking around a peaceful town and chatting around with townsfolk. Check out more info about Level Ground Gaming and progress on Xerol's Quest over at http://www.lggaming.com.

Happy B-Day to BEATDROP this past Monday! Dain is an OLD OLD man! Check out loads of mixers and fans, many from the west coast remixing scene, gathering in Los Angeles last week for Final Fantasy: Dear Friends & E3 courtesy of Mustin over at OneUp Studios. GrayLightning has just completed work on Freemind's Halo WIP "Ancient Duel" over at VGMix, Protricity has a nice Gradius 3 WIP in the works, and Antonio Pizza's working his black magic (GET IT?!?) on FF6's well known Devil's Lab theme. Sir Nuts has also got a rare original trance work of his brewing on the WIP: Other side that you should search out. We also wait for the remixes and results of reelmojo's People's Remix Competition 16 and TimberWolf's IronMix Challenge 19.

Hope you enjoy the blood, sweat and tears djpretzel sacrificed for the new design of OCR. OCR4 is looking hot! Have fun this next week enjoying the new layout as well as the many tracks offered up with tonight's mix flood!

[Liontamer]

Quick question for anyone with free/unlimited webspace: Since I'm on dial-up, I can't host my old episodes on my college space. Can anyone help me out by temporarily hosting VG Frequency #23 & #24 for ravon? Sometime during the summer, I'm hoping to go with Dhsu's idea of doing occasional planned rebroadcasts of episodes #21-29 with Ormgas.com. Any help is appreciated!

[DCT]

DCT & GrayLightning - Astyanax "Journey to Remlia" [VGMix2 #1460]

The Big Shot, DCT, collabs with GrayLightning on this new age/orchestral remix from Astyanax (also known as The Lord of King) that's a huge breakaway from DCT's normal hip-hop influenced style. Retaining a much more relaxed and somber tone, this mix is stark contrast to Protricity's old school take on the same theme "Danger in Remlia." After working with a more melodic, emotional feel for most of the track, things take a more energetic, militaristic feel with the presense of drums, prominent horns and later some low-sounding strings. DCT committed the lion's share of the rearrangement here, with GrayLightning coming in to add his own touches and embellish an already strong work. This high-quality effort has already been submitted to OCR, and looks like a strong candidate for approval, yet, in all fairness to DCT, does not indicate what he's capable of with his primary strengths on the hip-hop end of music creation. Once DCT gets some studio time, look for even more prominent hip-hop cuts to be dropped on the community later on with the forthcoming rap remix of DarkeSword's original jazz track "The Alleyway." For more information on that and other works of his, visit DCT over at http://www.thebigshot.com.

Wow, I feel so special. Thanks for the shout out!

-DCT

[kamoh]

I want a link to the Anti-Tarantino song.

I loved that.

From VGF#28

[neminem]

Wow, that looked like it took a lot of work. I already pretty much download everything that comes out on vgmix or OCR, but thanks for letting me know of the stuff that hasn't been on either of those... I downloaded a handful of new stuff.

[Kaleb.G]

Hey Larry, I can host some stuff. I already have the files from when I last downloaded them. I'll try to have them up and hosted soon. E-mail me a reminder, because I'll end up forgetting about this otherwise.

[TCK]

I want a link to the Anti-Tarantino song.

I loved that.

From VGF#28

Check in the WIP: Other forum, and look for QTSA, shouldn't be too far down.

[Liontamer]

Remember, there's a lot of material to go through and you likely won't have time to check everything out at all, so at least take a few minutes to scan down the list and flag anything you'd be interested in hearing. For those of you interested in a broader awareness of the vast array of material out each week from the community, do your part by checking in with me each week as I run things down. Let's take a look at what we had for the week ending May 29th:

Mazedude - Ice Climber "Snow Cone Heaven" [OC ReMix #1176]

Kaijin - Xenogears "Momentary Emotion" [OC ReMix #1177]

DarkeSword - Chrono Trigger "Through the Dark" [VGMix2 #838 / OC ReMix #1178]

Daniel Baranowsky - Final Fantasy 6 "Agony of Obscuration" [OC ReMix #1179]

analoq - Commander Keen 4 "man sieht sich galaxie" (a.k.a 'see ya, galaxy') [OC ReMix #1180]

Rayza - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 "Sonik Elektronik" [OC ReMix #1181]

Freemind & GrayLightning w/Digital Coma - Halo 1 "Mahabharath Highlands" [OC ReMix #1182]

Protricity - Donkey Kong Country 2 "KRool Intentions" [OC ReMix #1183]

Disco Dan - The Legend of Zelda 3 "Triforce Majeure" [OC ReMix #1184]

McVaffe - The Legend of Zelda 3 "The Darkness and the Light" [OC ReMix #1185]

djpretzel - The Revenge of Shinobi "Consent (Make Me Dance)" [OC ReMix #1186]

I don't have time to really talk about any of the 11 mixes of the OCR4 remix flood at length (though I will say that analoq's was my personal favorite, AND, might I add, the only mix in the flood that received comments from a game industry professional [Commander Keen developer and current Midway Games member John Romero]). Overall, however, these remixes represent a nice cross-section of some of the top remixers in the community, and for those that argue that OCR current standards are leading toward alarmingly homogeneous remixing, take a listen to these eleven tracks in one session and try telling everyone that again. I primarily wanted to use this space to congratulate djpretzel and everyone who contributed tracks to mark this milestone for OverClocked ReMix. The construction of the new site is by far the most intelligent design yet, and the interface looks hot. Now that black OCR t-shirts are available, I'm proud to have been able to purchase one to help the site in a small way. (And thanks to djp & my bros in the judges' panel for getting VG Frequency added in the OCR radio links section as well as ravon for giving me my own forum within Ormgas.com!)

computermage - Super Mario 64 "64bit Pathway" [VGMix2 #1538]

Here's an interesting electronic take on "Koopa's Road" from relative newcomer, Michael Manriquez. Some of the percussion patterns are interesting, and there are some cool vibe-like effects as well as a ton of orchrestral stabs (and if you're a fan of the GoldenEye 007 soundtrack, then you'll really know what I'm talking about). I don't believe this track will punch you in the face per se, but you're bound to know the source material, so for all of you out there the mix should be a lot more accessible and easier to judge for its rearrangement strengths. If you have the time, this is worth a look.

