ReMix:Suikoden "Man-Eating Spores of Agony" 4:07

ilp0 (Ilari Nieminen) made a return in 2018 with some great stuff, and that trend thankfully continues this year as he graces us all with MAN-EATING SPORES OF AGONY!!?! Okay, I added the caps there, because they really felt right to me; while the mix title here might suggest death metal, or simply the tortured sounds of humans being eaten alive by voracious... spores... what you instead get is a tempo/time-signature varying bit of proggish rock, arranging & transforming "Theme of Sadness" from Suikoden:

"After an unintentional 5-year break from music, I finally managed to arrange a wife-free weekend with all the gadgets plugged and fridge loaded with cold beers. I came up with this remix from Suikoden - Theme of Sadness. Original song is hauntingly beautiful and I have made several attemps to remix it earlier but always fell way short of the mood of the original. This time I didn't even try to maintain the mood of the original but went for bit lighter and crazier moods. Br, Ilari"

This oscillates between a kind of march, a chill rock groove, and something a bit more Kefkaesque & sinister. While at no point was I looking over my shoulder for carnivorous spores, I was feeling the overall vibe, Ilari's production is crisp, clean, & crunchy, and the transitions between signatures/sections certainly keep you on your toes. Sir_NutS writes:

"After listening to the source I was very surprised by the style you went for here, and the intro specifically goes all-in as if saying "get ready because I don't care about the original's tone". Loved it.

Honestly, this is pretty well mixed so my production beefs would be very minor, some sections that feel too busy but don't last too long anyways, a bit of a lack of air in the top end, but again, minor gripes. The arrangement and adaptation are stellar, with plenty of style changes, stops and structural mutations, not to mention the re instrumentation and performances which are great. There's some sections that repeat, but they don't feel like a copy-paste job to me, they fit in int he context of where the arrangement is going at that point.

Overall a really cool adaptation that changes the tone completely without breaking its relation to the source."

Jivemaster adds:

"The early bridge section at 1:15 was an interesting surprise, a complete departure from everything to that point, making good use of guitar tone and accompanying FX for that atmospheric spacey feel. The synths that appear across the mix are basic in nature but surprisingly fit in well with the guitars, although again, panning was a bit of an issue for me across different sections. Overall a very creative take on the original - a mix that drops a bunch of ideas relatively quickly without overstaying its welcome."

Ilari takes "Sadness" and turns it into... something else ;) Great work which pairs a creative interpretation with some warm, vintage rock/prog vibes for something unexpected but very welcome; enjoy!