Pokémon Diamond Version "A Walk in Snowpoint City" 6:04

Winter's not official for another month, but wouldn't you know it, we got a very light smattering of snow here in Atlanta, GA today! Not enough to stick, but enough to be seen from the sky, so let's celebrate the unexpected frost with a chill yet energetic debut. :-) Newcomers LANparty and Theology drop their tandem team-up on Pokémon Diamond & Pearl's "Snowpoint City"! One part house (LANparty), one part UK garage (Theology), all parts fit for the city. :-) For lead arranger LANparty, everything fell into place like freshly fallen snow:

"Theology from Minnesota, USA and LANparty from Québec, Canada!

This is a remix with 2 different genres that evolve mid-song: house to UK garage to sort-of acid-house/electro-house (hard to tell). Gen 4 is in my personal top! Great game and the music hits hard!

And for the parts, it's a mix of everything... I sent him some parts, I asked advice like "What can we do here and there", he sent me his ideas and his UK garage part (I was really impressed, love the mix of both music genres TOGETHER). I used some of his work in other places in the mix, and for the acid sort-of bassline, I was sending him a video with a look-alike BLADE sound just for the fun of using it. It was a joke at the beginning but I finally decided to keep it in the mix! I just modified properly the synth and all.

Since I discover him, we talk a lot and have fun together, it was just natural that we make a remix together! Was a pleasure, Matt. ;)"

For his part, Theology was hyped to the max for this Pokémon partnership and introspective on a special event sometimes found in Snowpoint City:

"What a fun one this was to make with the one and only MAX RAYMOND... I mean *cough* LANPARTY! He's so dope. He also goes by Max Raymond and has a TON of music under that name too! :D Max did some incredible work on this and I'm so happy to have finally collabed with him! [...]

This song got me thinking about cold, as I have spewed the motif of a lot lately.

There is a thing called diamond dust in this city that is super-beautiful, but only happens under certain circumstances. To see this beautiful marvel, you have to brave the cold. This is the cool part about life. Sometimes, we have to endure things that we don't like to experience unexpected beauty. The process may be grueling, but the journey is better than the destination.

Trust me."

We trust 'em! The way to my heart is house, and this deal is thumpin' and bumpin'! :-) Around 2:48 seemed to be the handoff from LANparty to Theology with the backing going to a different style, and fellow judge pixelseph was glad to attend their Snowpoint party:

"Hell yeah, it's a house party in the Arctic Circle! Surely everyone is in earbuds, and there's no PA, so that there's no avalanche getting triggered. ;-P

[...] The overall feel of the track is like a sample-swap where both artists flipped the same piano sample in the same track [...] the mix is well-balanced, and there is plenty of textural evolution across the track [...]. I also would have enjoyed more variation on the last third, but there's nothing inherently wrong with bringing back something familiar after deviating so heavily in the middle third."

Sure, there could have been more variation melodically or sonically with the lead, though I realize that wouldn't fit with the gimmick of having the same lead then having different sets of accompaniment/backing. This one's a great example where the interpretation comes more from the textures and what's surrounding the melody, which is totally valid (and it's not like the melody on piano has 0 interpretation, it was just more limited/repetitive). Nice job beefing up your take on this, bros, and we've got our fingers crossed that this cross-border collaborating continues!