DarkeSword - Secret of Evermore "A Whisper and a Shadow" [The People's Remix Competition 16 / VGMix2 #1500]

Shariq edged out Sir Nuts and took victory in PRC16 with this smooth mix of Jeremy Soule's "Collosia, Chamber 1," Darke's second remix done in 7/4 time following his Chrono Trigger mix "Blue Skies Over Guardia." There are some pleasing instrumental similarities in the lead to Quinn Fox's lush Phantasy Star Online mix "Unexplored Contact" that put this mix in good company. This one is pretty damn chill and not exactly what I expected, since it would be easy to do a more orchestral/string-based piece and call it a day. True to it's name, so-to-speak, you're not going to experience any huge crescendos, but it's from DS, so is there really a risk involved? Of course not. So what are you waiting for? This one shouldn't let you down.

DHS f/Makke - The Great Giana Sisters 1 "Keep Da Scene Alive" [R:K:O #2268]

DHS of The SoundWavers collabs with Makke on this trance mix featuring shoutouts to composers and remixers all over the SID-remixing scene. You may not recognize all of the names mentioned here, but this is one huge thanks to everyone who has helped the European game mixing community thrive. Anyone wanna take bets on when we get a song with the same type of idea from OC ReMix or VGMix?

Digital Coma - Friday I'm a Fag [http://dc.cowten.net]

Binnie Katti is back, this time with a soulful redux of classic material from 80s band The Cure. Don't mind the provocative title as you experience a mainstream remix here that makes liberal yet calculated uses of phasing, pitch-bending, and Binnie's own countermelodic vocal accompaniment. The unique musical style observable in remixes Binnie's worked on, like "Fowl Jive" and the recently posted "Mahabharath Highlands" shines brightly once again.

DistantJ f/Shael Riley - "Moonlight Shadow" [http://members.lycos.nl/projectsofdamnation/mp3] - Feedback (and poll)

Influenced by three different versions of the source tune of the same name, DistantJ is has a techno cover of Mike Oldfield's original tune with Shael on vocals. The mastering needs tons of work, and I mean tons. Fans of DDR who may be familiar with the song may want to still give this a work. Importantly though, there's a thread over at OC ReMix where you can vote on your opinion of the track and also provide suggestions on how to improve the track, as there's a fair amount of potential there if the mastering could be overhauled.

djcubez - "Groove" [http://www.planetcubez.com] - Feedback

Joe Lloyd lays it back with this chill-sounding FL Studio-created original work. I would agree with a lot of the feedback Rellik provided the track, in that there are many aspects of the track that need more polish and realism, yet the overall formulation is solid and shows a great deal of skill from cubez in consciously constructing a song strictly with the use of default samples. It takes a lot of effort to work within those limitations.

Edgen Animations - Final Fantasy 6 "en Terra" [http://www.edgen.com]

Nothing brings out controversy like a beatiful-sounding "Terra" remix being narrowly rejected by the OCR judges' panel. The popular source material carries a lot of weight with people, so it's easy to understand why some weren't happy with this remix being passed up, especially one from a professional like Justin R. Durban. The main reasons this didn't make it to OCR were because the a majority of the judges felt it didn't offer a dynamically different approach to orchestrating the Terra theme as compared to other mixes already at OCR and there were a few technical snags/pops heard in the submitted version. While the mix serves really to simply repeat the theme several times (in subtly different styles) and not heavily rearrange the original, this was nonetheless a beautiful submission that a lot of people will be interested in listening to.

Freemind - "Wild Nights" [http://www.bands411.com/freemindlab] - Feedback

This one's an original made in one night by OC's resident Greek god, Thanasis Kaloutzis, and the power of his keyboard. This one has a lounge-y, yet upbeat feel which you might actually find pretty cheesy, but it all depends in what you're into. Props also go out for the great variation in the drumwork, as well as the church organ, and the saxophone coming in at the very end (why so late on that???) Freemind's obviously got more refined works out there, but there's no reason not to peep this quickly made original and give FM some comments.

goat - Castlevania 3 "Stained Glass Filth" [VGMix2 #1524]

This ridiculously amped up mix of "The Beginning" from CV3 marks the second release in goat's solo project to remix Club Kukeiha's entire Castlevania 3 soundtrack, "Unchosen Paths." You should already know from experience that goat rocks. Nonetheless, you can prepare yourself to not only hear quality coverage of the source material with this mix, but also in-depth rearrangement and tons of original ideas. Based on "Stained Glass Filth", the outlook for "Unchosen Paths" looks nothing but promising. Stay alert with VGMix every 2 weeks or so as well as goat's homepage, http://www.powergoat.com, so you don't get left behind on this project's progress.

Infamous - Arkanoid 1 "Galway is God" [VGMix2 #1532]

Infamous has already been applying his craft on the European scene at R:K:O & AMIGAremix, and Infy brought some of it over this past week exclusively to VGMix. Electronic synths and effects, straightforward drums and beautiful layers of piano mesh together to create a track that holds up very well to active listening, but also creates a vibe you can just sit back and chill to. Don't be skeptical at about giving this one a look, since it'll likely surprise you, especially beyond the buildup and into the halfway mark.

Israfel - Untitled [http://www.dovermusic.com] - Feedback

The incomperable Mr. Dover decided to give fans a look at a symphonic/new age piece he composed in early 2003 intended for a documentary segment on a handicapped youngster. Instead of attempting to describe the short story regarding the composition myself, please visit the Feedback link provided for Mike's story behind this untitled track.

Jared Hudson & Abram McCalment - Funky Basement Blues [http://www.hudsonstudios.net] - Feedback

The title says it all with this one, so prepare for some funky blues. Jared & Abram have another live track that was actually submitted by Jared for a potential Berklee scholarship. Hopefully that all pans out, since Jared is likely to be there for the fall. (Jared's also happy to point out that he only needed one take to nail the drums you hear here.) This one's another field test of sorts for the duo in their attempts to be more proficient with studio mixdown techniques, but you're making a mistake if you think this is just a glorified sound test. Sit back, enjoy this pimped out jam session and let 'em know if it sounded sharp in your opinion.

L. Spiro - Donkey Kong Country 2 "Mines" [VGMix2 #1541]

For fans of remixes that stay close to the structure of the source material, L. Spiro's got a downtempo, soundscape-style mix from DKC2. This track is familiar to old-school fans of VGMix1, but Spiro has brought it out of the archives so to speak, and has remastered the track for re-release on VGMix2. Much like Protricity, Shawn Wilcoxen sticks mainly toward remixing tracks from this soundtrack, so, if you're into this one check out other DKC2 mixes of his available at VGMix, including one I really enjoyed myself, "Konkluded Epik."

