ReMix: Sonic & Knuckles 'Lover Reef'
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- Game: Sonic & Knuckles (Sega, 1994, GEN)
- ReMixer(s): D-Lux, Geoffrey Taucer, pixietricks, shonensamurai, zircon
- Composer(s): Howard Drossin, Jun Senoue, Tomonori Sawada
- Song(s): Lava Reef Zone
- Posted: 2006-03-18, evaluated by djpretzel
Possibly the best thing to come out of January's NYC OCR meetup (other than my mildly inebriated shouting of anatomical terms at the Outback Steakhouse, of course) is this Sonic & Knuckles mega-collab, born in the fires of Mt. Doom, also known as the post-meetup slumber party at Mr. Aversa's pad. Evidently there wasn't much slumbering going on, as he and four others put together the lion's share of this ReMix in that single night. Who knows what other saucy and torrid happenings occurred pre- and post-mixage that shall not be divulged on the family-friendly and wholly righteous pages of OCR? One can only wonder... but, tangibly-speaking, we do have this mix, and though brief, it manages to give each of its five participants some face-time, which I have to think was part of the point. Andy writes:
"This is a remix of 'Lava Reef' from Sonic and Knuckles, entitled 'Lover Reef'. It was sketched out and written almost entirely in one night at my place after the OCR meetup in New York City. The people involved: pixietricks, D-Lux, Shonen Samurai, GeoffreyTaucer, and myself. I did the arranging and the keys parts, pixietricks did the female vocals (duh), D-Lux did the spoken vocals, Shonen Samurai did the male sung vocals, and GT covered all the nifty guitarwork. pixie, Shonen, and D-Lux also did the lyrics. All in all, we had a blast doing it and I think it came out great. Hope you enjoy it!"
Warm analog pads start things off, with pixie's vocalizing and Taucer's acoustic guitar coming in on top of electro percussion that gets more acoustic in nature and fills out at 0'32". The first verse comes in seconds later, after the initial piano pattern gets an isolated patch, with Jill on the original lyric. I think the strength of this piece is the fitting of the melody to a lyric, specifically a lyric that works well shared between Jill and Shonen Samurai; when he comes in at 0'56" on the chorus and Jill switches to harmony, it's evident that, however short the gestation period was for the arrangement, it was still planned carefully enough to make the vocals effective. It's comparatively challenging to make one's first appearance on OCR singing a vocal part side-by-side with Jill, but shonen really does do a rather good job - his voice complements pixie's and suits the ice-pop sound as well. Lyrically, I really love the "And it's not our way to be" bit. I know it's just a single line out of many, but it's a peculiar syntax and turn of phrase, and I've always felt that single lines can make or break a lyric or poem. D-Lux comes in channeling Lane McCray from La Bouche with a little rap that may or may not hit you the right way; it certainly screams 90's and is well-written, but it does up the already formidable cheese ante a bit. That's GOOD cheese, not bad cheese, although as an MST3K fan I don't believe in the latter. The piece is well constructed; Andy's production and framework lets the other four artists shine and ties everything together, and Taucer, like Dylan before him, gets to go electric at 1'26" with a meaty guit solo. At just under three minutes, the quintet wisely decided to keep their five-way one-night stand on the shorter side of things, giving the result a packed tightness prevalent in pop songwriting. It's impressive enough on a sheer logistical level that five people could communicate with enough efficiency to simply lay the corresponding tracks down in a single night, but to have arranged the piece and penned the lyric in that same period as well would make one suspicious as to the quality of the result. While I'm sure there are things that might have sounded more polished with additional time for retakes and refinement, this mix has the spontaneity of ad-hoc creative collaboration in its corner, which is a compelling ally. Congrats to shonen for his first mix here on OCR and to all of the Big 5 involved for pulling this thing together and making it work. I suppose a final kudos has to be doled out to Mr. Aversa, who was crazy enough to let these people into his living quarters, and hopefully fed and watered them, too. Nice work, all.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the The piano solo still leaves me begging for more. Wish you guys had made it a tad longer.
Fantastic job on this one just the same guys.
- Flare4War on March 10, 2009
- Lucentas on January 6, 2009
We've turned to ice
And it's not our way to be
So let the earth quake
And melt with me.
While I do find "and it's not our way to be" to be an interesting line, "melt with me" has that double-meaning that gives almost a sense of purpose to this song.
