Homo Pocket

Definitely a fantastic take on Nilsen's - 'After the Storm'. The first word that immediately popped into my head while listening to Gray's Ecco 'mix for the first time was the word "epic". Graylightning, the crafty lad that he is, managed to take the shortest theme from the original Ecco the Dolphin CD and crafted a much longer and more epic sounding masterpiece. The bells, strings, wind chimes, flute, percussions, and pizzicato strings really stand out and all come together quite beautifully throughout the song. This mix is 'epically hypnotic' OR 'hypnotically epic' - are those even Words?? Bah, doesn't matter! See what I mean, Music so good it has you making up phrases!

Gotta say that this is by far my favorite Orchestrated theme from Graylightning. I love the flow of the entire piece, it starts off great and manages to maintain the momentum till the end, very very smooth. My favorite part of the piece is definitely how he used the choir sounds, WOW! The strings are really good to. Too bad there weren't any phat tekno beats along with samples like: "You make me feel soo goood, feel sooo good."

What are Soundfonts and where can I download them???

STAR OCEAN REMIX: Now here's a mix that took me by surprise, and I LOVE mixes that do that. Having never played or heard any of the original tracks from the game I wasn't burdened with the task of having to listen for familiarities between the two, so with that I could just sit back and enjoy the music AND BOY DID I EVER! Even though it was the name of an old game programming book, I think "Flights of Fantasy" would be a more appropriate name for the mix as it evokes the feeling of flight through a fantasy world. I would DEFINITELY love to hear this song in a future Panzer Dragoon game as it sounds like the perfect compliment for the game. The composition itself is quite SOUND. I love the fact that the drums/percussion aren't overbearing and the bass is very smooth and purposeful. I say purposeful cause it actually plays an important role in this song rather than just being there just to be there. I absolutely love the melody, it's quite beautiful. Although Schala has always been my #1 favorite Graylightning remix, part of me has this one ahead, while the other half of me is clinging onto Schala as #1, so I guess they'll both share the #1 spot. Amazing Work! Thanks for submitting it! ***The preceeding announcement was NOT brought to you by the NEW WORLD ORDER***

Having followed Graylightning's Video Game remixing career for a while now I can easily say that this is my second favorite mix of his. Schala: Memories lost in time will remain #1 for a long aZZ time, but it's great to hear other very high quality mixes of his trying to steal the championship crown away from Schala. I'm not familiar with the OSV from the game so this remix was my first exposure to the song at all. Regardless, I found it VERY highly enjoyable right from the get-go. There was no 2 hour build-up, it was immediate gratification! I originally went in with no expectations at all and ended up being floored by the beautifully ethereal intro that featured an angelic sounding choir accompanied by a very catchy bassline. I particularly found the bassline, drums, and percussions to be most impressive mainly because these were areas Graylightning showed limitations in with past remixes, but now, after locking himself in a closet with only the best of Spencer Nilsen bass, Drums, and percussions to listen to, Graylightning's skill with the above mentioned instruments has grown quite noticably. The sound quality is pretty high quality with a wide range of top notch sounding instruments coming together to build a beautiful mix. The strings sound really nice, accompanied by some cool, distant sounding bells that were soaked nicely with reverb. I really enjoyed the song's progression to, not a boring or noticeably repetitive moment throughout the entire 3:41 of the song. I love this style, I'd love to see Graylightning continue to explore this particular style as it is quite upbeat and catchy!

For days I've been experiencing some sort of mental/reviewer's block when it came to trying to review this song and today it finally became clear to me why! During my first few listens of this song, I have no bloody idea why or what drugs I was side stream smoking the past few days but I thought the song sounded alot like a medley. With Medleys the structure doesn't remain consistent and changes often to introduce various other parts. I thought the song elements changed quite a bit during the mix and I just couldn't put my finger on the song well enough to formulate an opinion of it. BUT then today I listened to the song and it sounded like 1 smooth flowing complete song to me, lol... Guess my brain's a little wiser today. Everything about it sounds really high quality. Loved the sparkling intro with the very nice rhythmic percussive clicks. The processing on that Shakahuchi-mama instrument sounds pretty good, I'm tempted to infiltrate Graylightning Headquarters and steal them! The intro just kicks a whole lotta a$$! I don't know what that instrument is that's playing the soft distant melodies alongside the beautiful strings but I kept rewinding the mini-disc just so I can keep experiencing it over and over again. It's pretty dreamy and gives off a wonderfully distant feel, almost like you're escaping into the sewers, err, I mean clouds! Loved the atmospheric nature of the song with its many multi-ethnic influences. The echoing Panzer Dragoon voice samples are very well placed throughout the song and add very nicely to the song's dreamscape style. As a huge fan of bells and catchy melodies I was very pleased to see, err hear that both went hand in hand in this mix. The one word I can think of that describes this mix is the word MAGICAL... Once again, my only gripe would be that this song doesn't have the PHAT TekNo BeAts and sub-woooFa destroying Bass that a real remix needs!!!! (kidding!)