Nixdorux (Nicolas Ferranti) - The Legend of Zelda 3 "Account of a Hero" [VGMix #1527]

Like Neskvartetten, Nixdorux frequently tackles material from the SNES classic, Zelda: A Link to the Past. Fans of Unknown and DarkeSword's rousing orchestral renditions of themes from the Zelda series will enjoy this 7+ minute medley, described by many reviewers at VGMix as gentle, dramatic and cinematic. This lives up to Nicolas's already high standards, as he strove to develop as complete an orchestral composition as possible. With loads of build and development, line up for this one, orchestral die-hards.

OverCoat - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "The Oily Gulf" [VGMix2 #1513]

OverCoat melds Eastern sounds with militaristic percussion and his trademark distortion to give a very interesting take on Masato Nakamura's "Oil Ocean Zone." SOC also makes sure to throw in a fair amount of ambient background effects to spice things up and this mix is one where you can really pick apart the various layers of activity involved. Lots of people always tell Scott that he could go for less distortion, yet he'll tell you that that's part of his work's charm (or at least something away from the norm of what everyone else uses), and if you're into well-constructed liberally arranged work, you'll be feeling this one.

Rellik - Spring in Rome [http://www.tjhsst.edu/~alederer] - Feedback

Here's a quick shot from Adam Lederer, a.k.a. Rellik, that's part of an 11-track play score. This is a simplified demo of sorts that's merely here to give you a look at Rellik's vision of a Roman scene. Hopefully, we'll be able to get the full version of this track (which features more variation) as well as a few other of the pieces created for this score, this being a good start.

Reuben Kee - Princess Mononoke "Piano Medley' [http://www.reubenkee.com] - Feedback

Reuben's been in the game for a little while, but just broke onto OCR & VGMix with Shenmue piano medley "Reflections." Fans of pianists and piano sequencers can rattle off a long list of names of people in the community who specialize themselves with the ivories, and you need to check out Reu's work in order to familiarize yourself with another top name. His large body of work includes this Mononoke-hime medley which just emerged from the Works: Other forum at OCR, done at a faster-paced style than Joe Hisaishi's original work. Hopefully Reu will take the suggestion given to him in the thread and submit this mix over at Carbunk1e's brainchild, Anime Remix.

trickwaters - Final Fantasy 1 "Prelude for Two Pianos" [VGMix2 #1519]

You know the Prelude. You're definitely not a fan of this stuff if you don't know..."The Prelude." In many respects, Uematsu's classic FF introduction is the ultimate comfort food for game music fans, thus you're almost required by law to check out Patrick Waters 176-key rendition of the Prelude, created in 2001 and just released on VGMix. trickwaters is also the music curator at RPGamer.com as well as a student at the Manhanttan School of Music, so he's a student of the game on both fronts you might say. In addition to that, he's got a fucking hilarious blog up at his homepage, http://www.betterthanbach.com, so check that out for some fun and tons of others tracks.

Unknown - "If This is to Be Our End..." [CompoST 19]

Here's Tyler's winning original compositional conception of final level RPG music for SoundTempest.net's ongoing competition series. Ironically enough, Unknown didn't care for this piece and neither did some of the other entrants in CompoST, but despite that, it's still a brief, well-done piece, which only goes to show you that when artists go 'bleh' on their own work, sometimes it's safe to say "Ah, what do they know?"

zircon - "Sandwise" [Phasma Elementum] - Feedback

Andrew Aversa is a busy man. Despite already overseeing SoundTempest.net and making mixes for VGMix and OCR submission, zircon has been hard at work creating his first full-length original album, which was officially released this past Friday. Fans of Beatdrop's original album projects ("Operations" & "Final Energy") can look into this culmination of half a year's work as zircon forays into a vast number of electronica styles, one example of which is the track "Sandwise," which includes some Eastern musical influences (and wouldn't you know it, it even sounds F-Zero-ish). To sample more of the tracks available on the album, be sure to head over to http://www.soundclick.com/zircon. With zirc's best tracks being reserved for those who want to purchase the CD, if you like what you hear over at SoundClick then you're definitely poised to enjoy the rest of the CD, so don't be afraid to pony up that paper. zircon's always up to no good over at his homebase, http://www.zirconstudios.com.

Neskvartetten's got a new website with all of their currently available remixes hosted. Fans of the NES Quartet or those who aren't familiar with their jazz stylings better move quickly to http://medlem.spray.se/neskvartetten to check everything out. An informal interview with group bassist Johan "Jois" Sundhage will be available at Ormgas.com in the next few days, and he had some cool things to say, including what new material the band plans to tackle this summer! Keep your eyes open for that!

Digital Coma recently titled the Donkey Kong Country Arrangement Collaboration project, hopefully on pace to be completed before the end of the season. "Gorilla con Gusto" already has 3 tracks completed by GrayLightning, Dj_StarChild & SnappleMan, and is set to deliver at least 21 tracks spanning the entire DKC soundtrack. The limited release of the already-completed tracks has already served to get fans at OverClocked ReMix more excited at the potential of the project. Track the progress of "Gorilla con Gusto" throughout the summer over at http://dkcproject.ocremix.org.

Sadorf vs. Midee was this week's big lil' thing over at VGMix, as Sadorf railed into Midee via the VGMix Chatterbox, purposefully got his remixes removed and got himself banned from the site. What was up Sadorf's ass? What did Midee do to insight the hatred of VGMix1's "legendary suck?" And was somebody behind the whole (stupid) scene happening??? (There's nothing like a little juvenile gossip, right? )

In case you didn't know, Shael Riley's little brother has a band, The Nylon Panted Ninjas. Check out their comedy stylings over at CafePress, where you can listen to some samples and/or purchase their very affordable album, "Monstro-CD."

MaJIN_SaN's Donkey Kong Country 1 remix "Tsunami Ambience" is almost done and it's pretty relaxing. Sadorf's Sonic 2 Aquatic Ruins WIP continues to gather up steam, so I hope he keep working on it. Malcos has got a cool Shinobi WIP underway, "City Ninja." Kevin "Lorenzo" Sisk's got a Sonic & Knuckles WIP going, and Rayza had time to drop some comments. S&K is criminally undermixed, buy the way. Did you see those zircon remix WIPs I linked to earlier??? If you didn't, look harder.

