ReMix:Shadow the Hedgehog "Find the Computer Room!" 5:10

Happy 31st birthday to SANIC! To celebrate we've got our first featured mix from Shadow the Hedgehog, as judge & ReMixer Rexy (Beverley Wooff) puts an upbeat, energetic rock spin on several of the games' themes:

"Sonic's launch anniversary, huh? That sounded like as good a time as ever to dust off another past submission from the Sonic Stadium Music Adventure 2012... further showing my age as a fan of Sega's blue hedgehog. Like I said in past mixposts from this album, all these mixes took on an individual character, and this track's inspiration came from one of the many memes that the franchise had spawned.

Now, I actually haven't played Shadow - because let's be real, the idea of a hedgehog holding a gun feels weird enough even on paper, and my days of listening to early 2000s emo music were long behind me. But I was at least able to catch various longplays and Let's Plays on YouTube to get the idea behind the game's multiple branching routes, with too many different combinations with Shadow's self-discovery.

I've got the source breakdown.

Sections in "Cosmic Fall"

• 0:00-0:06 - Intro
• 0:06-0:30 - A section
• 0:30-0:42 - B section

Section in "I Am... All of Me"

• 1:11-1:29 - Chorus

Sections in "The Chosen One"

• 0:12-0:36 - Intro
• 1:00-1:24 - Chorus

"Sad Ending" used the piano riff as heard at the start

• 0:00-0:24 - Intro section of "Cosmic Fall" brought down to half speed, with melody coming in halfway. Opening riffs from "The Chosen One" layered over the top.
• 0:27-0:30 - Third line for the chorus of "I Am... All of Me"
• 0:30-0:53 - A section of "Cosmic Fall" used straight
• 0:53-1:18 - Pretty much the intro but funkified, using the same source manipulation ideas as the original
• 1:18-1:42 - A section again, with some melody variation
• 1:42-2:05 - B section used straight, later with some melody twists
• 2:05-2:54 - Breakdown with the A section's melody at half speed (going full mid-way), going call and response with original writing
• 2:54-3:42 - Chorus for "The Chosen One," again with some improv in the second run-through
• 3:48-4:36 - Back to the A section, chord structure keeps going with improv on the melody at the end
• 4:36-end - "Sad Ending" melody used

What inspired me to arrange "Cosmic Fall" was Vector's mission from that same level, which had evolved into a goofy Internet meme over the years. So why not take the quote, drop the guitars and distorted synths, and give the illusion that Shadow's mission is already in the aforementioned Computer Room! That meant digging into as much mileage as I could with Zebra's capabilities at the time, and what I felt was a starting point for me fusing synthesized elements and acoustic percussion tones together - something that djp had noticed several times on more recent submissions.

Being a strange idea for me at the time, of course I wasn't initially confident with submitting it, and that was despite EAR's diligent mastering on the entire album. But in retrospect, I shouldn't have shied away, considering how neat it turned out at the end.

Nevertheless, the years have still taught me that Sonic fans acknowledge the blue blur their own way every June 23rd, so no matter what happens, this year will be a great time. Keep going fast!"

While I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first film, the second Sonic movie continued a curse-breaking trend of a game-based movie NOT being terrible, and the ending suggests that Shadow will feature heavily in the inevitable third outing. This is vintage Rexy, from an era where she was just starting to blend synth/electronic textures against more traditional rock/pop drums & other components. She eventually refined this approach further, with a bit more variety/contrast, and while the monoglide lead synth gets overused a tad, it's all high-energy, energetic, & relatively speedy fun, in keeping with franchise zeitgeist. Happy bday to Sonic, and many thanks to Rexy for helping us celebrate & giving us our first Shadow mix!