ReMix: The Addams Family 'Nightmare on Cemetery Lane'

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Ryan's first ReMix was posted way back in June of '06, but he's back with our first arrangement from the Addams Family SNES game:

"I always wanted to do something from this game. I used to rent it along with Super Mario World when the SNES first came out and I always love it. I did try to get this one to work a while back but I guess my skills hadn’t developed far enough and it was quickly abandoned but not forgotten. I also wanted to do something with a similar, high energy, ‘clanging’ sound like that found on the disaster sequences from Titanic (and Courage Under Fire) by James Horner. This, surprisingly, turned out to be it. Hope you guys like it."

James Horner is the man, though in my mind more for Searching for Bobby Fischer and Sneakers. This arrangement is neat because it's very directly and overtly targeting a cinematic score style and instrumentation. Sometimes we get orchestral arrangements that have a soundtrack feel to them, but this one is more blatant about its inspiration and composition being deeply rooted in film lore + score. As a submission, this one would have been a no-brainer, save that Ryan played the arrangement very close at several points, leaving instrumentation and samples (used skilfully, albeit) to do the heavy lifting. Judging would have been a lot easier had Ryan deviated a little more, but Andy still felt there was enough here:

"After a few listens I have to say that I am impressed with the production quality improvement here. The upgrade to better samples certainly helped, but I know a lot of people who do not use these samples well, so clearly you're learning to use what you have well. Mixing is good and the dynamic range is tasteful. We get a LOT of bad orch subs but this is not one of them, at least not in the technical/implementation sense. I disagree with Vig that the orchestration is "sloppy". It seems pretty detailed to me and the dynamics from section to section are impressive.

I do however share some concerns about the arrangement. Many rhythms and harmonies are identical and it generally mimics the structure of the original for the first half. That makes me uneasy. However, I really can't say that this is below our standard of interpretation... it clearly does a lot with the theme as the mix develops. I would be happier if more of that creativity was applied to the beginning but as it stands this is a solid mix."

So, while the first half of the mix could have done a little more with the source, Random Hero pulls it through in the later, latter bits, and maintains consistently high production throughout. Good to see Ryan resurfacing after awhile, and great to see more obscure source material getting some love.

― djpretzel