If the mix is incomplete then so is the original soundtrack The original was 33 seconds long and ended the same way as this mix Anyways, definitely my favorite Sonic coverage! I remember renting the import Sonic CD way back during the good old days of Die Hard Gamer's Club and I considered the title screen track the best piece of music I heard during that entire year!

I really liked this theme! I'm not familiar with the orginal theme from the game but as a general music lover I thought the mix hit all the right notes (pun intended) providing the feeling of peace and serenity to the atmosphere. I always love to envision some thick myserious foggy settings whenever I hear atmospheric songs like this. Doctors should consider paying to use this song to calm the mind of their patients as I truly believe it could do just that. I could list all the great things I love about this mix but that would take too long. OH what the hell! Really dig the part that starts at the 1:21 mark. With beautifully sweeping strings and bells that eventually evolve into something with a little more dramatic flair to them. The 1:48 - 1:56 part felt like one of the very nice climax moments of the song when things just hit a peak and then reverted to calmness again. Fortunately this song knows when to move on so it doesn't become stagnant. It's a continuously moving piece with a melody that's on viagra. The intros and endings were also well done. I really liked the sudden nature of the intro. Instead of slowly building an opening,it just burst onto the scene without warning. All in all, I absolutely LOVE the samples coming from his Service Merchandise $49.95 + tax Casio Keyboard! Totally kick@$$!!! My only complaint with this mix is the fact that it isn't Techno... ALL remixes should be done in Techno, utilizing nothing greater than the default sounds of a Soundblaster 16, nothing more, nothing less!

I agree with Metasquares.. Samples take a FARRR backseat in comparison to composition in my opinion.. I felt the piece was pretty darn nice, I dug the whole thing..

Like I've said before it's aboOt bloody damm time this song made the rounds at OverClocked Remix. I had the great priveledge of hearing this song a while back and was utterly blown away by it.. So surreal, peaceful and emotional.. To me it's definitely one of the top tier mixes of all the mix sights out there! Be forewarned though, just like Konega said, Graylightning is moving up fast in the remixin/arrangin world and will drop ya on yer azz wit hiz mixin skillz if he hasn't already done so!!!!

I much preferred this song arranged instead of remixed and I'm incredibly happy with the results here. EXCELLENT work lad... Very nice and soothing atmosheric mood, I really loved the nice catchy ending you added. I quickly downloaded this song once I read the "Blue Vision" name part and thought it could be a reference to the underwater level, which to me was the absolute best theme in the game. I guess the whole Remix vs. Arranged argument will be around for a long time to come but it's my belief that not all game tunes lend themselves to being remixed well as opposed to being arranged well. Somethings I just think shouldn't be changed so much and should fall into a image album/arranged territory.. I guess the only time I really like something remixed completely is if the original game theme wasn't so hot to begin with and the remixer has an idea of how to save that particular song with a remix.

LOL... Yes that or something similar like- "I would have really preferred "real" instruments, but I was short on cash so I had to settle on borrowing you from your Junior High School band class."

When it's in quotes does that mean that the word REAL INSTRUMENTS refers to the sounds one can get from a Casio Keyboard from Service Merchandise?

DJPretzel, how dare you mispell the name of a GOD!!! It's 'NILSEN' .. Repent NOW!!! Anyways the mix at hand is beautifully smooth and sets a nice fantasy-like atmospheric mood...(Yes I said that ) LOVE the Pads n Synths!

I seem to be in the minority here but I liked the theme a good deal.. The minute I heard it my imagination was warped into some dark corridor in a First Person style view point.. On its own I'll admit that I felt the mix needed a little bit more to get extended play in my Walkman/Discman But in a game this mix would be JUST RIGHT..