Adhesive Boy plans to broadcast his Shoutcast radio show every Saturday night while I'm on hiatus, so keep an eye on his OCR General Discussion thread for that. He's also got 2 tracks for "Gorilla con Gusto" that HE BETTER FINISH IN TIME FOR THE 2ND STAGE DEADLINE. You better Jack...or you don't wanna live to see next month!

Questions & comments are yours to make if you want. Enjoy this week's selections/suggestions and I hope I'll see you back here in 7.

[Debotron-6K]

Larry Oji is serious about video game remixes

[sgx]

Larry owns.

['ReaktorZ0]

cool

**downloading**

**downloading**

**downloading**

**downloading*

...

[Liontamer]

Ormgas.com, OverClocked ReMix's unofficial internet radio station, wants YOU for its jingle contest, now underway and set to end on July 10th. We need artists, remixers and anyone willing to have some fun with a microphone to check out the contest and submit 20-to-40-second station identification style jingles, and if you're one of the top 3 entrants, you can clothe your body with hot OMG FREE Ormgas.com gear. As long as your entry is quality, you can potentially earn radio infamy along with other legends (like Liontamer) as one of Ormgas.com regular jingles, so be sure to check out more information at the OCR forums thread as well as the full set of contest rules over at http://oc.ormgas.com/news.php?extend.36. Antonio Pizza, SgtRama & Neskvartetten are already in the game with their own entries, and I encourage you reading this [Larry points at you] to consider submitting your own jingles in support of Ormgas while you get in the hunt for free, fashionable swag. Please don't delay. July 10th's the final deadline. Now let's see what was up in the remix community for the week ending June 5th. Kind of a lighter week this week, but, hey, I can't complain:

analoq - Trigun "OMG Trigun" [The People's Remix Competition: Animation 1]

First off, I wanna throw a Happy B-Day to Caleb, i.e. reelmojo, for his 22nd birthday a week ago Saturday. reelmojo has extended his concept of The People's Remix Competition over to AnimeRemix.org, where he and Mythril Nazgul oversee the recently created People's Remix Competition: Animation. analoq took first place with this cool piano/fusion hybrid of Trigun's "Not an Angel." Don't be fooled by the name, this mix isn't pure kwakery, even though it kicks into a higher gear from 2:30 until the end. Give this one your attention, and be sure to keep your eyes on these competitions. You'd be remiss if you also didn't check out Dhsu runner-up entry, the also-intelligently-titled "LOL Trigun", a dedication to analoq featuring an analoq voice sample! What were they thinking??? Stay tuned to Anime Remix's forums for the lowdown on PRC:A2, as the selection for the next contest is the theme song of one of the funniest cartoons ever, The Critic. Excellent choice!

Arkimedes - Soul Calibur 1 "A Different Kind of Hero" [VGMix2 #1564]

Jaron has got some hot vocalized mixes out already, with the more subtle Halo mix "Fall from Above (You Can't Stop)" at OCR & VGMix and the AWESOME Shenmue mix "Dreaming While I Wake" over at VGMix. Ark's latest work is sylistically like a combination of the two: harder electronic elements with particularly engaging lyrics. Soul Caliber doesn't get much coverage in the game mixing scene, so don't avoid this one, especially so you can check out a gradually more prominent name in the scene.

Bladiator - Sparkster "A Midsparksters Eve" [The People's Remix Competition 17]

Tackling DarkeSword's source tune choice of the SNES game Sparkster (since Shariq won out in PRC16), Bladiator offers up this piano-driven mix of Sparkster's theme that features some excellent hand runs as well as alternating support from both strings and woodwinds. While the synth string accompaniment in the foreground doesn't sound realistic, I felt Bladiator's overall sequencing and presentation was strong, and approching the end of the mix I felt some stylistic similarities to "Repose" from the Final Fantasy Tactics OSV. Good stuff that I feel is poised to win PRC17 when the votes are counted up and the final results are ultimately revealed.

Dhsu - Mario Kart 64 "Rainbow Snowland" [ironMix Challenge: Limited Edition: Christmas in June / OC ReMix #1188 / VGMix2 #1578]

David Hsu continues to improve and up his game on the 88-keys with his newly-posted OC ReMix, "Rainbow Snowland," which (as you probably already know) combines Kenta Nagata's themes from Rainbow Road and Frappe Snowland into a gentle, relaxing piece that you chill out and feel at ease to. GrayLightning is a big fan of it, and I believe the best indication of this piece's quality was that it passed through the OCR judges' panel with 4 straightforward YES's that all essentially stated "This is just an excellent remix." For fans of the original Mario Kart 64 music, this is a nice break from the norm with MK64 remixes that are always high energy. Props to Dhsu for really adapting the source material well. If you love piano, this is a no-brainer.

JigginJonT - The Legend of Zelda 1 "Zelda Live" [http://pixelated.myrmid.com/users/jigginjont]

OCR's jiggiest mixer one offers up a quick parody track based off of E-Claire's Mother remix "Okaa-san no komoriuta (Live at the Annexe)" which Andy and Claire claimed was recorded live. Since Jon didn't believe the crowd ambience sounded genuine from listening to it (and neither did DarkeSword, zykO, gaijin, Ailsean, Disco Dan, and zircon), JJT made his own "live" track a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy, folks. (So...is Claire fake too then? Hey, it was a natural question.)

Joshua Morse - "Synesthesia" [Home Life EP] - Feedback

Jazz/fusion fans are required to check out Josh's latest EP, as it features about 25 minutes of excellently crafted material. I've highlighted "Synesthesia" as my personal favorite of the album, but there are several other good cuts including a cover of a virt original MIDI, "Snorestop", and the intriguingly-titled "Cranberry Juice". Short and sweet, this EP delivers. zykO loves it. smh loves it. You love it.

k-wix - Secret of Mana & Legend of Mana "Ballad of Mana" [VGMix2 #1569]

Dustin Kulwicki moves a bit away from his trance leanings with this straight piano meldey covering tunes from the Mana game series. Thanks to some piano samples provided by GrayLightning, k-wix has upped the sound quality to provide a more genuine-sounding take on Hiroki Kikuta's work, including the very well-known "Angel's Fear." Though the dynamics need to be improved, this one's been faring well at VGMix so far, so fans of the Mana series are encouraged to check it out.

