ReMix: Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine 'Slick Rippin Keen'

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Saw Walk the Line on Saturday, probably seeing it again tonight, and listening up on some Cash. Yes, it's embarassingly trendy and herd to develop affinities based on Hollywood biopics, but Phoenix did an amazing job and, unlike Ray, the film was more than just great performances. I really have to credit the filmmakers for having actors sing their own parts - risky, but it worked out well. So, Thanksgiving: one of those holidays the US of A has essentially to itself. To most, it means turkey and football. Being a lukewarm fan of both, for me, it's always been an excuse to partake of abnormal quantities of horseradish. In either case, I'm sure what's foremost in everyone's mind is the giving of thanks to Squanto, who helped a bunch of hungry white people with funny hats a long time ago with the corn and what not; at least, that's the extent of what I retained from elementary school...

But ill-repaid agricultural tips from days of yore are but one of many things to be thankful for, as Mazedude shows us. While the occassion itself has passed, the soul still burns, as he's submitted an excellent Commander Keen 5 ReMix that's worth a good giving of thanks or two. Furthermore, like congealing gravy, the plot thickens: this is but one of fifteen tracks from Mr. Getman's solo project, "The American Album," available at http://mazedude.com/aa/. It's only been out a lil while, but already Chris has gotten positive feedback from John Romero, Jeremy Soule, Jack Wall, and Tommy Tallarico, as well as many appreciative ReMixers and listeners. The theme - in case your powers of deduction have been curtailed by excess egg nog - is to honor specifically American game composers, and to give thanks (see, it's circular!) to these talented men (sadly no ladies in the group); it's a legitimate point that more attention is usually thrown towards the land of the rising sun when it comes to game composition, so this project definitely fills a hole. Chris writes:

"There have been several tributes made to Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, and several other renowned Japanese video game music composers. That's well and good, but... This is the first ever tribute to the American Video Game Music Composers. I'm very proud of that, and it has been an honor creating these remixes. For them, for you, and for me. Enjoy."

This CK5 mix is funky, fun, and most importantly ornate and tightly sequenced, two of the hallmarks of Mazedude's trademark style. Some of the instrumentation and sequencing reminds me of Ari's classic Neighburgers from ZAMN, which Chris also covers material from on his album, along with Doom, Myst, Secret of Evermore, Earthworm Jim 2, and other titles with soundtracks by American composers. Larry writes:

"Solid tracker material here and the arrangement is definitely there without a doubt. I like Chris getting back to some of the decidedly more interpretive arrangement. This is really hooking it up with the Mazedude SPICES."

Meanwhile, The Wingless dashes the hopes and dreams of dozens of boys, men, and manchildren (other than Chris and Tom Cruise) in exclaiming:

"Mazedude is the only man I would seriously consider to engage in man-secks, with the possible exception of Tom Cruise, but that is really niether here nor there, nor very pertinent to the conversation at hand.

In any event, Mazedude is that which all music aspires to be. In all the lands of all the worlds that have ever existed, has there ever been such a man as Mazedude? All things serve Mazedude!"

Some of the percolating, alternating synth fx breakdowns here are simply interplanetary, and the whole thing has a bubbling, galvanized funkitude, with mucho pentatonic melodic motifs and fifth-leads that bend further and more often than those gals on Cirque Du Soleil. Basically, it lives up to its title - it's slick, it's rippin, and it's both keen AND Keen. Definitely grab it here, then run, don't walk, to check out the rest of the project, parts of which may appear here in the future, but the entirety of which is well worth your time, and an appropriate way to round out Thanksgiving weekend.

― djpretzel