ReMix:Fantasy Zone "Opa and Over" 4:08

Fellow newly-appointed judge Rexy (Beverley Wooff) calls Brad's CC collab & raises with our FIRST EVER featured arrangement of Sega's Fantasy Zone, offering up a high-energy, calypso-infused funk jam w/ chip flavors & exciting (!!) drums:

• Arranges: "Opa-Opa! (Stage 1)"
• Cameos: "Boss," "Ya-Da-Yo (Final Boss)"

"This track was originally written for Sound of the Sonic Stadium 2015: Tropical Paradise. These albums were seen as a revival of the Sonic Stadium music album concept, with EAR being the main curator behind it all. And of course, his own Sonic CD arrangement "The Madness" got posted on OC ReMix, so, even as a writer, he knew what he was doing!

Anyway, onto my own role. We were told to make tracks that give the feeling of summer, so I took everything I knew about calypso and placed them into the most tropical-sounding non-Sonic Sega BGM I know -- the main theme of Fantasy Zone. The aim was just to get up there, have fun with adding in a fusion of chiptune and Latin writing elements, and make it sound like a track that can be equally fun to perform live (though I tried once and I couldn't remember my own mid-section for the life of me, whoops). Production-wise, this ended up being a standout and stood tall with the best of the best on that album.

Why did I not submit it? By my own standards, I thought the arrangement was way too conservative and I felt it would fall flat based on that alone. I'm all in favor of a second opinion regarding it, though.

A quick stupid fact: On one run of The Manic Monday Show (an old variety show on RadioSEGA), host KC got really excited about the announced English release of Puyo Puyo Tetris and decided to play one of my works that night. We all expected the aforementioned Puyo track I did, but he somehow got it muddled up with this Fantasy Zone one. It's an in-station meme now!"

Rexy's been busy! While I can see the nature of her concern, there's plenty of interpretation to be found in the updated drums, stylization, & chip solos, and the whole thing is vibrant & celebratory. Larry writes:

"Dave's more than likely rocked this one as a kid when it was on the Sega Master System, so he may have the nostalgia connection here. I actually first encountered this theme after Akumu showed me a laid-back doujin rock take of the theme, and this one also an 80s VGM classic, especially among Sega music. Just like Puyo Puyo before, we're glad to have Beverly finally bring representation to another old-school Sega franchise!

No worries here on the level of interpretation; the first iteration's more straightforward, but the next one at 1:34 added more of those melodically interpretive and personalized touches to ensure that there were absolutely no concerns on standing apart enough from the original. Being perfectly honest, I'm not sure why Beverly would think this wasn't interpretive enough in the big picture; it's clear this wasn't just a photocopy of the theme for another soundset, the other theme usages were also on point, and the piece flowed well. But when in doubt, we'd rather you submit it and let us be the judges of that. Now she can give that specific advice to other potential submitting artists! ;-)"

Drums (Addictive Drums plugin, per Bev) are an absolute highlight here, integrating well, lending a lotta shuffle & swagger, and letting the chip lead elements do their thing. Which they do; plenty of trills, runs, & blazing lines. I dig the vinyl & fade-in clav intro, and the general layering of detail and part-writing is great, but most of all it's just a bubbly, happy, & flamboyant Latin chipfunk jam, working in harmony with the source. Fun!