ReMix: Strider 'Vibe Victory'

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Yes - a Strider ReMix! Knew this day would come... I liken myself to the old knight dude that's been sitting around for centuries guarding the holy grail in the third Indiana Jones, waiting for someone to vanquish him, save that I've been waiting for four years for someone to ReMix Strider... And I'm not an old knight dude. But other than that, it's... well, it's still a shitty analogy, but that doesn't take away from the fact that this is a Strider ReMix, a good one, and also happens to be Quinn Fox's first ReMix in a long while. So, where to begin? First off, don't confuse this Strider with the version that was released for the NES. While the NES version had its own merits, it really didn't have a lot to do with the initial appeal and concept of the original, which involved very vast, dramatic environments. The original (for which Sega pulled off one of the better Genesis conversions) also had a much more innovative, some might say landmark soundtrack. What was so unusual about it? Well... it was very motif-centric, focusing on almost ambient refrains that would come in at certain cues, instead of continuously playing, more traditionally melodic, tempoed tunage. For this reason, it was quite unique - and still is - and stands as one of the more interesting experiments in how music can work with games and vice versa. However, this quality made it - in my opinion - a bitch to ReMix. I've thought about it several times, approaching it from different angles, and it didn't work for me. The primary problem being that some of the stuff is so free-form that it would be hard to cover it as anything but free-form as well without losing the charm. Enter Quinn Fox. It might not be his best mix to date, and I'm quite certain that it won't be his most popular as that honor almost immediately goes to any Squaresoft game a ReMixer chooses to arrange, but for me it is very special. It represents what I view as success in covering game music that was not only important but also presented fairly unique challenges. So, let's take a look at how QF approached things - basically, he's gone for a mellow-jazz vibe with a plethora of electric piano timbres, organ, and acoustic piano covering the falling, Winter motif from the second stage. Some nice snare roll work as well. Vibes do eventually come in and play more with this motif, explaining the at first seemingly-inverted mix title. But how has the ReMixer worked with the very free-form original and converted it into something that fits rather snugly into a 4/4 mellow jazz structure? Basically, the piece is largely interpretive/impressionistic; it takes the motif and builds a track around it, embedding aspects of it whenever possible and restating it as well as incorporating it into more ponderous vibe solo work. This makes sense - trying to avoid this level of interpretation would have been a lesson in futility, as it's the only way I could see of making things click, arrangement-wise. Actually, I guess I couldn't see it until I heard it firsthand - kudos to QF for a comeback which fans of this game/soundtrack I'm confident will have as unique and singular an appreciation of as I do. Someone had to make this work, eventually, and I'm not surprised it was Quinn. Note that the original soundtrack was by Junko Tamitani - the conversions for C64 and other platforms were based on the orginal Japanese Arcade/Genesis music. This won't blow your socks off, but it's damn solid and throws some nice triplets around on the percussion such that even those unfamiliar with the original entirely should find it accessible. Recommended.

― djpretzel