ReMix: Laser Squad 'Mission Recalled'

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What's this? Non-SC material from Mark Vera? Mr. Jouni treads outside the realm of Star Control for the first time since his first submission of Wizardry way back in 2002 in this arrangement of the Amiga game Laser Squad, which was actually released for the C64 and several other platforms as well by Target Games. If you've never heard of it, you may not be alone, but chances are you've heard of X-COM, which the same developers went on to create - pretty cool. They're now working as independent game developers and have released a modern-day update to this game at www.lasersquadnemesis.com - learn something new every day, eh? At any rate, MV (not to be confused with "mv" or "McV") has created another quality track, this time going for more of euro-electro-pop feel, complete with an odd little Germanesque vocal percussive bit, orchestra hits, and plenty of brass swells and computer fx to go along with the oscillator-sync'd lead. The ReMixer explains:

"This remix is bridge between Spacesynth and Electro-breakbeat styles, some trancy elements too I'd say. Made in two evenings. The vocal sample in the intro is "naturally" me. Original song by Matt Furniss and he gave me his blessing on this remix :) The electronic rain sound in the intro has been sampled from my friend's Korg M1, bassline from his Juno-106, some samples are from the original module song (with some pre-processing for higher sample quality), drums are samples sequenced in Orion (no loops), otherwise sounds from softsynths. They say intro is little bit long, but it is still shorter than in the original (and personally I like it this way). Some counterpoint melodies added."

I like knowing little details like the origin of the speech at the beginning and ending, and it's certainly cool that Jouni gets to speak with and collaborate with the creators of games like Star Control 2 and now Laser Squad. This doesn't feel as "serious" as some of his other work and has sort of a lighthearted, consciously retro kitsche to it, but it's good listenin' nonetheless. Judge analoq had the most to say:

"the interpretation here isn't very exotic, he's changed the instrumentation around and has added new stuff.. but a lot of new stuff. that juno bass sounds very good. i was never a fan of the junos sound but jouni apparently got it to work well. it's a little longer than it should be, but i'd say it's passable. "

Not Mark Vera's most dramatic ReMix, but of a similar calibre, and covering a previoulsy unmixed game while also deviating from his staple diet of Star Control; good stuff.

― djpretzel