OCR03176 - *YES* Batman (GB) 'Kaikuluotain'

[Palpable]

Hello, here's a submission of an arrangement from the Game Boy 25th Anniversary EP project for consideration as an individual release.

ReMixer & real name: Eino Keskitalo
forum id: 20708

ReMixer name: Tuberz McGee
Real name: Callum Kennedy
forum id: 44165

Names of games arranged: Batman: The Video Game (Game Boy)
Name of Arrangement: Kaikuluotain
Names of individual songs arranged: Title screen music
Source:

Showroom Dummy picked the title screen music from Game Boy Batman for People's Remix Compo round 259. It was completely nuts for me to take part in PRC in December 2013, since the Final Fantasy Crystal Clash tournament was ongoing at the same time and I basically had to skip sleep to participate in that already. The thing was, I was inspired by the source to pick up the guitar and learn the riffs, they were easy and fun to play. I offered to collab with my modest playing ability. Then it seemed there would be no entries otherwise, I thought screw it, I'll make a track.

I used my FFCC round 2 tune as a template to speed things up and ended up with a remarkably different sounding tune. I also tried to save time by recording the guitar directly to the mic jack of the laptop thinking "it'll be nice and lo-fi!" Garbage. I did feel I got some The Cure influence in there with all the chorus stuff going on.

Anyway, I got some good feedback from the compo, mainly about clarity in mixing & arrangement. Then I took the track to the workshop forum and got absolutely amazingly great feedback from TheReverend, which I can't thank for enough (just look at this: http://ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=950191&postcount=2). The overall structure basically needed an additional part to be complete.

When the Game Boy 25th Anniversary Project was re-started as a quick completion EP production, I thought "this is the opportunity to get that track finished!" I mean, deadlines are great: compo deadlines help me get started on arrangements, and album deadlines make me finish them. Why not combine the two? Genius. Ahem. I added the part TheReverend had suggested, with now much greater recording fidelity. As always, I can't really play the guitar - I only assemble guitar parts, and especially the solo at 1:45-2:19 is spliced up from the best bits of four different takes, making up new phrases from the combinations of what I actually played. Major cheating (at least would be in DoD), but I'm quite proud of it none the less. The old guitars also took a lot of editing for timing & EQ:ing for clarity.

I got great steering and feedback from the directors mr. Strader & mr. Mourey; Alex suggested asking Tuberz to come on board for some additional guitar: our third (or fourth, if you count Shell Shockers) collab has him delivering some absolutely searing superfuzz soloing at 1:11 & 3:08, plus some padding/doubling work at 1:28-1:44 & 2:19-2:52. Oh and the starting mooing noise is also his playing slowed way down. Big thanks once again to Callum for excellent contributions on a short notice!

Again thanks to Rondo and Pleiade for borrowing me recording & guitar equipment; also thanks once again to my fiancé Pirjo, ever my creative advisor, for the best insights and zero-sugared critique, for this and all other music I make. I'm glad I got pretty big thumbs up for this from her.

And now a word from mr. McGee:

"Eino approached me to work on the track and given our excellent track record I happily accepted. I threw some leedle leeds and meedle meeds and it somehow worked out."

I dare say it worked out fantabulously, as always!

Source breakdown:

0:00-0:05 starting noises
0:05-0:38 intro from source (source 0:00-0:20; the chord changes/bass used)
0:38-0:46 main riff introduced (source 0:21-0:34; the "guitar" riff used)
0:46-1:03 main melody as a guitar solo (source 0:34-1:00; the lead & chord changes used)
1:04-1:11 main riff an octave higher
1:11-1:28 original soloing I guess! a small bit of the main riff at 1:26-1:28 (also uses the same chord changes as the main melody has)
1:28-1:45 back to intro
1:45-2:02 main riff -based solo with the guitar chords following intro
2:02-2:18 solo goes original; guitar chords still from intro
2:18-2:52 back to intro
2:52-3:00 main riff
3:00-3:17 main riff continues; guitar lead to the right based on the main melody
3:17-3:18 main riff still plays a bit
3:18-3:25 no source

That's all! Cheers,
--Eino

Edited July 16, 2015 by djpretzel

[Palpable]

Pretty unique combination of sounds here: lo-fi Cure-style guitar, bitcrushed beats, and chip sounds. It's amazing how many songs I listen to as a part of my job as a judge, yet still hear some new combinations. The sound isn't perfect - there's a little too much distortion and the guitar doesn't slot into the soundscape as nicely as it could - but I like what I'm hearing. The creative instrumentation coupled with a cool arrangement adds up to a pass despite the issues I hear.

YES

[Flexstyle]

Super creative combo of stuff, I love what you've done with the source (dat groove tho). I almost feel like the drums could have been fattened up some more with some different samples alongside the chippy stuff, but it works well enough as-is. Playing is good, arrangement is catchy, and there's nothing I can say that would prevent this from getting passed in my eyes. 

 

YES

[Jivemaster]

Lots of great riffing throughout, and an enjoyable mix overall. This team-up seems to be getting stronger and stronger. Solid source usage and some great interpretation of the original. A couple of points to raise are - I believe the drums could've been louder and/or stronger, particularly as the song picked up and more elements dropped into the mix. The other thing is the low end could have done with a little more cleaning up - the bass blends in a little too well with the bottom end and gets lost periodically, and the kick drum gets walked over. I don't think these things are enough to stop this mix though as all the other elements are easily audible, but something to consider for future tracks especially when you're working with more lofi sounds, they can get lost easily.

 

YES

[Clem]

Sweet rearrangement. cool deconstruction of the cartoonishly badass drop section from the original. You capture the brooding nature of the dark knight, but the style stays comic-book in lofi percussion, over-the-top guitar sounds, retro synth patches, all mixed with finesse. Can't complain.

 

YES