ReMix: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening 'Clash at the Mountains'

Download MP3
4,554,752 bytes, 3:08, 194kbps

• Trade-in your Games or Anime DVDs!
• OC ReMix Shirts & Merch
• Games:
  • DS | GBA | GC | PS2 | WII | XBOX | 360
  • Imports & Pre-owned
• Anime:
  • DVDs & Merchandise

I still think "Tal Tal Bachman" is funny. STILL. But I digress; Mr. Aversa sends in his own take on the Tal Tal Heights theme that small wonder and former judge Mr. Cabrera braved back in August of '03. If you're not adverse to Aversa, even though this is a little over-the-top compared to his usual style, I think you'll dig it. Sir writes:

"It's a break from what I normally do, but I think this is still a fun little ReMix; an upbeat groove with lots of synths and a smattering of orchestral elements. Relatively conservative in regards to arrangement, but I did play with the progression and add my own material to spice things up. I hope people have as much fun listening to it as I had making it. Enjoy!"

Where Dan employed a solo violin, Andy goes electric guitar, and overall the feel is a bit more electronic. I did call zirc out on his conspicuous use of the "MW Boost" preset from NI's FM7 softsynth, but I loved his response, which is the same line I use whenever I employ an easily identifiable preset: "but it sounds good!" Ultimately, whatever's right for the song is right for the song, and presets are there to be used. I usually end up tweaking things, esp. on electronica mixes, but often there's patches that just plain work, right out of the box, and in this case the shoe fits, and if it ain't broke, why fix it? Vacuum-packed hackneyed expressions aside, I think this mix will seem "familiar" to most listeners of electronica, but only because it's put together competently and utilizes proven techniques. Andy layers meaty, compressed beats (love the tom fills) with a smorgasbord of synth ackshunz, acoustic piano, and the afforementioned electric, which while synthetic does a great job of sounding full well into the upper registers and thus gracefully sidesteps misgivings I'd usually have about such a lead. The tom fills and flams are really key here - they fill out the mix, keep it moving, and pepper the vaguely big-beatish groove with highlights. The chord progression break at 1'32" is a great touch and quite striking. Basically, this is a great, highly accessible take on a theme that's already got mass appeal, so it's hard not to like. One thing I'll say that can be taken both positively and negatively - it doesn't particularly have a lot of depth to it. However, I don't think zircon intended it to, so it's not something that's indicative of a fresh direction for the artist, or that breaks into new territory in general, but is rather just a damn solid take on a classic theme, which embraces the appeal of pattern-based electronica and its vices, but does so competently and with heapin' helpins of groove and lovin' spoonfuls of know-how. Good stuff.

― djpretzel