ReMix: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 'Reich Lake'
Mazedude meets Sonic? You betcha. The prolific and consistently inventive Chris Getman expands his repertoire of games, companies, and platforms with the Sonic 2 ReMix of the version ported to the Sega Master System (and Game Gear), which had a totally different soundtrack from its 16-bit brother (father?) and which Mazedude has chosen to arrange. Chris composed quite a write-up of his own explaining exactly how this happened, and I'd be remiss not to include it here:
"Let's see here... well , I've had various requests to do something from Sega, over the years. Personally, I never really played Sega, so I didn't have any pressing desires to make anything. However, so far I've tackled NES, SNES, PC, Gameboy, Playstation, and Arcade, and I'm proud of my diversity in that regard. So, eh, what the heck, I decided to see if I could find a Sega tune I liked enough to remix.
Everyone tackles Sonic at some point, right? :) I went to Zophar.net to see what I could find, and after going through the Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 soundtracks, I found a track I really liked. "Aqua Lake Zone", from Sonic 2. The way it was composed reminded me a lot of a neo-classical piece by Steve Riech, entitled "Music for Mallet Instruments, Voice, and Organ", so I wanted to make a remix of it in that unique style.
I've always liked the odd blending of instruments that Steve pulled off in that tune, as well as the kind oftrance it puts ya in. I wanted to see if I could do that with this Sonic Remix. I think I did pretty well; the instrumentation consists of Marimba, Xylophone, Vibraphone, Glock, Choir, Church Organ, Hammond Organ, some synthy percussion to help carry the piece, and... Pepsi Bottle. :) Notice also that there are NO crash cymbals, lead synths, or transition swell/woosh sounds.
Now here's the funny part; finished with my Remix, I went to Overclocked to see if anyone else had tackled this theme at all. But, to my confusion, I discover that every Sonic 2 remix on the site is based off of themes - that weren't in the original soundtrack I downloaded! Befuddled, I go to Zophar.net to investigate. Heh, turns out every remix on the site is based off of Sonic 2 for Sega Genesis, whereas the soundtrack I downloaded was from Sonic 2 for the Sega Master System and Game Gear.
Well, I never played the game, so I'm not positive if I do the tune justice or not, but it was fun to make, and that's the important part for me. It's experimental, yes, considering the orchestration - but you'll also notice - the song is almost 5 minutes long. Those 5 minutes seem to go by very fast. Looks like I accomplised the trance-inducing style I was going for, atleast in my ears."
While I'd like to interject my two cents and note that I'd imagine, were he exposed to more of it, Chris would find there's dozens and dozens of unremixed Sega tracks that are beggin' for some well-deserved love, it's nevertheless quite groovy that he's chosen this subject matter, and also that he's managed to incorporate Steve Reich's style into the mix - and name into the mix title, for that matter. This is a bit more reserved and restrained that typical Mazedude fair, which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you are, but is nonetheless a unique take on a unique track. Recommended.
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