ReMix: Psychonauts 'Psychotic Censors'

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Happy Halloween! This is a little bit late, for which I apologize, but it seems like everyone and their grandmother has a late October or early November birthday, and I actually spent most of tonight with friends and family celebrating not one but two belated birthdays. Honestly, although it's ironic since I'm a huge fan of horror films, Halloween has never really been a big thing for me, but I can appreciate those who DO get into the mood... it's sorta like socially acceptable cosplay for the masses. At any rate, there's still some hours left in the nocturne, and it's thus not too late for some Halloween-themed mixage, courtesy one dude of Maze. Mr. Getman presents us with our first mix of Psychonauts, a critically-acclaimed, innovative game that didn't sell as well as it should have but is often pointed to as an example of how the art form has progressed and how innovation and more involved, intelligent thematic material is doable. Chris asked me to pimp the recently released Bad Dudes EP-03 as part of this mix writeup; it's an album of kickass Halloween-themed game mixes by a lot of familiar names that's sure to get your fright on, in a positive and musical fashion. Are you bad enough to download it? Check it and other great EPs out over on OneUp Studios' website. About the mix itself, the artist writes:

"Well, Psychonauts has become one of my all-time favorite video games. It is inventive, humorous, clever, and fun. Coinciding with this is an amazing soundtrack, composed by one of my all-time favorite game composers, Peter McConnell. His partnership with Tim Schafer on previous adventure games such as Day of the Tentacle, Sam n Max, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, and others have provided me with countless hours of video-game playing joy. As a composer, he is very difficult to remix, as his chord style is very chromatic, unpredictable, and complex. Yet, as a die-hard remixer I have taken the time to decipher a few of his songs over time, and have enjoyed the challenge in remixing them.

The soundtrack to Psychonauts is rather unusual. While it still maintains the Peter McConnell vibes, it was heavily influenced and inspired by the soundtrack to the feature film "Beetlejuice," composed by Danny Elfman. In fact, this particular track is reminiscent of the score to the scene where Beetlejuice becomes a giant snake and attacks the family. So, all in all, I am blending a great many things together in my remix (like usual, hehe). We have Peter McConnell, Danny Elfman, a hint of Henry Mancini (as the bassline is also slightly reminiscent of "Peter Gunn" ), some circus elements (considering the game itself has a lot of circus elements), and of course, good ol' industrial Mazedude goodness."

My older sister once unsuccessfully tried to convince our high school band director to do an entire marching band program of Danny Elfman music, leading off with the intro to Beetlejuice, which is my favorite piece off the OST and possibly by Elfman overall. True story. Chris did a better job summarizing this mix and what it's all about than I would, so instead I'll shamelessly quote Mr. Orichalcon... I don't know if they have Halloween down under, but he's groovy regardless:

"The melody is awesomely remixed in a retro-dark mood, pitch-sliding all over the place. The beats are dark and thick, the piano is evil and foreboding. Can't ask for anything better."

Very cool. Enjoy our first Psychonauts mix, another great Mazedude mix, and an excellent Halloween mix, all rolled up into one tasty bundle that's all treat and no trick.

― djpretzel