Posted 2011-10-10, evaluated by djpretzel


It seems like just yesterday we were announcing our latest album, but - after many years of attempted circumnavigation - Kyle, Alan, and the entire Super Dodge Ball team have finally made it Around the World! SD:ATW is OCR's 28th album, and what better day to release & celebrate its transcontintental nature than Columbus Day! Sure, critics and naysayers might fault Columbus for bringing disease to native peoples, and the Vikings & others may have beaten him by centuries, but it still took a lot of dodgeballs to sail that far, back then, and his voyage definitely altered the course of history. I suppose Magellan, or Jules Verne, may have been just a tad more appropo, but this album has taken a lot longer than 80 days to complete its voyage, and it's about time for the grand unveiling:

Check out atw.ocremix.org for the full release & info, and please help us seed the torrent & spread the news!! For games like this, where it's not Zelda or Mario or Sonic or Mega Man, we need your help all the more in letting folks know!

Around the World has had two directors - Alan Bish set sail way back when, and Kyle stepped up in 2009 to man the helm. So you see, neither of them are the original Dread Pirate Roberts... Alan writes:

"The original concept of Around the World was to showcase and tribute the music of Kazuo Sawa by reimagining his Super Dodge Ball soundtrack in an ethnic style. Over seven years after the concept's creation, Around the World has been released! Featuring 19 tracks from 25 artists, AtW includes a wide range of musical styles from rock to hip-hop, electronica to world, trance to symphonic. This album would have never been completed without the help of co-director KyleJCrb, who stepped in in 2009 and recruited an amazing group of talented musicians from all corners of the Internet. It's my hope that everyone who listens will enjoy Around the World!"

Kyle adds:

"In March 2009, as production was wrapping up on Summoning of Spirits and release of that project was imminent, I decided to reach out to my good friend, Walan, about helping him wrap up his project, which had been languishing in development hell for quite some time. Over two years later, the project is finally complete! With 19 arrangements from 25 artists, we pay tribute to Kazuo Sawa's amazing Super Dodge Ball soundtrack with an eclectic mix of ethnic, metal, nerdcore hip-hop, new age, hardcore trance, and orchestral music. I am very proud to have assisted Walan in putting together an album that I feel is very consistent and fun to listen to. I hope everyone enjoys checking out Around the World!"

Awesome work, both of you, for seeing AtW through! It's been a long road, and at one point the Bad Dudes' (excellent) No Balls, No Glory album stole some of the SDB thunder, as we posted more than a couple mixes from it. The AtW team persevered, though, and have produced an album quite distinct from the BD's take, while every bit as enjoyable. We kick (throw?) things off with WillRock & Level 99's enthusiastic 80s synth power-rock vesion of the 'Versus Play' theme; Co-Director Walan writes:

"Two words: stadium anthem. WillRock and Level 99 bring the fury with epic, rising synth stabs and blistering solos. It's a genuine face-melter and the perfect fight music."

WillRock was the mastermind on this one, but Stevo's contributions bumped it up a notch; Will writes:

"This remix came about when Kyle asked me to remix the Versus theme for the Super Dodge Ball project. After listening to the source and realising its potential as a rock instrumental, I agreed. During the making of the track, I realised I was still being let down by rather crap drum samples, which was a shame to me, as I was convinced that with enough care it could become my best rock mix yet. Enter Level 99, who I found to also be fantastic at mastering, as well as drums. Asking him to do drums and mastering was a great idea, as he really helped this mix realise its full potential, and he even added a solo at the end, all in the space of about one day. As a result, this is, IMO, by far the best rock track I've worked on up to this point, and I hope you all agree."

I know I do; if the "WillRock" moniker hadn't yet been fully justified (doubtful), it certainly is now. Great, energetic stuff, and a perfect way to start the match & get our Around the World flood movin'! Kudos to Kyle, Alan, Will, Stevo, and everyone who contributed to make this album a success & realize the original vision of representing a variety of styles!

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 11 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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Black_Doom
on 2015-12-11 11:32:10

Nothing can go wrong when such guys as Stevo and Will write a song together. This is some serious fucking face-melting action. But you can't excpect anything else if you have blazing synths solos combined with energetic guitar blasts. The solos @ 0:37 and @ 1:23 are especially sweet. Great collab :)

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TillyFun
on 2014-06-27 14:35:04

8O

So cool. :) Has a brave feel to it.

The vibe from 0:56 to 1:08 is excellent.

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Mirby
on 2011-12-24 15:41:57

I still need to review this album...

Ahem. Wondrous arrangement of a fun track, nice counterpoint to Sixto's take on it. Applause all around! *golf clap*

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Crulex
on 2011-12-12 15:01:37

Stevo and Willrock shredding and working together on one song makes for another great track on Around The World! Amazing soloing and guitar work, and the drums sound good from the intro all the way to the end, even if it did sound kinda weird to end the ReMix on. I'm a fan of the 80's synth rock genre and I really have no complaints on this one. Nice work.