Markus Schneider - Gem'X "Deliverance" [VGMix2 #1262]

Mr. Schneider is already a very accomplished musician and has come out with quality game music both on the professional and remixing sides. You can hit up R:K:O or Remix64 for the majority of his remix work, or just check out his collab with Mahoney, "Sweet Games", for another example of his enviable orchestration talents. I don't know the music of Gem'X, but I do know that Markus uses some of the best damn samples out there. This man's been in the game for a while, and as usual, he rises to the challenge of having modern instruments realistically transform the earliest game music of old. Following up on Infamous's "Galway is God" from last week, "Deliverance" continues a short trend of mixers from the European scene debuting new material on VGMix, so get it while it's hot. Orchestral fans will love this well-crafted, emotive mix.

Sir Nuts - Sonic & Knuckles "Run for Your Life, Sonic!" [VGMix2 #839]

Mike Molina trances up the classic Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles boss theme in a older mix of his that's finally seen release at VGMix. Nuts does a good job of playing around with a minimal framework of melody for the first minute and a half before effectively connecting to the full melody and working along from there, before pulling back with a nice break at the 2:48 mark seguing into a short freestyle section and coming full circle. The progession is solid, and the original theme is, in my opinion, one of the catchiest game music tunes I've ever heard. A hot choice of source tunes and a well-constructed trance formula make this a nice choice in spite of it's age and the fact that Sir Nuts has stepped up his game since this was first completed.

Star Salzman - "Temporary Insanity" [http://www.starblast.org]

My absolute pick of the week; don't be a chump and not try this one. Star Salzman is one of the most talented musicians out there today, with some incredibly accessible original material, as I've already said before. In my opinion this is Star's best original work yet, and he himself was really pleased as he put more and work into this one. I don't normally silently sing along to tracks I hear, but I'll be damned if this musically intense ballad isn't like a 4 minute, 38 second perpetual hook. If you're familiar with StarBLaSt's Chrono Trigger mix "Temporal Distortion" then you'll immediately familiarize yourself with the synth lead here, so dive in. Ladies will be loving it, and if you're smart boys, you'll spring this one on your significant others. Yep, let Star help you get some!

Star Salzman - Megaman 2 "When You See the Flashman, Duck and Cover" [VGMix2 #1203 / OC ReMix #1187]

Much like "Tickle My Wily" did a few months ago, Star brings you another hot Megaman II mix that fuses dynamic orchestration and well-varied electronic elements into a synergetically stronger final product. StarBLaSt does a nice job of transistioning the synth lead into a pounding drumline that's subsequently joined by a mutitude of other instruments. A timely xylophone, thick strings, and rousing horns bring the power per Star's usual high standards. This was originally supposed to be rolled out along with the other mixes for the OCR4 mix flood, and with that said, "Duck and Cover" obviously brings with it the quality that places it on the level of the other 11 mixes which have marked the beginning of OC's new look.

SuperGreenX, destructo & Aurora - Beyond Good & Evil + Chrono Trigger "Frame of Mind" [OC ReMix #1189]

SGX & destructo bring Aurora into the picture with an awesome downtempo-like collab that I was very pleased to play a short while ago on my show, so now that it's available at OC ReMix, a lot more people will be able to enjoy this one. I also wanna give my congratulations to Aurora for officially becoming an OC ReMix! (Stay warm in the Great White North, sister!) The way destructo & SGX alternated sections with smooth transisitions rather than pieceing two halves of a song together really makes this a much more solid team-up, and you'd never know Aurora's vocals were recorded on a subpar mic. Thanks to the solid efforts from both destructo & Aurora, SGX has come out with a mix that's a move away from the norm for him and really does a great job of broadening his musical horizons. Nice work that brings destructo back strong with his second OC mix, while Aurora's mesmerizing voice places her as a female vocalist to watch.

TO - "Electric Machine" [Original Remix Competition 2]

After not gaining any headway the first time around, ReaktorZ0's second go at the Original Remix Competition was a success, spanning three forums and gaining some good attention. TO runnered-up in the contest to remix a ReaktorZ0 original MIDI with this powerful-sounding entry which some consider his best piece since he arrived in the community. ORC3 is already underway and hopes to prove as successful in the coming weeks, so best of luck to RZ0 as he works hard to build the compo up even further.

Why did I forget to mention this last week? The Wingless and his design team at Abraxsis Design Studio have rolled out the newest design for TheWingless.com, The Wingless Dot Com - Genometh Edition, and, as usual, it's leaps and bounds over other artistic website layouts. The Unfinished section of the site has been taken down, and John is ready to complete work on several WIPs that have been on the shelf for a while. You know it's all good when The Wingless is involved so keep your eyes open for new Wing tracks in the near future.

Adhesive Boy'll keep chugging along with AB Radio, so tune in every Saturday night during the summer, foo'.

Shael Riley's got a cool PaRappa the Rapper WIP going, so hopefully the Crazy Crakaz will complete that one soon.

Mythril Nazgul has a Shrek remix in the works for Anime Remix. This is obviously the best time to be working on something like that with Shrek 2 taking in more money in a week than some small countries do in a year.

Disco Dan has released the 5th remix in his Blaster Master series over at VGMix. Since it was actually released on Sunday, June 6th, we'll be officially spotlighting it in next week's Pimp Section.

Courtesy of zircon (THANK YOU!), I'm proud to be holding an actual physical copy of his new album "Phasma Elementum," which I pimped out last week as well! In case you missed it, and you like electronica, go sample some tracks and then buy the CD!

DCT was proud to announce via the VGMix chatterbox that he's finished 2 songs for his forthcoming studio-produced release. As a proud member of the hip-hop community along with other extremely talented mixers like zykO and The Bronx Rican, DCT is sure to be dropping some severely hot cuts before the summer is out. After going through some VERY rough times this past March and being placed in a coma for a few weeks, Duane is back with a vengeance. His new age collab with GrayLightning "Journey to Remlia" is on pace to make it to OCR in a matter of months, and work continues on the mostly original hip-hop and rap work for the upcoming album. DCT could use your help though, so feel free to head over to TheBigShot.com and donate some dollars his way to show your very appreciated support.

Star Salzman's body of work also gets a lot of attention, and thus he needs some help to pay the bills. Details are at StarBLaSt.org for how you can help him with bandwidth costs, and your options for helping him can snag you an exclusive CD or a vocalized cover of a favorite song of yours like only Star can do. (And he can do it hilariously.)

Also on the album front, bLiNd continues to work hard on his share of Project Majestic Mix Trance. Many of you fans have already gotten several tastes of mixes Jordan has ready to go, including "Temple Trance MkII," "Industrial Fear," and the edited cut of "G-Storm," so sit tight because one of OCR's long-time masters of trance has got other great ideas from Secret of Evermore, Final Fantasy X and Secret of Mana ready to drop with PMM Trance's release later in the year.

