ReMix: Turrican II: The Final Fight 'The Desert Rocks vs. Concerto for Laser and Enemies'

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Oh yes. Mad, crazyfast beats are the flavor and the feeling in this submission from newcomer Awesome-A (sounds sort of like Axel-F, yet...not), who mixes orchestral elements and piano with breakbeat and trance in a very high-octane arrangement of levels one and six from Chris Hülsbeck's Turrican 2 score. First off, I gotta send a quick B-day shout out to the one, the bald, the only Liontamer, aka Larry Oji. Those that follow the site's inner machinations know how instrumental he's become in moving us along with the submission process, etc., so props there. zyko had a bit more to say than usual on this one, and all of it positive:

"this is awesome. the intensity is there. the arrangement is definetly there... touches upon the strengths of the source and exploits the subject matter perfectly. the quality is also superb. i loved this soundtrack... i was working on a collaboration with some of these same melodies so i'm familiar with their potential badassness. its neat how the track begins on a very modern note... the drums and bass and breaks very indicative of modern electronica. the bass is powerful. the orchestra hits are tastefully done. then the track shifts into a section that goes even further back... it now takes me back to the mid-80's and there is no mistaking the power of nostalgia in this section. i like how seamlessly the two seemingly different sections connect so well and give you the illusion and possibly reality that they belong together."

Agreed - it's not the most complex track in the world, but it's well thought-out, unique, and has an unbridled enthusiasm for the source material that I think comes through in every pulse. You essentially get hybrid orchestral/breakbeat up until about 1'30", when a staple trance hook comes in with nice gated reverb and things get a lot (gasp) trancier, quickly. The hook at 1'56" dominates most of the rest of the track, but not without some breaks and excursions that mix things up sufficiently and keep it fresh throughout. In general, any time octave-spanning string runs are flying over a catchy but competent trance motif, I'm reminded of Space Harrier, and I'm a happy man. This tunage bears some similarity to the SH OST in spirit, with it's major-key electronic euphoria, and harkens back to a day when it was all about original sci-fi heroes doing crazy shizzit and no one needed a movie license or the latest and greatest graphics to sell games. Turrican may have been more a computer hero than a champion of the consoles, but I think he fits right in with the best of the more obscure 8-bit legends like the harrier, the couple from Quartet, etc., as does his soundtrack fit with Japanese console tunage of the era. Quote the birthday boy:

"A surprisingly good fusion of electronic work with orchestral elements."

Don't pass it up, even if you've never played Turrican, as it's equal parts good, clean fun and solid, hybrid, creative arrangement. With a pseuodnym like Awesome-A, it's fortuitous that his initial submission live up to any expectations his nick might conjure.

― djpretzel