ReMix: Xenogears 'Torn Apart'

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OLDSKOOL FLOOD! We've been a little behind in the posting lately, and since we happened to have four mixes lined up from some OC ReMix Oldskoolers, we figured we would post them in a mini-flood dedicated to these venerable and aged veterans of the scene who have aged like fine wine. Before the transition into vinegar, dammit. Back in late 1999, I started this site as a side project, with vague visions of what it could potentially become. I knew the idea was unique enough and could grow into something much larger, but I wasn't at all sure whether it would. The folks that contributed early and often in the first couple years really gave it the momentum that took it forward, and without them it may very well have remained a niche project with limited interest. Of course, the list of OCR vets is considerably longer than what's represented in this mini-flood; not everyone is still around and actively contributing, and even if they were, coordinating mixes from all of them would be logistically problematic. In this instance, however, things worked out - I've been wanting to do something like this for awhile, and hopefully this'll liven up your weekend quite a bit. The follow artists are included in the flood, and we're posting their mixes from latest to earliest in terms of when their very first mix was posted on the site. Here are some basic figures to make your lives easier:

Very cool; most of these fellas haven't had anything posted in three years, so it's also great to see this many comebacks. There's something about doing this that, for me at least, never really loses its appeal. There's nigh infinite possibilities and challenges, and it's fantastic to see some of OCR's original participants still getting their mix on. Our first mix is a collab from Xaleph (formerly DJ Carbunk1e) and Ryan8bit. Matt and Ryan team up here for some Xenogears action, melding the former's overall arrangement and electronica with the latter's guitar talents for some danceable but edgier stuff - more aggressive than Matt's usual style, which is cool to see. The ReMixer writes:

"As far as this piece, I don't think this is probably my 'best' work, but it is certainly one of those songs that I keep going back to just to listen - it just starts getting catchy and it's much different than the original piece. I had to go back and do a decent amount of sound engineering and replacing some percussion components because well... it sounded ridiculously cheezy initially. The kick was replaced by some of my new kicks, the clap was actually recently added (yeah it adds a lot, I'm pretty content with the addition), and I replaced one of the synth guitars as the previous one was... very obviously fake (yeah the new one that is also obviously fake isn't quite as obviously fake. You'll also notice that I used a fadeout - I generally hate any kind of fadeout and feel that it's just a crappy tool for any ending. The reason I used it here, is that I'm putting together a super mix, and it actually ties into some other songs. I doubt ocr would allow a 60 minute techno mix of various songs as a single submission, so I'm doing my best to keep the integrity of the song, while still submitting it to the site."

Andy tells me this is "psytrance" - frankly, there are so many "genres" of electronica that I just end up capitulating outright and deferring to people that sound like they know what they're talking about. People get very sensitive about this issue, but I have no problem with blanket terms like "techno" and "electronica" being applied to the innumerable sub-genres that seem to spawn up weekly, if not daily; it's not a question of respecting the music properly, which I feel I do, it's a question of objecting to an ever-changing taxonomy of musical categorization that seems uniquely granted to electronica, the nodes of which bear remarkable similarity to each other and often only deviate on a few subtle metrics. Given that electronica already has difficulty being accepted as "serious" music in some circles (not mine), I really don't think being so genre-happy is wise, but what do I know? I digress, though: whether this is psytrance, acid dance, Super Paper Hard Dance Housetronica II Champion Rainbow Edition Alpha Plus HD Remix 64, or simply electronica (as I prefer), it's good. PsyZircon says:

"Props to Matt for hooking up OCR with the under-represented psytrance genre. We hardly get any subs in this style, much less actual posted remixes... Really cool track overall. Reminds me of the group "Infected Mushroom" - particularly when all the sound effects are used to thicken things up. The arrangement is rock solid and the production, while perhaps a little rough around the edges, easily gets the job done. Good to hear "DJ Carbunk1e" back in action. :)"

There's definitely a repetitive nature to the underlying structure, here, but there's a lot of textural variation to keep things fresh, with generous use of distortion (is that the "psy"? maybe...) and other edgier textural elements. Matt's last Kyrandia ReMix was also a collab with Ryan, and I think this pairing works well in breaking more edge and organic elements to Matt's solid electronica foundation. Good stuff from two good mixers who it's great to see back in action.

― djpretzel