ReMix:The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess "Eyes of Umbra" 5:40

Our 3rd featured mix from The Good Ice & our 10th featured ReMix from Twilight Princess! Ridley Snipes (Trevor Burch) & co. take "Midna's Lament" on an immersive rock/metal excursion:

"Hey, party people! This is our take on the ever-popular "Midna's Lament." This one was a ton of work, but we're really happy with how it turned out!

I first started sketching this out as a dark, hybrid jazz piece inspired by one of my favorite bands, Submotion Orchestra (highly recommend the Fragments album). I had about 2 minutes down - nice ambient intro, moody synth bass, etc., and sent it off to Nick.

Enter Nick's new toy, the Squier Bass VI. A Bass VI, for those who don't know, is a "bass guitar" in the strictest sense - an octave-lowered guitar in standard tuning. It sounds great clean, and is an absolute unit when put through high gain. So, naturally, we put it in (DROP) drop D, sent it through his 5150 signal chain, and flipped the entire mix upside down.

Goodbye UK dubstep jazz, hello Periphery! (Or is it more like Karnivool?) I loved the original idea, but this one really stuck. Pivoting off the original vibe, we quickly started to add more components: delay arpeggios, super-pumpy acoustic drums, non-intrusive polyrhythms, and some symphonic-lite elements. The piano sound at the last minute is Output's Analog Strings library - but you could totally make a similar sound with Arturia Analog Lab's pianos too. As the arrangement took shape, it became clear that this would be my most challenging mix to date. By the end, I had over 10 different session files with remade attempts to dial the compression and tame the completely obscene low end. It sure ain't perfect, but I think we did it!

"Midna's Lament" is such a landmark piece from Twilight Princess; there's this sense of dramatic urgency contrasted with the melancholy ambience that is just *chef's kiss*. Nick did an amazing job tracking guitar and pushing me to go harder on the arrangement, and we're super happy with the result. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do."

Maybe even more; absolutely love the production on this, as they managed to have crunchy, aggressive low-end guitar action, punchy drums, tons of attitude, AND an ambient, atmospheric backdrop, without anything getting muddy or lost; it all "pops," so to speak, and the arrangement capitalizes on that. Crazy to think that this began life as a dubstep jazz mix, as it's come a long way stylistically from that point of origin; the elegant initial muted riff that starts things off reminds me of U2, the hats that enter soon after remind me of DSOTM, and then the full chuggage drops at 0'47" and it's clearer what type of ride we're in for... Liontamer evaluated:

"From some cursory research, I'd say this is more like Karnivool than Periphery, but I see the influence from both bands. :-) No matter the balance of inspirations, this is the rock rendition of Midna's theme that I didn't know we needed until now. For anyone that enjoys this, definitely swing by and also grab Sentient Pulse's rendition of Toru Minegishi's modern classic theme as well. I also dug the piano at 4:08 due to the ABBA vibes (dating myself indeed). Dynamic work from The Good Ice, who are a must-listen act that will swing the pendulum in the other direction next month with another great submission of theirs that sounds nothing like this yet also kicks ass (so be on the lookout)!"

Wah pedal guitar hero soloin' at 3'39" is epic, too. From concept to execution, this is some seriously delicious work from The Good Ice, in keeping with their previous two mixes & legacy prior to that - highly recommended!