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VG Frequency: U Love VGM

Liontamer

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Should Larry bring back VGF as OCR's podcast?  

235 members have voted

  1. 1. Should Larry bring back VGF as OCR's podcast?

    • Yes
      9
    • [b][size=7]YES[/size][/b]
      103
    • Larry's merely part of the establishment now (i.e. yes)
      15
    • Yes, as this promotes affirmative action
      10

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Liontamer Grand Master

Liontamer

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As the poll for who the sexiest OCR judge (other than me of course) keeps heating up, we continue pimping it up with summer material to cool you off, checking out the week from June 5th to June 11th:

ABG - Final Fantasy 10 "Prayer" [VGMix2 #4333]

As far as “Song of Prayer” remixes go, no one's ever really done anything much with transposing the melodies of the popular Song of Prayer vox into synth or instrumental music. And, unfortunately in my opinion, this is also not one of those cases. But if you're ok with some wholly original material being integrated with the Song of Prayer vox, and many people out there are, then you'll have absolutely no problem with ABG's latest release. This is yet another lengthy release from Shawn, clocking in at just under 8 minutes, and the trance ideas here are relatively basic but still well put together. The mixing could be a bit cleaner, but you can play this in a rave and shake your butt, so check it out if you have friends that also wanna take part in shaking their asses.

BogusRed - Final Fantasy 7 "Beyond Midgar" [OC ReMix #1363]

Ah, "Beyond Midgar." I'm so familiar with this one after so long that's it was almost strange to finally see it up on OC in all it's 88-key glory. After Ms. Susie Sahim got this one passed by the panel, djp along with many of the NOs pushed for something that would address some of the more glaring problems in this one, because while the arrangement was hot, there were some nagging hissing issues, as well as a pretty flat atmosphere, and a couple of notes with no releases, which is poison in terms of creating something that's remotely authentic-sounding. So I had the task of corresponding with Susie in order to keep her up to speed with revision suggestions and nudging her about the status of the mix. Once the summer kicked in and school wrapped up, everything was good to go from Susie's end, and you get this lengthy, beautiful and flowy solo piano coverage of the Final Fantasy VII Main Theme. Good stuff that the people are already fawning over (as if you couldn't guess).

Chronblom - Rupert and the Ice Castle "Latin Wonderland Mix" [R:K:O #2690]

It's as if we're required to have Latin-themed music represented every week somehow this summer. Chronblom of C64 scene fame offers up a quick one from the obscure Rupert and the Ice Castle with a mix that features some lead strings, acoustic guitars, spicy percussion, nice accordion (say wha?) and a pretty fakey piano. The mixing is a bit loud and rough and the piano in particular ain't bringing it, so I felt this one needed some more work before its release. But check this one out for a decent attempt at a European Spanish vibe, as the arrangement was fairly interesting.

chthonic - Tetris 1 "Linear Groove" [VGMix2 #4293]

Ben Briggs drops some beats alongside his blocks with this Tetris mix that takes more of a rhythmical and expansionist-style approach toward the source material. If you've ever wanted to hear Russian folk music given the funk treatment (and God knows I have), then you need not wait any longer. Sample-wise I was a bit underwhelmed as I felt the synths could have been played around with further via effects to create more unique textures. At the same time, I also felt the piece dragged on a little bit, but the ideas here are solid, so it's definitely worth the time to check out. I'd personally rather see some more done with this, but Ben's at the skill level where he could get this to OCR level, which I think would be quite a treat.

Corran - Megaman X5 "X's Lament" [VGMix2 #4296]

If want a man who knows how to make nice chillout music, Bryan is your man. The overall presentation here is relatively understated, much like DarkeSword's own "The Father of All" except even more so. That's even more of a surprise to me given how ominously this track felt like it would be during the intro. While the strings here sounded pretty fake, Bryan did a good job of not exposing his samples easily, allowing the casual listner to hear how relatively well all of the elements blended together. While it's a bit too active and upbeat to completely immerse yourself in, I think it'd be a good idea to either sit down or lay down while sampling this. Close your eyes and lament along with X. You know you wanna.

DJ Mitch - Lightforce "Original Minimal Mix" [R:K:O #2717]

Making the rounds at RKO this week is this groovy beat-driven electronic offering from DJ Mitch, who plays out some steady enjoyment for you clocking in at just over 6 minutes. I can't say I know where the "minimal" moniker for this one comes from, although the sounds here are fairly standard for the genre. I wouldn't have gone for more clarity and less murk here in the presentation, but this was some solid works that makes some nice active background music. No need to scope this one out if you're looking for catchy melodies and hooks; do in fact check 'er out if you're a fan of something that paces along nicely and lays down a consistent groove.

