Liontamer ⚖️ Posted October 7 Posted October 7 Artist Name: Argle Note: this is for VQ's unofficial Halloween album Well, this one has some history. First, the game. DK64 is a title I have very nostalgic feels about, even though I've never completed more than half of the stages and, in all honesty, I have no interest in returning to it because it's kind of a bad game haha. Now you may say, why have I made at least 2 remixes of a game I don't really like? The thing about it is it cast some kind of freaky spell on me. Back in 1999 the graphics looked AMAZING, and of course the magical soundtrack of Grant Kirkhope got its hooks in me. And even though I find the gameplay grindy, repetitive and annoying, I think about it often! It's weird. Second, the arrangement. I've had the general idea in my head to do since, no joke, 2007 or so. The idea has always been, a Pendulum-style drum n bass take on Frantic Factory. Every 5 years or so I give it an attempt, it falls flat because I can't get a vibe I like and I abandon it. Enter this year, Vodou Queen pitched the idea of an unofficial Halloween album, which I thought was a GREAT idea. I enjoy getting in on the Christmas albums when I can, and I like the vibes of Halloween even more than Christmas. And right away I thought of this track and thought... what if the original drum n bass idea, but plastered full of tropey spooky & horror sounds? Just overtly a bit goofy at times. As it turns out the Halloween album was just the thing I needed to crystallize the idea for this song. So here we have it. Like some of the other long-abandoned tracks I've revisited this year and finished, I'm actually so glad I failed at this in the past, because this is a far better execution than I'd have gotten back then. And in this case I had nothing at all to build from before, it's all new stuff. So yeah, a track with real history for me, something I'd kinda written off ever having a shot of making. Games & Sources
prophetik music ⚖️ Posted October 20 Posted October 20 opens with some sfx and some arpeggiated chords. opening lead has some nice vibrato buzz to it which i like a lot. there's an extended build with a pretty big pop at the end leading into 1:19's initial chorus, and the pendulum inspiration is really obvious right away at that point. the single snare strike as a fill at 1:43 is on every pendulum album ever. there's a big drop at 2:05, and a downtempo section starting at 2:18 that's got a great groove - hats here have some great quant to give it a great shuffle. this entire section really is another disguised build for the chorus section at 2:52. there's a short drop and final chorus before we get into the extended outro material with a recap of the opening. a lot of reverb and some sfx, and it's done. this is a quick, fun approach to the original. i appreciate the focus and direction - it feels much shorter than the four-minute runtime as you spend most of the time building into short chorus sections. i wouldn't have minded the big sections having a bit more verve to them, but what's here is enjoyable. the mix feels pretty solid and i don't have issues hearing anything. nice work. YES
jnWake ⚖️ Posted October 30 Posted October 30 Ouch right in the childhood... Just like the source this begins with a winding clock SFX, but, unlike the source, we get a clean/acoustic guitar doing arpeggios after it. The chord progression makes me think of "Boss Bossanova" from DKC2 at first but the "Frantic Factory" rep kicks in quickly with a synth doing the main melody at 0:14. The guitar sample is a tad fake sounding but I'll allow it, the synth lead sounds nice. At 0:25 we have a synth doing a motif similar to the source's music box line. Percussion slowly starts to fade in until a small transition near 1:10. Rhytm kicks in strongly around 1:19 for a very rocking sound (although I'd give the bass some distortion for extra grit). Another melody joins at 1:30 and we then get a few repeats. Soundscape and samples remind me a lot of what zircon used to submit. 2:07 introduces a nice spooky break with a slower beat. 2:20 continues the slower beat with a different section from the source. At 2:40 we get another build-up with a mean piano riff. I was a bit surprised the riff didn't continue after the build-up ended but we got a cool sounding section instead regardless. At 3:15 we get a small "break" thanks to some fun filter usage but it quickly returns to full energy a few seconds later. "Boss Bossanova" returns at 3:37 as the track becomes quieter and slowly transitions into a spooky vibe with some creepy strings and laughs. Fade-out endings feel cheap at times but this was a creative way to do one. Arrangement is great here, source usage is creative but easy to identify and the song's structure is fun. There's ton of build-ups and small breaks that still keep the energy alive (I particularly liked the "filtered" section at 3:15 in that regard). As I mentioned in the comments above, it really reminded me zircon's work. Production is also great. Punchy percussion, good synth leads and the mix is very clear. If I were to be extremely nitpicky I would ask for some more aggresiveness on bass (a tad of distortion/saturation maybe?) and for the synth leads to be a little bit louder, I feel they blend into the mix a tad when they should be the highlight. Overall, excellent work! Fun arrangement that's very nicely produced. I also enjoyed the addition of "spooky tropes" all over the track, giving it a unique mood that's also fitting for the source. YES
Hemophiliac ⚖️ Posted November 3 Posted November 3 This is sweet, despite the game killing an entire genre for me as a kid. That's another subject though. The source has some very memorable parts to it being as sparse as it is. I like the fullness you've given the track to fill everything in, and take away that sparseness. It was a great choice to make it your own this way. For me the fullness is borderline as much as some of the lower frequency elements do layer in and blend together rather than be separately disparate. For example the bass, low piano, and kick drum are all in a very similar space. I couldn't tell there was a piano until much dropped out around 2:40. Maybe it was just playing there only, but I couldn't tell otherwise. Loved the 2:18 change, this was an excellent time to vary the vibe and get to the other melodic content from the source. There was a couple instances of clipping noted, but I didn't hear any audible artifacts. Interestingly, the clipping was just under 20kHz. Anyways, the arrangement is great and a very fitting inclusion to the unofficial Halloween album. Really enjoyed this. YES
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