ReMix:Plants vs. Zombies "The Zombies Are Coming" 4:14

THE ZOMBIES ARE HERE!! We've got FOUR new ReMixes of Laura Shigihara's Plants vs. Zombies score for your Halloween weekend!

One of the very best modern/casual VGM soundtracks, prior to today we had ZERO mixes of PvZ on the site (shame!), and now we'll have four! These are from a (sadly) cancelled album, and it's about time they saw the light of day. I loved playing this game, and a huge part of that was the craft, variety, & absolutely on-point mood/tone of Laura's music - it set a very high early mark for what a more casual/mobile game's score could be, and jived with the addictive resource-management gameplay & impeccable sense of humor to create something truly special, which is still a joy to play. Chimpazilla (Kristina Scheps) & timaeus222 (Truong-Son Nguyen) were directing the album, and also had a couple collabs - Kris writes:

"As our first collaboration ("Cloudhopping") turned out wonderful, it's time for a second collaboration with Truong-Son! This time, we decided to go a little darker, into the creepy world of Plants vs. Zombies. We wanted a lot of variation in styles, moods, and sounds throughout the song, and it was easy to fill up the remix with source due to the complex melodies of the tunes in the OST. Truong-Son's dubstep breakdown with the "bungee scream" gives me chills every time I hear it. Thanks to Laura Shigihara for writing such a fun soundtrack for a great game. I still can't believe no one has remixed this game yet! djp, we hope you are happy that someone finally accepted your challenge of doing a remix for Plants vs. Zombies! About time, eh?"

"It's About Time" was also the cheeky name of the PvZ 2 sequel, which I played a bit but didn't end up loving quite the same way. And yes, it IS about time that this OST got some love on OCR - one of my modern faves, and very deserving & facilitating of arrangement and interpretation! Thanks to Kris & Truong-Son for making this happen - Timmy writes:

"This was, by far, the most complicated remix I've ever worked on with anyone, and I've never given so much attention to detail to one remix before. There ended up to be a whole bunch of drum samples, automations, and unique sound patches including a few of my own. If I had to pick a favorite sound, it would probably be that 12-string sitar patch Howard Scarr made for Zebra.

This remix drew a little inspiration from zircon, Sole Signal, and Ben Briggs. Now, since this might actually be the first Plants vs. Zombies remix ever shared with OC ReMix, I figured it would be nice to include a quick little source breakdown (not NEARLY as precise as the last one):

• 0:00-0:04.5 = Original
• 0:04.5-0:09 = "Watery Graves" (0:00-0:02.5)
• 0:09-0:25 = "Watery Graves" (0:00-0:18.5)
• 0:25-0:38.5 = "Loonboon" (0:00-0:05.5)
• 0:38.5-0:45 = "Watery Graves" (1:03.5-1:05.5)
• 0:45-1:03 = "Loonboon" (0:12-0:25)
• 1:03-1:21.5 = "Watery Graves" (0:18.5-0:27.5 [the backup instrument])
• 1:21.5-1:39.5 = "Watery Graves" (0:27.5-1:03.5)
• 1:39.5-1:53 (such a fun solo) = "Loonboon" (0:49-1:11.5)
• 1:53-1:57.7 = "Loonboon" (0:23.75-0:25.25)
• 1:57.7-2:15.25 (havin' too much fun here) = "Watery Graves" (0:00-0:18.5)
• 2:15.25-2:33.93 = "Watery Graves" (1:03.5-1:21)
• 2:33.93-2:52 = "Watery Graves" (0:27.5-1:03.5)
• 2:52-3:10.2 (glitchy goodness) = "Watery Graves" (1:23.3-1:41.3)
• 3:10.20-3:28.25 = "Loonboon" (1:22.2-1:46.5)
• 3:28.25-3:37.88 = "Watery Graves" (0:00-0:18.5)
• 3:37.88-3:41.82 = "Rigor Mormist" (0:02.7-0:06.6)
• 3:41.82-3:46.38 = "Watery Graves" (0:00-0:02.5)
• 3:46.38-3:50.90 = "Watery Graves" (0:00-0:02.5) and "Rigor Mormist" (0:02.7-0:06.6)
• 3:50.9-3:55.7 = "Watery Graves" (0:00-0:18.5)
• 3:55.7-3:59.9 = "Rigor Mormist" (0:02.7-0:06.6)
• 3:59.9-End = "Watery Graves" (0:00-0:18.5)

Overall, I'm really proud of the mixing/arranging work we both did. Cheers to the most awesome video game remixing site ever! :D

Extra info: timaeus tweeted this to Laura Shigihara, and she loved it! :D"

Great inspirations, there! I'm still bummed we didn't release an EP as planned, as I *really* wanted to contribute a mix, but Kris & Timmy absolutely killed it with their contributions, and this polished, chill EDM jam plays on both their strengths for a catchy, slick, & sinister jam. Love the FX, breakdown, dubsteppish elements, and all the sublime detail on the lead synth sequencing. Laura's soundtrack does a fantastic job of oscillating between spooky & epic/inspiring, and this mix captures that dynamic while fancying up the production & injecting some additional groove. I consider this the "intro"/first track for the EP that *would* have been, and it gets our mini-flood of four PvZ mixes off to a great start; highly recommended!