ReMix:Metroid Fusion "Ambient Fusion Water" 4:30

HoboKa, Ridley Snipes, and Hemophiliac absolutely glossed the hell out of Metroid Fusion, with their creepy, cinematic sound upgrade of "Sector 4 (AQA) Underwater Area"! This one originated from round 131 of the Meat 'n Potatoes compo, where the objective is to keep things melodically straightforward, so this was an exercise in expansion and mood, led by HoboKa, who further developed the compo concept with the collab:

"A collaboration VGM cover with Ridley Snipes, Hemophiliac, and myself, to enhance my original take. Initially made this remix as an entry for MnP 131. Some EXTREMELY good entries in this round all... a-round. Ouch! I slapped myself, musta been reflex. Anyroads, I wanted to give the source material extra ambience and a movie-esque motif, with soprano vocals. And I think that Hemophiliac and Ridley Snipes did an EXCELLENT job of complimenting and adding to my vision. Ridley Snipes covered the extra arrangement components (brass, pads, drones, FX), and some post-production fixes, like E/Q and reverb space. Hemophiliac helped out with live bass vocal work, which makes the soundscape come... alive. Pun intended. Slap me.

I had a blast working with them. To date, I think it's one of my best collabs. Huge thanks, guys! We def. put our all into this collabo remix. :D They were SUPER fun to work with and very patient with my ADHD/ASD tendencies. They helped me pull through a very difficult time and am forever thankful for taking the time to collaborate with me. Whew, getting a touch emotional here... Anyways, hope you guys enjoy this!"

Judge Emunator knows something about aquatic themes, though that may be more of a Donkey Kong Country slant. No matter what, he also knows something about them there Metroid themes as well, so he had lots of good insights:

"Beautiful, lush textures with some excellent aquatic sound design that does a lot to enhance the original source material. Although this is an ambient track without a lot of clear progression markers, there's still a subtle dynamic curve that gives this a sense of direction and flow, allowing it to function well as a standalone piece rather than just a collection of sounds or something intended to be looped. The baritone vocals and brass especially add to the drama without breaking immersion.

My lone gripe here is the soprano vocal sample, which transitions very awkwardly between notes at times without a clean legato. It sounds like every note is dubbed over the previous one, like a synth pad rather than a single human voice. The vibrato also sounds unnatural; this may be a limitation of the samples you're using, but a little more care put to smoothing out the transitions between notes and giving it more of a natural vibrato would have gone a long way here, considering how prominent that element is in the mix.

Other judges mileage may vary, but I think you got a lot more right here than you missed the mark on. I'm happy to sign off on this[...]!"

Wait, did I say good insights? Well, that's still true, BUUUUUT now *I* get to have the very (VERY) rare instance of *me* being the open-minded one compared to Emunator, and I'm relishing it. :-D I *always* enjoy sampled soprano singing that sounds like Parasite Eve, and am kind of surprised that I can't think of many other ReMixes to go this route. :-) Israfel's "Cerebral Rose Jam" from Shivers uses similar vocals, but they're drier and not used in a dark way. If *any* of you know the music of Parasite Eve, you're not at all gonna be throw off by the synthetic vox; the way they're triggered is meant to be stylistic and unsettling, and it works very nicely here, so NYAH to Emunator! :-D Judge Chimpazilla knows what the deal is:

"I absolutely dig the soprano sample and I think it is used very well just as-is. Anything more realistic would not have this creep-factor. The instrumentation here is HUGE and lush and full and varied, and it is mixed extremely well. Hemophiliac's low vocals add just the right level of human padding in the lows. The deep bell with the soprano sample make for such a mystical soundscape with all those deep strings and brass, very Harry Potter-esque. The moving/gated/panning brass starting at 3:04 is super cool and even compliments the vocal vibrato at times. I love this!"

I also love this track and hope you will too! It's best listened to in darkness, so that all of your auditory senses are deeply engaged while you swim in the uneasy ambiance. Big props to this trio for expertly fleshing out this theme with an absolutely luxuriant sound palette; hell of a sound upgrade!