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Bahamut
on 2011-12-06 17:30:25

Sweet collab, but it's too short! It's upbeat and much more fun than you'd think of friendly fire to be. The ending is a bit of a copout too :( . Great overall though.

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WillRock
on 2011-10-14 10:18:37

Writing-wise, Will definitely DOES rock here; say what you like about drum sample issues, but the way of writing with those definitely helped bring the track to life and showed emphasis that late 80s synth rock approach to it. Stevo's solo (which I'm guessing is around 1:30 in?) also added that much of a sugar-rush for the notation heavy.

Will, I suggest you keep living up to your name and keep working with this genre should the opportunity arise again; the details are there, but with it leaving the listener hanging for more, you've really got to up that ball game (no pun intended). I know you can do it :)

Hahaha all the guitars here were mine, minus that guitar solo at the end, which was stevo. Thats the solo I was refering to in the write up. He actually contributed the Drum Samples, some drum writing, and Mastering.

As for "living up to my name" I certainly intend to do it. Unfortunately, my guitar has a very nasty habit of buzzing whenever I try and record my guitars due to electrical equipment interfering with the guitar signal, which makes doing this style extremely difficult for me. I didn't have the issue when I was at uni, but i'm currently living at home and I haven't found a good place to record my guitar there... :( So for now, doing rock music is hard. Once i've sorted out these issues tho, I'll be doing alot more rock style remixes... I am called WillRock for a reason ;)

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Rexy
on 2011-10-14 07:13:46

Hearing it as the last track featured in the trailer, I'm glad to see that this effort from both Will and Stevo made the mix flood!

Writing-wise, Will definitely DOES rock here; say what you like about drum sample issues, but the way of writing with those definitely helped bring the track to life and showed emphasis that late 80s synth rock approach to it. The theme even was picked apart and worked well in regards to the progression, and Stevo's solo (which I'm guessing is around 1:30 in?) also added that much of a sugar-rush for the notation heavy.

Even the synth work was really highlighted over; I honestly believe that that kind of empahsis is Will's main strength, and while more understated than in some of his previous works the way they used definitely provided a good lift towards the track's direction.

Mind, on first listens to this one, I kind of had a little issue with the guitar recording and them sounding a little too low-mid dependant, but as the track managed to get on it was soon balanced out by the sharp synth work and I got to say it lifted the track quite well.

Another issue I had here though was more due to length; there were so many ideas being presented throughought the track, and yet when it was feeling ready to come towards one last rush through the C/D sections of the theme at least, it then chose to end the same way it began. So it kind of felt like a weak way to finalise it if you ask me, unfortunately. :(

Alas, synth rock definitely isn't an easy thing to produce, and with a source as crazily detailed as the Vs theme, it was made even more difficult in regards to pacing. I'm going to have to say though that while I ultimately wasn't quite as crazy over this one as some of the other tracks on the album, what they did was really moulded it into a firm and melodic experience from start to finish.

Will, I suggest you keep living up to your name and keep working with this genre should the opportunity arise again; the details are there, but with it leaving the listener hanging for more, you've really got to up that ball game (no pun intended). I know you can do it :)

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Magellanic
on 2011-10-11 06:10:24

OMG, just WOW! I'm just listening to this on laptop speakers and the synth/guitar rockin' is blowing me away. I'm very excited to listen to this some more.

What I love about this more than the production is the perfect balance between the guitars and the synthesizers. Defintely one of my fave mixes on the site! I'm not familiar with the source but this is definitely enjoyable for those that aren't.

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Csyzr
on 2011-10-10 18:46:59

I liked it, though not as much as some of the other rock remixes here (Im looking at you Pipes by Seventh Epic) but none the less still a solid performance.

now if WillRock or anyone else would do a solid heavy metal mix of

the castle theme from chrono trigger (they'd be the first ones) I can die happy.

keep up the good work

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KyleJCrb
on 2011-10-10 18:17:34

WillRock and Stevo bring the SHRED, and I couldn't be more pleased with running the project where Will goes from "WillRock" to "DoesRock." :-P This source was begging for to be rocked hard, and these two definitely delivered on all fronts!

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djpretzel
on 2011-10-10 11:12:05

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Super Dodge Ball (CSG Imagesoft , 1989, NES)
Music by Kazuo Sawa
Songs:
"Versus Play"

Tags (5)


Genre:
Rock
Mood:
Aggressive
Instrumentation:
Electric Guitar,Synth
Additional:
Origin > Collaboration

File Information


Name:
Super_Dodge_Ball_Friendly_Fire_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
5,184,695 bytes
MD5:
6bb72435569d95dba4809be44c40ce8f
Bitrate:
224Kbps
Duration:
3:02

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