Rexy Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 This track is a resub of a Direct Rejection from May 2019 - hence the prefix. -Rexy Name: Michael Hudak Game Arranged: The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time Songs Arranged: Zelda's Lullaby (plus a bit of Prelude of Light at the very start and last final minute) ReMix Title: Princess's Narcan Sources: Notes: I know the main source for this is first heard in A Link to the Past...but several other remixes of it are listed under OoT, and that's when I first heard it, too, so I'm going with the flow in that regard! This is a resubmission from probably 2 whole years ago now, and partially inspired by the music of Lorenzo Senni, who uses supersaw synths (and almost nothing else) that act as both percussive and melodic instruments. I used layers of supersaws detuning themselves at various rates, slammed through compressors with various thresholds to try to make something percussive and almost overwhelmingly (painfully?) heavy/intense. This is maybe the 4th or 5th version of this track, and I hopefully found a happy medium between good production value and extremely abrasive sounds. I wanted the compression to almost sound like gunshots, like the drum & cymbal crashes in a modern rock album. Very whalloping and heavy. It's a heavy issue... Narcan is a drug that's used almost to instantaneously treat opioid overdoses. The opioid abuse crisis in the United States has been on my mind fairly regularly since 2017, and I think on the minds of many, many others. In the US, and especially in places like Philadelphia, where I live, it seems that "everybody knows somebody"; no one I'm close to is more than 2 degrees removed from either a struggle with the stuff already in progress, or a previous struggle that had a happy or sad ending. This song has a female protagonist, and she is in a very bad situation, but she lives to fight another day. The start of the song is an altered piece of the end of the song, representing a vicious cycle. I don't want to say explicitly that this remix represents an overdose and overdose reversal, but it intentionally goes through 3 different plateaus of intensity, and then a gradual "coming back to life" coda. I was hesitant to have a song from a (very popular) game provide the structure to a piece relating to drug abuse, thinking that it might trivialize or add inappropriate undertones to the issue. In the end, though, I think game music is more than respected enough to be used as a viable, honest weapon to fight against this kind of thing, and hopefully a song made for OCR (with an aesthetically sensational title) will add a couple of heart containers to *someone* out there fighting their battles. Alternatively, you can, of course, ignore the title and meaning and just try to enjoy the song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted October 9, 2020 Share Posted October 9, 2020 (edited) I absolutely adore Michael's other experimental or "musique concrete" submissions, but this one, I just don't know. Maybe I'm just not getting what's being done here, but it sounds very messy to me and not in a good way. The timbres sound very vanilla and the heavy compression/distortion just makes them sound crushed and broken rather than stylistic. I'm also having trouble hearing enough source; I would need to do a timestamp to make sure there's enough. But my impression of this is that it is jarring rather than entertaining. I'll be very interested to see what other judges think. NO Edited October 9, 2020 by Chimpazilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 I’m in the same camp here as Kristina. There is a lot of distortion across the soundscape, of the non-pleasing variety. For this to work, there needs to be a focus on warm saturation without the harshness. The higher intermittent lead parts are particularly harsh and should be toned down. The arrangement also feels a bit jumpy, and while I’m sure there is a methodology at play here — notes are left feeling like they’re hit at random intervals. I think this one could do with a further rethink to bring it in-line production and arrangement wise. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 hoooooooo boy. i'm going to start off with saying that there's not enough arrangement or interpretation here to call this a remix. so it's going to get NO'd from that. the arrangement is essentially two or three times through the melody with some background movement. it has no supporting structure to prop that up, and it isn't transformational enough by itself to stand on its own. so that's not there. this is an extremely explorational arrangement that features some great technique-driven composition, and isn't afraid of really settling into the story behind the music. i really like the significant attention paid to rhythmic elements throughout - you've got a ton of interesting polyrhythms in here with how you're layering duple and triple meter alongside the deconstructive/detuning elements. it makes for a track that feels really thrown together at first but then comes together on repeated listenings. i also really like the hyper-compressed sharper synths that come in right at 1:00. it's a huge contrast to the supersaw you're using for the main body of the mix and it adds a lot of vibrancy to the sound. the entire 'big' section is pretty interesting and i love the sfx and timbres you're able to pull out of everything. sitting on the fake static at 1:55 is also a pretty big leap of faith as well but i really enjoyed the timbral changes throughout to the ending section. my biggest complaint is that it just isn't long enough. if this was ten minutes long (yes, ten!), and featured some more transformational arrangement, while still maintaining the cyclical identity you talk about in your intro writeup, this is probably a yes from me. the level of exploration and development shown in barely three minutes is great. i think that really, really pressing into the identity you have created here and using a level of subtractive arrangement that you see in, like, strobe (deadmau5) with your instrumentation would make something so incredibly unique and moving. as it is, the arrangement precludes me from OKing it. but there's a lot of opportunity here. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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