Posts Tagged ‘OverClocked Remix’

OverClocked ReMix just released a soundtrack to the game Impulse, developed by Deck16. The album was composed by 12 Followers/Meteo Xavier with contributions from OC ReMix regulars Neblix and Cyril the Wolf, as well as Jackson Lawhead and Brian Ali. As expected from an OCR-sanctioned OST release, the game pays homage to classics. Impulse carries heavy influences from Asteroids and Lunar Lander, but throws in countless genre twists for variety. Outside the context of the game, the album is an impressive collection of electronica.

It feels like yesterday that I had the pleasure of meeting Shael Riley and Ty Guenley, the masterminds behind the 8-bit indie rock band Shael Riley and the Double Ice Backfire and their newly-released album Ultimate Songs from the Pit. They had been visiting NYC to get the album mastered a year ago, thus bringing Shael and Ty in proximity to me and each other. This came not long after the Backfire’s success in funding the mastering through a Kickstarter, which gained nearly twice as much monetary pledges as the initial goal. The cash certainly didn’t go to waste: even songs from the band’s previous EP Songs from the Pit feel refreshed and immediate due to Drew Lavyne’s mastering and Ty’s mixing.

Although the process of finalizing and mass-duplicating the CD was long, Shael and Ty were hardly at rest in their music making. As incentive for the Kickstarter, the band recorded cover versions of songs commissioned by those who made large pledges; one such cover, a remake of Shael’s Castlevania homage “Juese Belmont” was posted at OverClocked ReMix. The Double Ice Backfire also contributed to albums that covered “Weird Al” Yankovic and They Might Be Giants. My favorite song from Ultimate Songs from the Pit, “Hobby Model” almost seems like a cover itself, with its refrain resembling that of Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman”.

Genius loves company, and so the album has a fair number of guests. Fellow chip rocker Brian Mazzaferri of I Fight Dragons shares lead vocal duties on “Bootstraps” while Schaffer the Darklord drops lines into “Publishing Rights”. Additional rhyme-spitting comes courtesy of Mega Ran on “Area Dolls” and Billy the Fridge in “Rarest of Elements”. Ricky Henry, the ‘third-ice’ in the band’s live shows, was responsible for the album artwork. Ultimate Songs from the Pit is available now at Bandcamp for streaming and as a paid download, with the lead track “How to Fire a Gun” as a free single.

The forums at OverClocked ReMix recently released Rockin’ Sockin’ Cinder Blockin’, a tribute EP of the Concrete Man theme from Mega Man 9. Directed by DarkeSword, the release features many regulars in the arrangement community such as Flexstyle, Sir NutS, Rexy, Neblix and The Coop. The idea of putting together an EP came about the day after OC ReMix released the Mega Man 9 album Back in Blue; due to an oversight, Concrete Man was left out of that release. With an initial deadline of a week, remixers were free to submit their takes on Concrete Man for evaluation to be included in the new EP. The result is impressive and a testament to the talent of the community under DarkeSword’s guiding hand.

Today OC ReMix released Back in Blue, a Mega Man 9 remix album. The release was directed by Dustin “k-wix” Kulwicki and features 14 artists producing 18 arrangements. It is OCR’s seventh album this year, 27th overall, and their first release dedicated to an individual Mega Man title. As can be expected, the album features several heavyweights from the community such as bLiNd, Cyril the Wolf, DarkeSword, Joshua Morse, Mazedude, Rexy and Sixto Sounds. 2011 has been a great year for video game arrangement projects so far, thanks in part to the high quality standard that OCR is known for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOdlkp_MRyE

This week saw the release of the Dynamite Headdy fan remix album Secret Bonus Point. The album was directed by Dj Mokram and released in conjunction with Nitro Game Injection. Secret Bonus Point is divided into four chapters and designed to play seamlessly from one track to the next. It features 26 arrangements by 14 artists including OverClocked ReMix members FlexStyle, Hylian Lemon, Level 99 and Swann. With such talented people involved, this album is difficult to pass up, and its great to see a game by Treasure getting its due.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zHh2iADpfw

Hot on the heels of the Harmony of a Hunter tribute album, remixer Theophany released his Metroid remix EP Crystal Flash. The release celebrates 25 years of Metroid whilst exploring lush, ambient IDM styles. The track “Avien” from the EP was recently posted on OverClocked ReMix and honors the memory of late remixer Christopher “Avien” Powell. Theophany is planning further Metroid releases with equally striking quality and depth, which is sure to please fans. The artwork for Crystal Flash was designed by Mike Grier based on a sketch by torokun.

