ReMix: EarthBound 'Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Scientist Boy'

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Jack and I don't often agree on too many things, but we do share a mutual appreciation for Guided by Voices, which this mix draws title inspiration as well as perhaps some lo-fi sensibilities from. The ReMixer writes:

"...this one does go more extreme with dynamics and does a lot of different things in a short period of time, so I can maybe understand why it would be too intense for some people. Still, I really see this as a logical extension of the kirby mix - lots of effects and the "wall of sound"-type stuff. It obviously is more succinct and takes some ideas to the extreme (I really think I improved my percussion a lot from much of the cheap loop-based stuff I've used before, for example), but it's not too much of a stretch to me."

It *was* a bit more of a stretch to some of the judges, as this one eked by with some very strong objections from TO and zircon and lesser qualms from Larry. You can see, or rather hear, why - it's not easy listening, both in the generic sense of the phrase or from a perspective of difficulty. I think one does have to at least consider the zany, musically-whimsical-to-the-nth-degree source material that Suzuki-san wrote; Jack's treatment seems fairly congruous with the playfulness and unorthodox stylings of the overall EB soundtrack. Jack provides the backstory for the piece:

"This is about a kid who looks towards machines to give him the answers to everything. It's about an awkward and uncomfortable kid who fidgets obsessively over the slightest tweaks in the bits in pieces of whatever the lastest thing is he's working on. But mostly, it's about a kid who's too naive not to know he can help save the world (with the assistance of a magical monkey, of course)."

It seems like much of the divisiveness on the panel centered around the very in-your-face, overcompressed drums, which will likely be the deciding factor for many listeners as well; if you don't have a taste for lo-fi or garage rock and like your drum tracks with both hands where you can see them, this might chafe you the wrong way. JJT, for whom it did not, describes rather eloquently:

"Impressive. The Snowwood theme is instantly recognizable amid the ambiance of the intro. When the compressed drums make their entrance, the listener is pretty much AB's bitch for the next two minutes or so. This remix takes many of the ideas presented by the original composer and just runs with them: the mild dynamic contrasts are exagerated, the psuedo-polka section is put on steroids (and crack), and the ambient atmosphere of the original is captured, at least when the drums aren't melting your face."

Reminds me of that scene at the end of the first Indiana Jones ("Shut your ears, Marion!") a bit; Nazis beware. I think the trick to evaluating more sonically chaotic/challenging mixes like this is to still look for signs of intelligent design - no, not the makeshift creationism they're trying to teach in American in schools instead of acknowledging his noodly appendage, but rather signs of structure, motifs of intent, some semblance of composition-by-design as opposed to arbitrary flotsam. You definitely get that here, as I'd expect from Jack, but you do need to first acclimate yourself to the surroundings, which can be disorienting. Even the mix's advocates found the ending a bit abrupt, but sans that, what you're essentially getting here is lo-fi impressionism: an artistic, mutated vision of a character study, in musical form. Not for everyone, but then, what is?

― djpretzel