OCRA-0080 - TimeShift: The OverClocked ReMix 25th Anniversary Album

[Liontamer ⚖️]

 

• Preview TimeShift: The OverClocked ReMix 25th Anniversary Album: https://youtu.be/TeYfsKKZ7to
• Download TimeShift: The OverClocked ReMix 25th Anniversary Album: https://timeshift.ocremix.org
• Torrent: https://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/TimeShift_-_The_OverClocked_ReMix_25th_Anniversary_Album.torrent

ABOUT THE ALBUM

When the internet literally had a sound, that of the screech and whine of a dial-up modem...

...we had OverClocked ReMix.

Older than the smartphone, before TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Myspace and LiveJournal...

...before there was even Wikipedia, and when this thing called "Google" was on training wheels...

...one fateful December night, as the world looked towards the new millennium and fretted about the Y2K bug, djpretzel started uploading a few of his musical creations based on rearranging video game music into new forms. Since then, OverClocked ReMix has been at the forefront of video game music arrangement and has stayed as the premier location for this art form for a quarter of a century. Not only does it look forward to the future with the encouragement and growth of new artists, but always has an eye turned towards the past.

As a venerable location for the creative arts, especially in regards to honoring and celebrating what would otherwise be considered transient music, the fact that OCR has lasted for so long and kept its esteemed position is testimony to its mission and the caliber of its artists keeping its flame burning.

In January 2024, so as to celebrate the impending 25th anniversary, the challenge was laid down to make an album that took the focus away from the old, though well-loved, stalwarts of OCR and focused instead on the VGM younger than the site, to rearrange the new classics and to make new discoveries. Those who signed up for the album and were older than the site were forbidden from submitting work primarily from a source pre-dating OCR.

That's not to say that the old classics haven't made it onto here, because what's a 25th birthday party without some greatest hits? So, in the spirit of reimagination, a few old classics have made it onto here primarily thanks to the work of the younger-than-OCR artist JSABlixer.

A foreign time period of sources was set upon foreigners, to create a new nostalgia. A real TimeShift.

As the album progressed in its short timeframe, I was particularly struck by the spirit of collaboration and support that has been the hallmark of the OCR community. Everyone lifted each other up and, through our sheer determination, we present to you our celebration album.

This is OverClocked ReMix at 25 years of age. We were here.

Whether you take this album as a mere mile-marker or the source of inspiration for the next great work, the arrangers and I hope you enjoy this selection of ReMixes. Here's to the next 25 years!

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

I've long been a fan of OverClocked ReMix, discovering it back in the frontier days of the pre-social media web. As an artist, I've always been attracted to the post-modern paradigm of taking something and repurposing it: and here OCR does it with my favorite musical medium, that of the video game soundtrack. Despite my eagerness for the site's mission, I long held myself back from taking part in its community out of fear that my music and my knowledge was far too inferior. This was much to my detriment when this community is about building each other up.

Second to this, I've disciplined myself to listen to OCR's entire catalog chronologically. For many years, my listening collection never went beyond the days of "classic" OCR, back when the mission of the site was still very experimental, the OCR album was rare, and each ReMix felt more definitive because its post-modern upcycling hadn't been done until that point in time. As I write, I am only just reaching the halfway point through listening to the entire catalog.

So, once I came out of my time capsule and took a more active part in the community, and armed with my knowledge of ReMixes of yore, I wanted to give something back to the artistic movement that continues to inspire me. In all honesty, the album idea of taking older ReMixers and getting them to ReMix VGM newer than the site, and vice-versa, was a shower thought. So when I put forward the idea of the album to the community, I quickly realized another tenet of OverClocked ReMix: own the idea and make it happen.

The call went out and soon it was answered. Suddenly, I found myself directing an album, and it has been a learning process for me. I've seen myself more as a facilitator rather than a director, with fellow artists being the moderators for the album's content. Ultimately though, decisions about the music must fall upon the person in charge. Knowing that it has been a race against time to try and make one of the site's anniversaries has fueled much of the drive for the album. It's not had the time to bake for years like some of the venerable, classic albums. The music is immediate and, in some cases, experimental.

But that has been one of the great draws of OverClocked ReMix for me: the experimentation of the medium of video game music arrangement. I wanted to capture some of that nostalgic energy that underpins much of the older portions of the OCR catalog. And so, that's why the album is split into three parts, each named after an old color of a previous iteration of the OCR website in tribute, and headed by one of JSABlixer's ReMixes of an old classic. The honor of leading the album was given to our special guest artist, Mega Ran, and the album itself is bookended with a ReMix of a remix for a truly post-modern twist. Truly, it is my hope that in doing this I've been able to pay tribute to the continuum of the past quarter-century.

It has been a great honor and privilege to direct this album. My thanks go to my fellow artists for their hard work on their submissions and support, to Chris Kohler for mastering the album, to the judges and sages for their guidance, to the community for their faith in me, and to you, the listener, for taking the time to celebrate with us OverClocked ReMix at 25 years.

-Dyluck