Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard "Sakura Wa Karenai" 5:50

DarkeSword's Game Set Mash!! 4 compo is in full effect, pitting Mega Man games vs. Mega Man-alike games! Let's celebrate GSM with a piece spruced up since the Yuzo Koshiro-riffic GSM3, which featured Etrian Odyssey vs. Streets of Rage! Xaleph led Team Etrian Odyssey's evolving, blossoming psytrance piece using themes from the second games of both series:

• Team Lead, Arranger: Xaleph
• Guitar: sallekhana
• Tribal Intro: Dj Mokram
• Chiptunes: JSABlixer
• Vocals: colorado weeks
• Lyrics: Dyluck
• Mastering: ZackParrish

For Xaleph, this GSM3 round 1 compo collab was a great opportunity to musically reconnect with sallekhana and put the team's particular set of skills into full effect:

"We had a lot of fun with this one. I really enjoyed working together with my childhood friend, sallekhana, for the first time since high school. I thought the chiptunes from JSABlixer added a lot of energy, and the fill she uses at the end I reused for the fill later (with different instruments) to give some repetition. Originally, I was going to reuse the intro Japanese instruments (koto, taiko, and shakuhachi) to build up the psytrance part and then replace them with metal elements - but after a quick idea session with colorado weeks (vocals) and Dyluck (lyrics), I decided to just build that out and finish with the vocal section.

I have some guitar parts from sallekhana that I may reuse later if I do a re-remix. I was thinking of extending this song but the current length seems right to me.

I used the backing strings to do the octave jump that you hear in Streets of Rage. I also alter the bassline to 12/8 from Streets of Rage, bump the half-step 2nd to a full-step 2nd (so it matches the EO key) and try to have both song concepts mashed up/playing together in the build-up through the end. I kind of do some of this in the intro and first psytrance section, but it's a lot more obvious in the ending sequence.

I also added a few changes to the fills and mixing in this version than the one in the competition. Should be fun to re-listen. Enjoy and thank you!"

A big welcome aboard for sallekhana as well as TimeShift album director & resident OCR stats man Dyluck, who both make their ReMixer debuts! :-) Alongside Dj Mokram's intro, JSABlixer's chippy cameos, and colorado weeks' resonant vocals, each team member fit very comfortably into the fabric of this piece thanks to the master planning by Xaleph! Judge Hemophiliac had some measured skepticism as he heard the piece taking shape, concerns laid to rest once he saw the vision:

"When this was being worked on during [...] GSM, I kept hearing it in bits and pieces along with various WIPS. I was very confused as to how it was going to come together because everything was so different out of context in disparate parts.

To me this feels like a very multifaceted precious stone. One side is dirty and the other side is clean. So much different stuff going on when you look at it in different ways. That's the difference between the Streets of Rage parts and the Etrian Odyssey parts. [...] I can clearly hear the EO melody in CW's vocals. Speaking of CW's vocals, absolutely incredible! There's real power in your dark-low chest voice. I personally like the straighter tone and less vibrato, it's a more pure sound that gives me chills. [...]

Stunning work. Clean production, strong arrangement."

As someone unfamiliar with Etrian Odyssey but super-familiar with Streets of Rage, I too was wondering how effectively these themes would piece together along with how well the sum of the parts would work amongst Team Etrian Odyssey's musicians. Was there anything to worry about? With Xaleph at the helm, the only "worry" is how blown away you'll be. While I'm sure I'll hear great example of interwoven themes in the other GSM3 entries, keeping the two sources separate worked extremely well for the group's dynamics, pacing, and flow.

This one's also described as "top notch" by expert EDMer judge Chimpazilla, so be sure to bask in its musically chimeric glory. It's also prime for looping, because when it's over, even though the flowers are blown away, the cherry blossom tree withers not. :-)