ReMix:NiGHTS into dreams... "Lies Within Dreams" 3:06

Know what's awesome? Here's what's awesome:

1. LuIzA just got a badass scholarship to Berklee! Congrats - well-deserved!
2. Sega recently released NiGHTS HD on PSN & XBLA! Purple pants in 1080P!!
3. This ReMix!

Our heartfelt congratulations to LuIzA - it's great to see talent & hard work get rewarded! This funky jam off Lucid Dreaming shows a totally different side of her, too, with less emphasis on guitars, some downright dirty organ solos, and an unorthodox injection of ethnic flavors towards the end. She writes:

"When Stevo came to me about this track, I immediately fell in love with it. It instantly gave off this funky feeling with an exotic vibe to it, for some reason, it also immediately made me think, for some reason, of Aladdin.... I dunno why, maybe it was because of the main melody and its exoticness that suggested some sort of (middle-)eastern flair, that said, the whole song just begged for a Disney sized Hans Zimmer-ish superproduction treatment, so I gave my best shot. Guitars took a back seat and the rest was sequenced by mouse, I'm afraid I'm retarded with a MIDI keyboard. Thus my track was born and I had a blast making it, hope everyone enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it."

That main chromatic riff is CRAZY catchy - I find myself humming it all the time, with funky rhythm guitar lines accompanying me in my mind. There are perhaps a few, small moments on the organ solo where you might guess that it was mouse-sequenced, but it's definitely a major feat in my book to tackle this style of arrangement in that fashion, so kudos. Album director Stevo writes:

"Luiza is a guitar beast, regardless of the genre she aims for. Guitar is not the main focus of the track, but that doesn't stop it from maintaining her standard of quality. Inspired both by 70's disco and by Arabic music, this song is funky, with a fever for organ, piano, and strings. The guitars serve greatly as rhythm and reinforcing instruments, with funky bass to keep the groove going at all times. In the deep of the sea, disco is still alive."

Judges weren't as in love with the source tune itself, and preferred the ReMixer's version; Emunator writes:

"Very cool take on the source, I like how the solos blend pretty seamlessly with the original source usage. Some awesome performances/writing, especially on the piano and guitar. The bagpipes didn't sit well with me when they took a role in the backing instrumentation, though I thought it was okay as a lead. Either way, it's a stylistic thing that I'm not sure I'd hold against Luiza here ...It's a little weird but it makes perfect sense for the source and definitely feels above the bar to me."

I thought that sounded like a bagpipe... at least the chanter portion. It doesn't remind me much of Hans Zimmer or Alan Menken's score to Aladdin, to be honest, but it's so funky and flagrantly multi-instrumental (& -cultural) that it doesn't matter - what a strange source, what a strange arrangement, and what skills to pull it off and make it something that works, and is kind of like a musical roller-coaster. Definitely a unique addition to Lucid Dreaming - congratulations to LuIzA for a mix that really expands her repertoire & for the great news about school!