ReMix:Skies of Arcadia "Brain Sound Tilt" 4:35

Brain Sound Tilt, indeed! Guifrog sends us a genre-spanning glitch-hoppy cinematic jazz/funk/hip-hop EDM jam, from Arcadia Legends:

"This Modus guy first hit me up on Facebook during a time when my psyche wasn't very salsa n' samba. It took it a while to start dancing again, but when it did, he immediately noticed and messaged me once more, and there was this very almost completed album to which I thought "k, c'mon, let's keep it up" and PAM -- I chose Ramirez's theme. I've admittedly never played Skies of Arcadia, but when I heard that tune, it somehow clicked and I went curious to learn more about its background. Apparently, Ramirez's mind went by a twist after some events, running from love to hate, judging a whole nation for the acts of individuals, whereas putting all his trust in one single person, who died afterwards, etc...

All in all, it was the perfect moment to explore a psychology-themed mix, so this one's my attempt to emulate Ramirez's inner self: there's a dark environment, with some grits, glitches, distortions, dissonances, and a dancey chorus that attempts to make it brighter and brighter, until it fails on the last chord, biased by those interferences only to be overcome by darkness again.

Thank you Modus for the approach, and Darkflamewolf for the opportunity you've created!"

Very unusual, but effective, incorporation of dissonant jazz piano, Gothic organ straight outta Castlevania, some funkier synth bits, a lightly-swung hip-hop/dance groove, wubs, flutes, ominous choir & bells on the outro, and who knows what else... it's a smorgasbord, to be sure, but an darkly enjoyable one, thanks to Guifrog's colorful & crisp arranging and production. He mentions focusing on psychology, which is funny, because this actually reminded me a little of the soundtrack to Crush, a psychology-focused puzzle platformer I ReMixed a while back - similar aesthetic, especially with the intermittent dissonance. Newly-anointed judge Rexy has some detailed insights:

"It's got the same structure as the original's 3-minute loop, but there are a lot of additions made that benefit it. There are more lively chords in segments with the most major motif (0:19-0:39), a new chorus section that adds more life from that part as mentioned earlier (1:09-1:49), new backing instrumentation writing over the top and a shuffle groove as opposed to the source's straight rhythms. He knew what he was doing when interpreting the BGM - and while not as expansive as previous submissions, it's still a well-personalized take that knows how to grab attention."

Not all the Arcadia themes are particularly easy to arrange, for various reasons, and I think the artist did a fantastic job with conceptualization & building a palette and corresponding arrangement around psychological instability and friction. Very cool!