Doron Deutsch - Bruce Lee "Acoustic Jam" [R:K:O #2705]

Hey, this is some cool shit. It's not REALLY acoustic, but this sequenced piece at least attempts to convey a genuine instrumental feel here. I never played Bruce Lee on the C64, but I'm kind of wondering how it compares to Kung-Fu and Yie-Ar Kung Fu. In any case, this has some nice twangy acoustic guitar on lead that will remind you of Vurez on some level, though Doron & Vurez are, in my mind, apples and oranges. A little bit unwieldy on the guitar sequencing, and the mastering ain't the hotness, but this had a lot going for it as just something to kick back and enjoy for it's nostalgic value. Surprisingly strong in spite of its presentation weaknesses.

Infamous - "Blood" [http://www.infamousuk.com]

Oooh, some piano-centric stuff from Infy! Given the title here, this intro obviously wasn't what I expected, so I patiently waited for the track to take some darker turns. Indeed, some woodwinds and light haunting ambience/vox joined in, along with some beats and cymbal swells. The ambient vox was mixed disappointingly low and didn't play as much of a factor as it should have, which was a critical issue, but this wasn't half-bad for something so short. The beatwork in particular held this back a bit and could have been varied up and scaled back. Checking this one out, I didn't feel that Chris needed to shoehorn this original into some sort of CastleVania or Resident Evil style, but at the same time, those soundtrack tend to be haunting and really showcase all of the instrumentation clicking together and meshing well. Admirable stuff, and I hope Infy tries this style again in the future.

Less Ashamed of Self - Rayman "Grave Task" [The People's Remix Competition v2-17]

Be frightened...LAOS has won the People's Remix Competition. Here's he goes for an upbeat mix of the Skops Battle theme with a nice tempo, some decent but otherwise effective drumwork and some pretty damn cool synth texture than help make up for the relative sparseness of the piece as well. The use of drumloops was a little bit cheesy and REALLY drew itself out too long in the middle of the track, kinda like the pieces of bread in a sandwich somehow being the best part of the sandwich. In any case, this was surprisingly catchy, so swing by Doulifeè's space and see what LAOS brought to the table for this one. And if you do not find a way, no one will.

Merino - "Search Lights" Version 1.0 [Club Party '05]

Merino, baby! Where have you been at if you haven't been checking out their original material? You know, for most of Merino's material you hear some hiss during the intro, but as soon as the music kicks in, you couldn't care less. I keep pestering Kailem to submit more remixes, but while he decides to deprive us with oh so much cruelty, you can check out this mainstream-style weirdo pop for some original sampleage. The atmosphere is a little on the sparse side, but the instrumentation and lyrics are stylish, anchored by some acoustic guitar and Kaliem's vocals. His delivery is a little bit rough, because he excels at more of a spoken word-like style such as the one used in their previous original "Filtered Water", but it's a pleasure to hear the band pump out more releases and have him get some all-important practice. Other cuts from Club Party '05 are available including another overly lengthy but still solid track "Air Balloon," as well as the lyrically impressive "Outside." Not to be missed if you're a fan of the off-kilter stuff.

mikka - X-Out "X-OUT" [R:K:O #2702]

Alright, so the name's not creative, but it's what beyond the surface that counts. mikka goes for some electronic coverage of the C64 game that first came to my attention thanks to Binster's superlative mix "LiquidX." This one features some nice electronic work tempered by some string pads and built upon about a third of the way through by a well-handled electrosynth lead and the all-important SID chip sounds. This one moves along nicely and is a good choice to while lazily attending to what you people out there call life. You kick back, enjoy the SIDtune goodness and don't come back until it's looped through four or five times. Looking to hear more engaging and active stuff from mikka that grooves a bit better (groove bias, folks), but for your money, which conveniently is $0, you're definitely in good shape if you pick this up.

Ork Estral - "Ravished Soul" [http://nigel.has.it]

Go, Nigel, go! Ork's dropping the usual excellent orchestral stuff with this dynamic, flowly piece that doesn't sound melancholy, but nonetheless makes a nice go at conveying the implied imagery of the title. What mental imagery Nigel particularly had in mind, I couldn't really say myself, but to me this was a piece that was demonstrating a soul being romantically ravished in progress rather than examining the mind of an already ravished soul. You see how emotionally deep we get around here at VGF? This piece really develops and evolves nicely, a true joy to listen to over and over again. Remember to literally clear out Nigel's webspace of everything he has available over at the now 44-tracks strong Mostly Ghostly, all available at Nigel's webspace.

PriZm f/Leonie - Xenosaga 1 "ein anderer Abschied" [VGMix2 #3719 / OC ReMix #1362]

Pascal follows up with this excellent sophomore mix from Xenosaga showing he'd no one-hit wonder. I love the crying intro here, as it's one of those ideas that's unique and sets this mix apart from all of the others at OCR. This was some excellent rock with great interplay from all of the instrumentation involved, along with some haunting soprano vocals from Pascal's friend Leonie that filled things out nicely. The composition here was very nicely done, really progressing well and gradually building the music's intensity within its 5 minutes thanks to the introduction of some militaristic beatwork along with some wailing electrik geetar. That's like...damn. Nice stuff with some sinister leanings. Don't you wish everything had these evil connotations? I know you did.