Me likey.
- SoulinEther on January 5, 2009
- Urami on October 5, 2008
DarkeSword;399350 wrote: Anyway let's get back on topic, shall we?
Fair enough!
This is an exceptionally well produced track and the female voice is very well controlled - I don't really like the male voice, though. The lyrics are much too cheesy for me, as well. Also not a fan of the spoken word section.
I'm mostly just impressed with how well this track was produced. Sounds nearly professional - the MIDIish piano was a bit eh, but that's probably the only thing I can comment on.
- artemisjaeger on April 20, 2008
artemisjaeger;399296 wrote: Looks to me like he may have been out of line here, but I wouldn't say that ALL of his reviews were out of line. I'm sad to see one of the few people willing to say negative things about songs here banned, but then again, I haven't read all of his reviews and he may have been the negative nancy that everyone's accusing him of being.
EDIT: Okay, I just looked through most of his first page of reviews and the vast majority were very positive. I'm not saying he didn't deserve to be banned (I mean, he said some pretty stupid stuff in this topic), but...
This isn't really the place to discuss this, but look at any review of a vocal or symphonic song by him; they're all tirades against the genres, not reviews of the songs, and the tone of these reviews is consistently abusive.
Anyway let's get back on topic, shall we?
- DarkeSword on April 20, 2008
EDIT: Okay, I just looked through most of his first page of reviews and the vast majority were very positive. I'm not saying he didn't deserve to be banned (I mean, he said some pretty stupid stuff in this topic), [i]but[/i]...
- artemisjaeger on April 20, 2008
He's weird in that he believes everyone who adds vocals approaches it with the mindset of "making something better by a factor of 10" or whatever, completely not understanding the creative intent behind it, and, more importantly, not wanting to understand.
He also doesn't realize that the staff warning him about his review posts is not about the mere criticism of a piece. For this one, I thought Mike's singing was nasally, sure. Even he says that. The mixing also could have been cleaner. People can criticize the ReMixes any time. That's not the problem.
The problem is the tone of the criticism. Like DarkeSword said, there's not liking the song, then there's reaching with, I agree, moronic and insulting blanket statements like "stealing music". You can't consistently keep making those statements ad nauseum against the forum rules and expect nothing to happen. Ah well, good riddance. :tomatoface:
- Liontamer on April 19, 2008
KogeJoe;399017 wrote: Yeah. What do I mean by write your own musical platform? It means don't ruin good music because you think you can sing and make an already good piece "better" by putting in cheesy lyrics and bad singing. What is this. American Idol?
In other words, why don't you write your own music to your own lyrics? You think you're being "creative" when you take an already written piece of music and adding in your own lyrics? How is stealing music to put in your own lyrics "creative" or "original?" There is such a thing as "remixing," and then there is shameless opportunism. Sorry, but I think I'm entitled to write in what I think, seeing as this is a "review" forum, right? Sorry, but that's the way I see it. Maybe there are people on here who wish to hear sappy lyrics mixed in with good videogame music. I'm not one of them.
Sorry, but nothing we do here at OCR is considered stealing. It's perfectly fine that you don't like lyrics in video game songs, but you know what? Other people do, and other people choose to show their appreciation for video game music by interpreting it in a way that inspires them. If that inspires lyrics, well then that's what they're going to produce. You have every right in the world to give an artist a negative review but you have no right to call anyone here a thief. That is out of line and it will not be tolerated here.
What is a "legitimate" reason for not liking something? Why must my reasons for not liking how a piece of music sounds be legitimized by anyone save myself? Just who do you think you are? Releasing a work out into the world, and then crying a river because someone out there doesn't like it is moronic and insulting. "How DARE you not like my piece! Garrr!!!" If you don't want people to say bad things about your work, you shouldn't be releasing them in such a public place as the INTERNET.You don't have to really have to "legitimize" your reasons for not liking something. Just say you don't like it. But the really issue becomes apparent when you start calling the artists "theiveing bitches" and accusing them of using the game music as a "platform" in order to build themselves up. That's not what anyone is here for, and if that's what you think then you're sadly mistaken.
A person who is "grown up" can take criticism, good or bad and roll with it, instead of demanding people shut up and not speak their minds. It's the whole reason for a "review" forum.And the review forum is for reviews, not accusations and insults. Do it again and I will permanently ban you from these forums.