So enjoy this week's stuff. Drop some comments. Do Ormgas jingles! And see you in 7.

[Blake]

Bump damnit

[kamoh]

Larry Oji can ALMOST rearrange the letters in his name to say "I am godly."

...ALMOST...

Mad propz.

[sgx]

Larry, u iz tha shit.

[Blake]

Larry Oji can ALMOST rearrange the letters in his name to say "I am godly."

...ALMOST...

Mad propz.

I arr joly!!

[Liontamer]

Ormgas.com, OverClocked ReMix's unofficial internet radio station, wants YOU for its jingle contest, now underway and set to end on July 10th. We need artists, remixers and anyone willing to have some fun with a microphone to check out the contest and submit 30-to-40-second station identification style jingles, and if you're one of the top 3 entrants, you can clothe your body with hot OMG FREE Ormgas.com gear. As long as your entry is quality, you can potentially earn radio infamy along with other legends (like Liontamer) as one of Ormgas.com regular jingles, so be sure to check out more information at the OCR forums thread as well as the full set of contest rules over at http://oc.ormgas.com/news.php?extend.36. Antonio Pizza, SgtRama & Neskvartetten are already in the game with their own entries, and I encourage you reading this [Larry points at you] to consider submitting your own jingles in support of Ormgas while you get in the hunt for free, fashionable swag. Please don't delay. July 10th's the final deadline.

JigginJonT had the foresight (i.e. gall) to make sure that if I had my own forum at Ormgas.com I'd be open for plenty of the Larry-bashing that makes VG Frequency such an enjoyable experience for all. Register at Ormgas and drop by your insults at the official Larry Oji hate thread. Because I LOVE to hear what you bastards have to say. I hate you, Jon. And because I hate all of you out there so much, it's time to once again use some of my free time this week to look around the remix community for tracks so you don't have to. What the hell was I thinking? Let's take a look at some of what's good for the week ending June 12th:

Blak Omen - Super CastleVania 4 "The Belmont Chill" [The People's Remix Competition 12 / VGMix2 #1145 / OC ReMix #1195]

New Zealand's Henry Chong moves away from straight piano sequencing with this jazzy lounge take on the classic Simon Belmont's theme. I already knew this track was strong since it won PRC12, so I chose it as one of the tracks for my "Best Of" show (VGF #29) back in early May. The intro definitely is a sharp contrast to the rest of the mix, which isn't even a bad thing, but once you get past the rapid-fire bongos, it's smooth sailing from there. Another one of those CastleVania tracks that a welcome change of pace from all the Gothic and rock CV remixes out there.

Cyborg Jeff - F-Zero GX "Dr. Stuard (Jeff & Toad Air Team Challengers)" [VGMix2 #1214 / OC ReMix #1193]

This one was covered for the May 22nd Pimp Section, so I'll just quote myself for convenience:

Cyborg Jeff prepares to return in a big way to OCR with this high energy F-Zero GX techno offering that Protricity chose to give a very rare YES Override to on the judges' panel. Pierre (you mean his real name ain't Jeff?!?) makes good use of the occasional racecar sound effects and does a nice job of creating variation throughout the mix, even incorporating a brief SID chip solo at the 3-minute mark before adding the SID-tune very subtly into the background. Good development and high energy that F-Zero fans are gonna enjoy.

Though that YES Override subsequently didn't go through (nice try though ), everything else pretty much still applies. This has definitely gone over well so far with OC's listeners since its been released.

Disco Dan - Blaster Master "Swizzle Swamp" [VGMix2 #1595]

When he not busy teachin' the lil' chilluns, Daniel Cabrera has some time to create remixes that show he obviously knows a lot more than disco. It's just that "Proficient At Many Genres Dan" doesn't have the same ring to it (or maybe it would if his name was Peter). "Swizzle Swamp" is the 5th in Dan's series covering the NES title Blaster Master, and Disco's last VGMix release of his Blaster Master soundtrack remix project. DD's promises to have the rest of the Blaster Master project available at DiscoDan.org when the remaining few tracks are completed and he's situated at his new space. Whereas earlier releases like "Into the Blue" and "Direct Current Trance" have touched the synth/orchestral and dance areas, this latest one brings you on the hip-hop side, sounding a lot like a collab with DCT than a solo shot. So sit down and check it out. After hearing a magnum opus like "Triforce Majurate," maybe you need to slow things down.

DistantJ - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening "Wind Fish Enigma" [VGMix2 #1550]

Cool stuff as DistantJ initially runs his intro over running river sounds and bird noises, moving into electronic stuff while retaining the birds for that little extra depth. As the countermelody came in around the 1 minute mark, I found myself feeling the mix more. The melody is simple but something one can easily enjoy, and its foundation kept the track fairly good as more elements came into play moving further along. J gradually transitions to more of a standard dance/electrosynth type lead and retains almost a minimalist quality there. Overall, it's pretty good stuff that caught my attention. The mastering could be a little tighter, IMO, and it's something he needs to work on in general, but, with "Wind Fish Enigma," Distant continues to show improvement with a mix that shows potential and sounds worthy of consideration for OCR.

Doragon - Super Mario World 2 "Cavernous Muzak" [VGMix2 #1418]

Perhaps Yoshi's Island's most remixed music, Doragon takes on Koji Kondo's "Underground BGM" in a trance/electronica style. Some of the stuff, primarily the percussion, needs to be varied up, but otherwise the arrangement is up there, featuring the source tune in a different style as well as the all-important freeform sections. I really enjoyed the stylistic and tempo changes throughout, which feature some slick transitions and (siempre bueno) chiptune action! Great job by Dorangon combining horns and strings with electronica for some tight work with loads of potential. Fans of McVaffe's "Crystalline Caverns" specifically need to give this a look so you can hear another style of coverage in action.

Freemind - "Forest Rain" [Tales from the Forest] - Feedback

Freemind will never do you wrong when it comes to his releases. In what Thanasis describes as a chillout/soul hybrid, a lot of relaxing elements come together, including bongos, a koto, laid-back bass, reverbed keyboard, a tiny bit of vibe action and much more including a nice sound sample of actual forest rain to close it out. Good stuff to sit back to and very loopable as well. Check out Freemind's consistently quality offerings at http://www.bands411.com/freemindlab.