The folks of OverClocked ReMix are at it again. After the huge success that was their last compilation, Serious Monkey Business, folks from OCR have banded together once again to pay tribute to an overlooked classic from the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy V The Fabled Warriors is that tribute. The first album of this five part series is available now at the official site, and boasts some incredible talent, including some of my favorites such as Sixto Sounds and Another Soundscape.

The album kicks off with some intense rocking courtesy of Sixto Sounds and the opening track The Path to Glory ~Theme of Bartz~. From there we hear an ear catching rendition of In the Shadows ~Theme of Thief~ by Another Soundscape. He creates a catchy, eccentric movement that adds a ton of texture to this song. Darkesword works his magic on his track Little Black Book ~Theme of Black Mage~, an up tempo hip hop styled ominous mix that brings the mood to a subterranean dance lair. Another incredible track comes our way thanks to Zircon and Vessel of the Void ~Theme of Exdeath~, a foreboding industrial track that might be my favorite piece on the album so far. This first chapter of this series comes to a close with DarkeSword and his wonderful rendition of this albums title theme, See You Next Time ~WIND~.

You must know by now, that this being OCR and all, that the album is available for free download, so hurry up and grab this amazing tribute at ff5.ocremix.org and start twiddling your thumbs in anticipation of Water, which looks to be set for release early 2011!

After a very long time in the making, OverClocked Remix has reached their 2000th ReMix, and alongside this landmark for VG inspired music, we also see the release of the newest OCR ReMix project, Donkey Kong Country 2: Serious Monkey Business, An OverClocked ReMix Album.

As the title indicates, the album is a tribute to the classic game Donky Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest and it’s incredible soundtrack by David Wise. Speaking of which, David Wise, alongside Grant Kirkhope and Robin Beanland actually contribute a track to this amazing album. Many other musicians are included all across this album, including virt of VGMix and The Smash Brothers and amazing vg composer for several great games himself. Also personal favorites such as Nicole Adams and Starla, Sixto Sounds, zyk0, and way too many more to name individually.

Simply put, I have been very excited about this album ever since hearing about it a very long time ago from Nicole Adams and others from the OCR community, and it surely doesn’t disappoint any fans of the original. It has been a long time since the original games release (fifteen years!? I feel old now), and now it finally has a tribute worthy of the game itself. So if you haven’t yet, check out the video below and then head over to dkc2.ocremix.org and download the album via torrent or direct download right now for free!

Songs for the Cure ’10 from Josh Whelchel on Vimeo.

Like the past couple years, Josh Whelchel has been hard at work organizing compilations among the video game composer, chiptune, and VG remix communities and more for a noble cause. That cause is the Songs for the Cure 2010 compilation. The goal of the album is to raise money for the Relay for Life event held specifically at the University of Cincinnati and the American Cancer Society through music. The goal is to raise 10,000 dollars for cancer research by April 23rd, 2010. As of the time of this writing they are at exactly $3,194…No wait. $3,198 dollars. With your help the goal of 10,000 can be reached, and hopefully even surpassed over the next two months!

RIght now until March 1st (which is only a few days away!) the album is available with a donation right now. Head over to cancerdrive.org and send $10 to this great cause and you will receive a digital copy of the album in both MP3 and FLAC audio formats. If you want to really help though, a donation of $25 will net you a fancy free hard copy (and no S&H either). These prices only last until March 1st though, so be sure to place your orders right away!

What do you get on this album you might be asking though. Well you will be getting amazing music from the following list of performers, which include some of the best and brightest from VG Rock, VG Remixes, chiptunes, VGM, and independent music.

