ReMix: Gauntlet III: The Final Quest 'Blue Wizard is About to Die'

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Edgy stuff. We last saw a proud member of the Gauntlet series covered by Mustin and Nate Cloud, all the way back in 2000, with the emphatic GAUNTLET!, but there's been nary a peep since, so it's fortuitous that Binster's given some effect-laden electronica lovin' to Tim Follin's score to the series third outing on the Commodore 64. There's an abundance of effects and trixie DSP applied to the basic groove, here, and most of the mileage is gained via the myriad mangled mutations the mixer manages to milk from the material. Things intro with a "welcome" sample and fx and broken, turntablized samples, as the basic synth motif enters and is eventually given primacy with a synth bass and meaty electro-acoustic kit. There's a lovely cross-panned arpeggio break, after which reverb is turned up to abyss-levels and things disappear into the distance, only to come right back at ya much heavier circa 1'16" with a deep'n'dirty synth bass and afterwards some filtering fun. When taken to these levels of creativity (and extremity), effects and augmentation can become forms of rearrangement and not just aspects of production, as they begin having a much more salient impact on the melody and structure of a piece. Binnie explains why I think this mix got the panel majority:

"The melody isn't obscured - it's not the focus. The shredded beatwork and sharp texture is what makes the day, which he-who-shares-my-nickname is excellent at."

At two-and-a-half minutes, it's more of an excursion than a journey, but any lengthening I think would have required more substantive additions to either the melodic or harmonic components, which I don't think Binster wanted to emphasize. This actually serves as a good example of how to ReMix in a fashion that's still interpretive, but focuses more on building around the original material than within it. Such approaches may be more sustainable for genres that allow for more expansive use of effects, i.e. electronica, but they work nonetheless. We've heard in previous mixes from Binster that he can do more on the arrangement side of the equation, and I think his other submissions which have done so have been longer for that very reason, but I also think he's created a mix in Blue Wizard that illustrates a different methodology but with similarly successful results.

― djpretzel