Joshua Morse - Mega Man 5 "Boss Battle" [Megaman 5, Dashed!] - Feedback

Josh continues on with some nice laid-back covers of the entire Mega Man V soundtrack with the 18MB/20min "Megaman 5, Dashed!" In my opinion, MM5 isn't the most listenable soundtrack, as a lot Mari's tunes lack any overt hook or ear-catching memorability. Of course, it's hard to match up to the soundtrack of Mega Man II. Yet Josh does a great job infusing these tracks with his own flavor and making them pretty enjoyable with this brief, yet complete cover album, especially upon repeated listening (so don't simply grab and toss this). Morse's spin on the boss battle theme makes it here as my favorite of the album, but this has a wide array of good tracks so you may very well have your own personal, different favorite, such as "Stone Man" or "Gravity Man." Keep tabs on Josh's work, including his label, Dash Studio, at http://www.joshuamorse.com.

L. Spiro - Donkey Kong Country 2 "Lava" [VGMix2 #1641]

L. Spiro's back with the latest remastered cut from his DKC2 remix series, again going for more of a coverage approach while of course using some ideas of his own, this time with a mix of "Hot-Head Bop." This one uses reverb liberally and doesn't have much in the high-end frequencies, but the corresponding atmosphere Shawn's mix gives off is pretty surrounding at times. Replacing the original's lava bubbling for the occasional eerie vox and haunting styth lead, along with a nice piano, Spiro creates a brooding foreground that's somewhat offset by the presence of the percussion in the back.

Mark Vera - Star Control 2 "Through the Angles of Space" [OC ReMix #1190]

Jouni Airaksinen's latest OCR release is part of a group project to remix the entire Star Control 2 soundtrack. This, like all of Mark's previous SC2 submissions, is a track included in the open source fan project "Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters." Vera and 3 fellow core mixers (including Riku Nuottajärvi, an original composer for Star Control II), collectively known as "Precursors," have been working toward remixing all 69 tracks from the original game. "Through the Angles of Space" mixes "Mystic Shadows" from the original soundtrack and includes both space and ambient textures for an overall airy, mysterious feel. There are a lot of elements involved that make actively listening to the mix worthwhile, but this functions excellently as in-game background music for the Ur-Quan Masters project. Familiarize yourself with Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters via its project and Precursors music sites.

Midee & prozax w/Dave Kellogg - Lifeforce "Tactile Freefall" [VGMix2 #601 / OC ReMix #1192]

If you've never bothered to check out the soundtrack for Lifeforce, you should really snag the NSF for it. Many of Miki "Miki-Chan" Higashino's tracks are incredibly catchy and, like djp said in the writeup for this mix, many of Konami's songs translate well to rock remixes. This combination of the Stage 6 and Boss themes is an absolute remix masterpiece, much like Jason & Dan's prior OC release from Axelay, "Kick My Axe." This one's a shining example of how the remixing scene breathes new life into so much of the older game music material out there. Can't be overlooked.

moonove - Shinobi "Dark Tortoise" [OC ReMix #1191]

Thanks to Rayza, I was aware of this and played it on my show a couple of months ago, so I've been familiar with this one for a while. Short and sweet, Reynald Deliens provides us with some very relaxing material tackling Yuzo Koshiro's classic "Black Turtle" that stays fairly close to the source material yet focuses on a relaxed vibe. I know some people were complaining about this mix's direct posting at OverClocked ReMix, but that's why those people ultimately don't decide what makes it on the site. Reynald keeps it pretty chill with the many other tracks available at his site, http://www.moonove.com.

Norrin Radd - Street Fighter 2 "Go Home and Be a Family Man" [OC ReMix #1194]

I've heard this one back a few months ago and knew the mix had a decent shot at making it to OCR, which is why I was glad to see this excellent Guile mix posted this past week. Though the percussion is noticeably simplistic at times, the focus of this mix lies in the guitar, which goes for a straight cover of the source tune before finally getting into some creative freestyle sections and connecting it back at the end with hot riffs referencing the "Guile Stage" melody once again. Why GrayLightning didn't care for the name of this track beats me. If you're overly familiar with the backstory of Guile in the Street Fighter series, then this mix title is perfect. Along with Midee & prozax's "Tactile Freefall," fans of rock remixes don't need to look any further than Norrin Radd for their rock fix this week.

NoWave - Secret of Evermore "Secrets Abound" [The People's ReMix Competition 16 / VGMix2 #1471]

By NoWave's request, I'm offering up his PRC16 submission "Secrets Abound." Normally I take part as a listener and caste my vote on the entires like everyone else does. However, for that edition of PRC, I was unable to get the ZIP file of the entries in time and didn't have a chance to hear everything. It's good that NoWave hit me up asking me to check this out. This is a grandiose, even mystical-sounding, mix that's drenched in reverb (and some may have a problem with just how much reverb there is). The way everything comes together, I felt the remix title was very well-placed. One to check out for the Jeremy Soule fans among you, and a good effort from NoWave, much like his short MIDI-cover PRC11 entry from Kirby's Block Ball, "Pink is Not a Cool Colour, Man...."

Omega Xi - "Omega is to Xi as Z is to X" [http://www.omega-xi.tk] - MP3 Mirror

My pick of the week. (BTW, Xi is off to summer school!) Kristofer Dowing's best known to me as a fellow administrator at OverClocked ReMix's unofficial radio station, Ormgas.com, but he also has remix material available at VGMix and Xi's working constantly on exploring new ideas and fine-tuning his talent. Kris had me listen to this lengthy original track of his via a lo-fi Shoutcast stream a little over a week ago, and was really, really impressed by the intelligent composition and buildup throughout. The synth choices here are excellent, and this electronica easily carries futuristic space imagery. This track has passing stylistic similarities to material from OC ReMix judge and fellow ModPlug enthusiast Protricity, especially Prot's own powerful electronica mix "Savage Seduction." Xi's not yet a familiar name on the scene, but do NOT pass this up.

Ork Estral - "The Coming of the Banshee" [Mostly Ghostly] - Feedback

Nigel's at it again with his latest original. This is yet another beautiful, intelligent orchestral work of his with some occasional, subtle otherworldy overtones. I can't really say anything new about how much I enjoy his style, but I can say that you absolutely can't pass this up. Check out "Sorrows of the Devine," also released this week as well. Nearly every track available at Ork's webspace is a must-listen. Don't believe me??? Non-believer, you have much to learn.

