ReMix: Star Control II 'Lightyears Away'

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Finally saw Nine Inch Nails live, with Bauhaus, at the Nissan Pavilion last night. With the exception of 'Sanctified', they played every last song I was hoping for - show was amazing. As a fan from the early PHM days, before they became huge, it was great to finally catch them live; they're able to recreate their album sound amazingly well. Right then... Mark Vera hits it up yet again with more Star Control 2 mixage. Jouni writes:

"Even though I have lots of hardware synthesizers in my studio today, the only one I used for this remix is my beloved Juno-106, which took the honor of playing the bassline. Most used software synths are Pro-53 and WaspXT. Arrangement done in Orion Platinum. The arragement is partly based on midi patterns I made for the first Hyperspace remix already posted here on OCR."

So, yes, more Star Control 2, and specifically, more Hyperspace. While the arrangement here is actually closer to its source, the production has been bumped up, with a strong Pet Shop Boys/New Order 80's groove. Larry writes:

"I'm sure people can put up a fairly fine argument that there's enough expansion here to make it a pass on the arrangement level, but this was still nagging on me quite a lot. Does a good job of filling out the original though and adding new parts, though the structure being so similar was a big turnoff to enjoying the track. The question is weighing whether it passes the test as an expansive-enough cover that distinguishes itself enough from the original."

It's somewhat befuddling why someone with Jouni's talents would revisit a piece rather than exploring undiscovered county from one of the other Star Control games, or branching out to other series like he did with Laser Squad and Wizardry, but each mix is evaluated on a case by case basis, and clearly this is a theme the ReMixer is enamored of. One of the highlights for me was the tom rolls towards the end; nothing like a high-to-low fill to round out a four-bar pattern. Fans of the Star Control 2 soundtrack and Jouni's work should definitely dig; anyone into 80's music or just a good synth pop/rock groove is invited, too.

― djpretzel