Two Seconds Away, Stemage, David DiMuzio, Alec & Eileen Holowka, Josh Whelchel, Jay Tholen, Big Giant Circles, Jessi Bair, Inez S. deDeugd-McComas, Morgen La Civita, Michael Huang, David Saulesco, Renee Winter, Tara Morrow, Helen Austin, Chiwawa, Inverse Phase, Michael Tanenbaum, Average Joe Crane, Roth Herrlinger, Melinda Hershey, Rich Brilli, Midnight Prophet, Bradley Burr, Rob Westwood, Terry Whitehead, Fever Pitch, FFMusicDJ & Postgoodism, Battlecake, Craig Stern, Danny Clay, T.R. Beery, Martha Mingle, Zen Albatross, 5 of 6, Barry van Oudtshoorn, J.W. Hendricks, 12 Followers/Meteo Xavier, Poolside, Gonçalo Lourenço, and more!

And to give you a taste of some of these amazing tracks, Josh Whelchel has sent me a demo for you to check out or download below. And remember, donate now at cancerdrive.org!

Songs for the Cure 2010 preview featuring Stemage – The Challenger; Tara Morrow – Your Name; Battlecake – Time Scar (Chrono Cross Arr.); and Josh Whelchel – Sing Gloria (feat. Tara Morrow, Melinda Hershey, Rich Brilli)

Unfortunately I missed last week’s Week in VGIM but oddly enough it was quite the slow week for VGM news and wasn’t too tough playing catch up this week. I do hope I did not miss anything though! Up above we have some fantastic artwork by GaryStorkamp aptly named The King of Kong. Also there are plenty new podcasts out from the past two weeks, as well as a good couple interviews and more. GM4A also had it’s very awesome second chiptune show, Pizza and Chips 2, which was a pretty rousing success, and a great show was given by all the performers involved. Watch out for a bigger update on that soon. Now for the links!

NEWS

• GameCube and Famicom Disk System feature same tune via Tiny Cartridge
• Pizza and Chips 2 recap via Letters VS Numbers
• “It often feels like a huge family gathering at our concerts!” Interview with Arnie Roth via GameMusic.net
• Whispers Of the Plains: Garry Schyman via Higher Plain Music
• Beep City Presents: Love Songs From The Future Vol. 1 album review via Game Music 4 All
• GameSetInterview: ‘Morsel Team on Bringing Indie Colors to Kaleidoscope’ via GameSetWatch
• Love SQ compilation album review via Game Music 4 All
• Nobuooo Five for 2009 via Nobuooo
• 
  Hironobu Sakaguchi shares sound equipment tips via Mistwalkercorp and Nobuooo

PODCASTS

• Nerdy Show Season 3, Episode 4: The Secret of Mike’s Success
• This Week in VGM 002: 02/07/10 & 003: 02/14/10
• Letters VS Numbers episode 023: “I Hope You Like Bodily Functions (and pokemon)”
• Overclocked After Dark Episode 13 – Big Lips Turn Stevo On
• Ballad of the Wind Fish for 2/16/10 and 2/18/10

REMIXES
Latest Remix:ThaSauce releases

• Cave Story ‘Welcome to Hell’
  by Divine Wrath

Latest OCReMix releases

• Xenogears ‘Echoes’ by Fishy
• Mega Man 2 ‘Cold Metal’ by Willrock
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past ‘Farore Lies in Wait’ by chthonic
• Wave Race 64 ‘Serenity’s Wake’ by Sole Signal
• Chrono Trigger ‘…And in Her Self-Loathing and Despair, She Found Wrath’ by LuIzA
• Final Fantasy VI ‘Desertion’ by zircon
• Final Fantasy VIII ‘Seasons’ by Ziwtra

Other singles and releases

• The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap ‘Mt. Crenel’ by Zelda Reorchestrated
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks ‘Final Train Exam’ by Zelda Reorchestrated

VIDEO
The video today is one I recorded myself, and is from our recent Pizza and Chips 2 show which was held February 18th in Rosemead, California. This is a performance by Wizwars of his awesome track “Intergalactic Disko Dance Party’ from his Handheld Heroes release of Gameboy Rock!!.

Remember to leave a comment with awesome articles, songs, videos, art, etc. for next weeks round up as well!