Rexy - Final Fantasy 7 "Chinatown's Future" [VGMix2 #996]

Prominent VGMix reviewer Rexy has given her thorough opinions on literally hundreds of songs, so one would think that she has a firm grasp of what she would like to hear in her own potential work. "Chinatown's Future" marks Bev's very first release at VGMix, and displays a solid, though low-key, breakbeat rearrangement of Nobuo Uematsu's "Wutai." Though the percussion can be beefed up, along with the the melody and the support being made less subtle to the ear, this is some very promising work and one that I genuinely enjoyed, especially since I don't care much for the source tune. If you want to start releasing tracks at VGMix as a newbie, this is definitely a good way of going about it. Though she doesn't have readily available access to mixing software, hopefully Rexy will be able to hone her already developing skills with more material in the near future.

RushJet1 - Mega Man 5 (NES & Gameboy) "Deep Space Dance" [VGMix2 #1576]

RJ1 breaks off another chiptune style track with "Deep Space Dance," this time using both the NES and Gameboy versions of MM5. And while the percussion track obviously isn't straight out of the Nintendo playbook, neither is the SID chip countermelody used at the end of this mix either! Pretty straightforward stuff, yet something that you'll enjoy if you're a fan of those vintage sounds or the Mega Man 5 soundtrack. If you don't know the MM5 soundtrack well, maybe Joshua Morse's aforementioned album can make you a convert, and subsequently connect you more to RushJet's Starman mix (though the portion that covered the Game Boy's Uranus level was good as well). Rush has also got plenty of original and remix NSF tracks available at his site, http://rushjet1.2ya.com.

Shael Riley - "Hats Off to Lobachevsky" [http://lobachevsky.homelinux.net/~sriley] - Feedback

Enjoy this cheesy old-school-style blues ballad by Shael Riley as he croons his love for Lobachevsky, his file server, and might I add the hottest file server ever. I don't really need to say anything beyond that. Pass the cheddar.

trickwaters - Final Fantasy 7 "The Cry of the Planet" [VGMix2 #1619]

Pat Waters. FF7. Piano. 9 minutes, 14 seconds.

If you need more than that, well, this 2001 remix was revised over time into what's now currently available at VGMix, and features 4 different FF7 source tunes. trick does a nice job of playing around with the structures of the original songs with the composition. This is an excellent (and at times, somber) medley piece, yet the transitions are smooth and subtle enough so that the medley approach doesn't merely come off as an overdone gimmick that all too many remixers use when tackling Final Fantasy series material. Clocking in at over 9 minutes and 13MB, you can virtually be assured that this will never see the light of day on OC ReMix, so if you piano remix fans don't want to miss out you've gotta make that move and pick this up. And if you have the stamina per se to actively listen to the entire mix in one sitting, then more power to you. Real utimate power.

Unknown - "Call of the Horizon" [CompoST 6 / SoundTempest]

Tying for second place in SoundTempest.net's CompoST 6 (sad themes) this past March, this original composition by Ty Heath made its way to the main site this past week as a mystic town/village style piece. An acoustic guitar, a flute and the piano all shine as the main melodic elements in a very appropriately constructed situational piece that's as high quality as any RPG music out there today. Let Ty create your game music. Pay him $.

Yoozer - Jurassic Park (SNES) "Isla Nublar Jam" [http://www.deadamerica.org] - Feedback

We've got a healthy dose of the Netherlands courtesy of Yoozer with this HOT Jurassic Park remix that SgtRama got me aware of. It's currently on the OCR judges' panel awaiting its fate, where, frankly, it will have to rely on the tender mercies of people like Protricity & Vigilante in order to make it. I don't believe it's chances of being posted are good, simply because of the repetitive nature of the percussion (1 break - 1 fill), but this is nonetheless an attention-grabbing mix with a lot of things going for it, especially the cool-sounding keyboard lead. Yoozer may be revising this with a little more time, so your feedback is greatly encouraged. Even though, in my opinion, it won't make it to OCR as is, this is a fun track you may really be feeling. DL it quickly and be able to say you've heard it.

On the WIP front, 2 of zircon's are getting more and more in the complete stages: a Final Fantasy 2 shot (since that game doesn't get much coverage compared to others in the FF series) along with some River City Ransom st00f that fighting game combo video maker Mike Z enjoyed! Doragon's also got a nice electronica Battletoads & Double Dragon mix in the works as well.

kuroikaze, everyone's favorite easily-irritable Japanese-speaking Canadian woman over at Ormgas, had been very, VERY critical of Spekkosaurus, with probably as much disdain as one could have for any remixer whatsoever. While a lot of people love "The Trial in Concert," she's probably the song's most outspoken critic. Spekk finally showed up recently to (calmly) address the criticism and give his side of how he views his OC ReMix work. Feel free to check out the thread (and register at Ormgas if you're interested in contributing your two cents on the subject).

It's been kind of light on the "miscellaneous developments" side over the past week, but I take this as a opportunity to quickly escape and return next week. Comments are welcome. Be back here in 7, please.

[Dhsu]

JigginJonT had the foresight (i.e. gall) to make sure that if I had my own forum at Ormgas.com I'd be open for plenty of the Larry-bashing that makes VG Frequency such an enjoyable experience for all. Register at Ormgas and drop by your insults at the official Larry Oji hate thread. Because I LOVE to hear what you bastards have to say. I hate you, Jon. And because I hate all of you out there so much, it's time to once again use some of my free time this week to look around the remix community for tracks so you don't have to. What the hell was I thinking?

Haha...you know we love you, Larry. Oh, and thanks for the pimp last week.

[Liontamer]

I luvz you too, Dhsu. [hugz]

And for anyone reading, any comments on what you liked or disliked from the Pimp Sections are encouraged. Who knows? Maybe I'm picking some real stinkers.

[NoWave]

NoWave - Secret of Evermore "Secrets Abound" [The People's ReMix Competition 16 / VGMix2 #1471]

By NoWave's request, I'm offering up his PRC16 submission "Secrets Abound." Normally I take part as a listener and caste my vote on the entires like everyone else does. However, for that edition of PRC, I was unable to get the ZIP file of the entires in time and didn't have a chance to hear everything. It's good that NoWave hit me up asking me to check this out. This is a grandiose, even mystical-sounding, mix that's drenched in reverb (and some may have a problem with just how much reverb there is). The way everything comes together, I felt the remix title was very well-placed. One to check out for the Jeremy Soule fans among you, and a good effort from NoWave, much like his short MIDI-cover PRC11 entry from Kirby's Block Ball, "Pink is Not a Cool Colour, Man...."

Oh hey, wow, begging actually worked.

*huggles larry*