Bomberman '93 "Blood on the Riviera" 6:37

Very welcome returns to the legendary zykO, who goes the extra mile in weaving his music with his culture AND his love for VGM! After a nod to a celebrated Egyptian folk song to kick things off, zykO expands on an Egyptian-inspired theme from Bomberman '93, replete with all manner of Middle Eastern instrumentation! The ReMixer channeled his academic and professional pursuits to make this, pulling together several great passions:

"Hello there. Back from the outer rim with offerings; it's been some time, so let's cook.

The source sorta fell randomly into my lap, the sort of serendipitous flurry of inspiration that spurred this whole video game remix thing for me all the way back in 1998; June Chikuma's Bomberman '93 "Blossom Planet" tune popped up on a YouTube playlist and I was running over myself to fire up the ol' furnace. I've been studying ancient Egyptian music for the past few years as an Egyptology grad student in Cairo and, as a part of my exploration into wonderful new things, I've also been studying the Arab musical tradition proper (leading to such experimentation as my most recent album, the Dune-inspired Long Live the Fighters, for example). So, stumbling upon Chikuma's masterclass in the form was well met.

Around the same time, President Trump suggested that he intended to SimCity the Gaza Strip and "do a job with it." Political leanings aside, treating the Levante as if it were a map pack for Civ VI is bizarrely ambitious at best... even if most of us wish the world was more like a video game. In that sense, this tune is meant to serve as the spiritual successor to 2017's "The Long War", although the two songs deal with fundamentally different scenarios and contexts despite both describing geopolitical quagmires in the MENA region.

Of course, blowing shit up isn't exactly the solution for any of the Middle East's problems either and I did find it darkly ironic that the source tune comes from a Bomberman game. So, I juxtaposed the whole thing by opening with a classic Egyptian folk tune by the famed late-19th century composer Sayed Darwish called "El Helwa Di" which some may recognize as Egypt's theme from Civ VI. It's a simple song about the sunrise and the good day to be had no matter one's circumstance. It's the sort of idealistic work song that is commonplace and deeply ingrained in the Egyptian cultural memory and a form that actually dates all the way back to the earliest days of dynastic Egypt. It's the sort of scene, I think, that reminds us that simpler, calmer times did and still do exist and they are the things worth fighting for when the bullies come knocking.

The orchestration is fairly straightforward oriental fanfare: darabuka, daf, riq, and shakers make up the percussion section while a ney and organ lead the way atop a bed of strings including an acoustic guitar. If I haven't lost you by the end, you'll catch the nod to Sonic 2's "Oil Ocean Zone" to close us out.

Anyway, hope y'all enjoy. Dig it."

All that was missing from chef zykO's recipe was a mandolin/e (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk). :-) Panelist paradiddlesjosh favorably compared this piece to several acoustic-minded game composers:

"This is like Marcin Przybyłowicz, Jesper Kyd, and Darren Korb distilled and aged in an oak barrel, served neat in a Moroccan old-fashioned glass: texturally rich, addictively rhythmic, and well balanced. The groove established by the vamp at 1:23 has an undulating, organic feel to it. The strings and the guitar fuse this engine to agile, playful, and conversational ney and organ melodies. Love the shift at 3:30-3:48 before pushing right back into the dance. The bookend of "El Helwa Di" at the intro and the "Oil Ocean Zone" quote at the outro wrap the whole thing in a cinematic bow. [...] Nice work, zykO."

Josh's twin brother pixelseph commended the cohesion here, which left him fully immersed in the arrangement's Egyptian experience:

"Hot damn, this one is a fun journey! I didn't even realize 5 minutes had passed before arriving at the outro - very exciting, danceable piece that keeps shifting and swaying like an auditory mirage. I'm not certain what is and isn't sampled, as it's all presented in such a way to make me not care about such things! Excellent work, dude!"

When I last reviewed his work here many moons ago, I said "zykO's brand of music always sounds organic, raw, stylish, and handcrafted with charm, care, and creativity." Friends, you can quote that for him 'til the cows come home. The energy of this piece is so earnest, it feels like he left a piece of himself in it. How fitting as well that zykO transformed the music of June Chikuma, a composer who, outside of the VGM imprint she's made with her game scores, has also long admired and pursued Arabian music in her own projects as a dedicated ney and riq player. As someone who's authentically performed Arabian music in Japan, France, Bahrain, Tunisia, Malaysia, and Qatar, let alone Egypt, there's no doubt Chikuma herself would appreciate the weaving of worlds here, so we're excited to send it to her; you owe it to yourself to also partake in the singular musical adventure that is zykO! :-)