EDIT: Nevermind. Looking at your review history, I can see that you're an incredibly closed-minded individual who doesn't review songs on their own merits, but based on your opinions of their respective genres. They're incredibly abusive that don't provide anything constructive at all, save for "do it better next time" and "don't remix in this style." No place for that here. Bye.
- DarkeSword on April 19, 2008
zircon;226164 wrote: "Write your own musical platform"? What does that even mean? I suppose we should get rid of all mixes that use guitars, right? They're not "writing their own musical platform". After all how many songs are there that use guitars. And don't even get me started on orchestral remixes! That "platform" has been around for hundreds of years and people are so uncreative that they're still using it.
Man, shut the hell up. There are lots of legitimate reasons for not liking a remix, but somehow implying that we're uncreative or unoriginal is moronic and insulting. Grow up.
Ah HAH. I KNEW there was reason behind your recent rant in your private message.
Can't take criticism unless it's a GOOD review eh?
Yeah. What do I mean by write your own musical platform? It means don't ruin good music because you think you can sing and make an already good piece "better" by putting in cheesy lyrics and bad singing. What is this. American Idol?
In other words, why don't you write your own music to your own lyrics? You think you're being "creative" when you take an already written piece of music and adding in your own lyrics? How is stealing music to put in your own lyrics "creative" or "original?" There is such a thing as "remixing," and then there is shameless opportunism. Sorry, but I think I'm entitled to write in what I think, seeing as this is a "review" forum, right? Sorry, but that's the way I see it. Maybe there are people on here who wish to hear sappy lyrics mixed in with good videogame music. I'm not one of them.
Sorry, this song sounds awful. The voice is awful, the lyrics are awful. Lyrics don't instantly sound good because you're putting them to good videogame music, and sorry, but I'm not too fond of hearing people sing with their nose. You might think this is the best voice in the whole world, sorry but I think it needs improvement.
Why are you talking about guitars and symphony? What does this have to do with putting lyrics to other people's music? I can get started on "symphonic" re-mixes, a lot sound boring and unexciting. No, a piece isn't an instant ringer, and it doesn't make a re-mixer sound "creative" or "sophisticated" for pretending to write for a symphony. Not saying that all of them suck, just that most of them do. It's a turn-off to hear a played-out style rehashed. Symphony isn't bad, if you can write for it.
What is a "legitimate" reason for not liking something? Why must my reasons for not liking how a piece of music sounds be legitimized by anyone save myself? Just who do you think you are? Releasing a work out into the world, and then crying a river because someone out there doesn't like it is moronic and insulting. "How DARE you not like my piece! Garrr!!!" If you don't want people to say bad things about your work, you shouldn't be releasing them in such a public place as the INTERNET.
A person who is "grown up" can take criticism, good or bad and roll with it, instead of demanding people shut up and not speak their minds. It's the whole reason for a "review" forum.
You know what you call a place where you can only say "good" things? Communist China. Maybe if we lived there. But we don't.
Quit being such a sensitive artist.
I've heard your works. You've got some good stuff. I just don't think this is one of them. Get over it!
- KogeJoe on April 19, 2008
Shonen Samurai;369962 wrote: Yeah, I spend a lot of my listening time with this song criticizing my voice. I'd like to say that two years have made a difference, but I've had no vocal training since then either, so it'd be fibbing of a sort.
I'm nowhere near the vocalist that Jill is--I've never claimed to be, of course--and the fact of the matter is that she's leaps and bounds beyond me in technique and ability.
That said--I'm still proud to be part of the whole thing; even if my contribution was the "least best", I still brought exactly what I had to offer to the table and I think that it works.
I'm definitely glad you were a part of it -- your contributions to the lyrics were brilliant, and I think the roughness of your voice actually adds a lot to the piece, as does the cheesiness of Steve's rap breakdown.
- Geoffrey Taucer on January 27, 2008
- RiftDoggy on January 27, 2008
I'm nowhere near the vocalist that Jill is--I've never claimed to be, of course--and the fact of the matter is that she's leaps and bounds beyond me in technique and ability.
That said--I'm still proud to be part of the whole thing; even if my contribution was the "least best", I still brought exactly what I had to offer to the table and I think that it works.
- Shonen Samurai on January 27, 2008
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