RushJet1 - "Premonition" [http://rushjet1.tk]

RJ1's our man in this scene as far it comes to representing the demoscene and chiptune-making to its finest. Here he drops some excellent (and authentic!) NSF music format material with this brief but upbeat original. The way Rush uses the capabilities of NSF to their fullest reminds me of early 1990s Nintendo soundtrack that truly made use of the 2A03 APU soundchip and pushed the NES's sounds to their limits. My only big gripe whenever I hear Rush's pieces are that they don't loop at all. Now THAT's a key area where the NSF format's capabilities need not be wasted. The file's literally only a couple of kilobytes which makes this an absolute must download. Alongside this already pimp release, RushJet keeps it going with other equally catchy stuffs like "Against Overwhelming Odds," "Sea of Memories," & "Overdrive!" Give them all that look and hear a lot for only a little bit of size. NSF enthusiasts, we love the RushJet, oh yes we do.

Sefiros - Silent Hill 2 "Under the Influence" [VGMix2 #4212]

Bryan Henderson heads back to the bread and butter of his remixing game with another Silent Hill series VGMix release. Centered around a piano, some drumwork and some subtle synth work, this actually isn't the usual fare from Sef. Things kick into gear with the melody entering in at 1:50 via a distorted lead that'll be hit or miss. The drumwork is pretty vanilla, but it's certainly serviceable. More of my focus rested on the piano and string work, which occasionally hit some odd chords that left me like "whut whut?" but hey, he was under the influence while making this one. If you wanna sample some remix material from a horror game that's not the usual spooky vox/pads/ambience combination, here's your calling.

Sephfire & pixietricks - Final Fantasy 10 "Journey's End" [VGMix2 #4325]

Try not to focus on that fakey piano opening things up, because the sample really shouldn't be exposed like that. Once things pick up though, the atmosphere is pretty good though it's way too muddy and dull, which prevents it from achieving full pimp status. Daniel Floyd's been working on this for a while, but he announced in the Works forum a while back that he had gotten Jill Goldin into the picture with her vocal talents, making this pixie's follow-up mix to her Ocarina of Time OCR debut "Prayer." Seph & pix bring the melodic ambient game here with this take on "People of the Far North" that initially left me scratching my head to make a connection, but it's there and does a good job of giving things a whole new feel through changing the time signature and creating a much more delicate, ethereal soundscape. Solid new material from both Dan & Jill that needs better production, but otherwise handles the arrangement and performance nicely.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Shnabubula - "Symbiote Funk" [indeed]

Sam's back with some dope original stuff from a new EP hosted at his site. I've always been a big fan of Sam's kooky craftsmanship, as the synthetic textures in his works are consistently top-notch. You never really hear the same instrumental combination ideas repeated twice, and in a musical world dominated by repetition and hooks, this truly manages to stand out in creativity by making sure there are tons of instrumental variations. Indeed, indeed you need to snap this up and in particular don't also miss "First Prime of Apostrophe". Glad to see Sam dropping some new original works to keep the eclectic fandom satisfied once again. He's a muzak machine.

zyko - Final Fantasy 4 "Losing Sight" [VGMix2 #4328]

YAY! weed closes out out with some solid FF kwakage for the win this week. FF4, now that's an FF soundtrack that deserves more coverage than FFVI or FFVII. The 6 minutes went by like nothing, surprisingly groovy for something with such a distorted edge. And the opening with the keyboard organ along with that subtle close with the FFIV Main Theme...dope as well! I'm still just struck by how mellow and laid-back this turns out to be in-spite of the volume and aggression here. This kind of stuff makes me proud to end the week with our resident man with a Z on the panel (fellow panelist and all-around good Z-guy zircon notwithstanding). Such an easy pickup for those who like to rock. We salute you.

That was fun-filled, y'all. Come back and see me, homies.

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Holy Warrior Azar Newbie

Holy Warrior Azar

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apparently, danny b is simply underrated, here. he's OBVIOUSLY teh s3x0r :D

i mean, come on. listen to invertabrate retreat. it doesn't get much better than his singing there. sting fans unite!

Of course, he's the fat man in the bunch. Well he's not really "fat", but compared to the others in that pic Protricity posted last year he was the biggest. I guess that makes Danny B the "Phat" Judge. :wink:

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ThatPaige Newbie

ThatPaige

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Caramella obviously smells the most. She's been living in the gutter ever since her love interest stopped broadcasting the "VG Frequency" show, whatever that is.

i don't know about that, the complex odor of Liontamer's pheromones is strong indeed...i tend to have to spray Larry down with two cans of rose-scented air freshener and wear a gas mask before i can be in the same room with him without being forced to rip my clothes off and feed him strawberries with my toes. I mean a girl has got to have some method of fortifying herself against the sinful seductive scent of Liontamer.

Someone should really bottle it, ala Donald Trump

Old Gym Shorts move over, there's a new kind of reek in town....Strong, Sensuous, and a hint of sardines..

Liontamer the scent for Real Men Who Don't Bathe.

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