ReMix: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time 'Subterranean Kamikaze'

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Did you know that in the UK, TMNT were initially known as "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles"? They finally changed it, I believe, but still... what self-respecting kid would look up to a mutant hero? A mutant ninja, SURE - hell, any type of ninja, really - but a mutant hero just seems a little sad. But I digress; many of us enjoyed the four-player arcade version of TMNT 4, with its flamboyant, color-coded joysticks, and the SNES port used Mode7 to great, Foot Soldier-lobbing effect. It also had a fantastic, memorable soundtrack, even better than I remember most of the music from the actual cartoon being, and threw in some stage title voice samples for style points ("Big Apple.... 3AM"); basically the opposite of the mocking, infuriating samples from Bubsy.

Sixto Sounds, who's been rather ubiquitous lately, and some n00b named zircon teamed up for this rockin' and rollin' arrangement of TMNT4's 'Sewer Surfin'' track, which as it turns out this zircon guy collabed on before, with tefnek. Juan writes:

"When I was a kid and got my very own Super NES system one Christmas, my dad would take us down to the movie rental place every weekend. We would each pick one game. My sister always wanted to get Super Mario All-Stars. For me, it was usually one of two games; Street Fighter II or Turtles in M!@#$@~!n' Time. Awesome game. JAWESOME. Listening to the soundtrack now takes me back to those good ol' days. Days without worries or responsibilities. Just us kids being kids. *sigh* Anyway, the soundtrack is pretty much rocked out as it is. I just had to do the typical Sixto thing and rock it out a little more. I wanted to go all 80's hair metal on this and use some vintage guitar rock tones and synths. The guitar tones were no problem, but the synths were pretty generic. I'm no good with synths. At all. So, at the very last minute, zircon begged me to let him into the remix, so I obliged. He used his tehcno wizardry to conjure up some phat synths and whatnot. Really helped the mix, I think. Enjoy!"

The same piece also previously inspired chumble spuzz's tastefully titled 'Turd Surfers,' so clearly there's something about moist human waste floating around underground that appeals to these guys... or perhaps it's just that the original track IS pretty damn awesome. Andy writes:

"I loved the concept of this mix as soon as Sixto sent me a work in progress... after all, 80s-style hair metal fits the Turtles perfectly. I ended up programming all the synth sounds and adding some material in the form of an intro and a solo later on, but while Sixto definitely did the majority of the work (guitars, drums, arrangement), I think the addition of the over-the-top sweeps and screaming leads are the icing on the cake."

Non-sequitir: Was anyone else ever troubled that, episode after episode, April was always wearing the same yellow outfit? Did she wash that thing? No wonder she didn't mind hanging out in sewers with large tortoises. What DOESN'T smell is this mix; you might simply assume that, with Andy and Juan on board, it's a no-brainer... and you'd be right. While this tune has definitely been arranged impressively before, the glam-rock, indulgent, and generally spiffy treatment SS & Z have put together is different enough to be fresh and enjoyable enough to... enjoy. Profusely. Things intro with some nice B3 rock organ, which I haven't heard Andy or Juan use too much, but get glammier with the wall-o-synth at 0'22", channeling the Van Halen "Jump" sound just a bit. At 1'50" Juan's inner Eddie takes over with a mean lead and lets loose. 2'55" yields a surprising breakdown that, while brief, helps change up the dynamic level before the conclusion's onslaught. At 3'38" Andy enters with a synth solo... quirky patch choice: a quackish attack that sounds more fusion than glam rock, but it's brief and colorful so it's all good. The panel did look at this, but most of what they had to say was unintelligble nonsense thanks to the shenanigans of a certain JJT.

2008 seems to be the year of Sixto collabs... there's more where this came from, but Mr. Medrano has already made a huge dent with some epic collabs, and artists like Shariq and Andy really match up well, resulting in seamless, rockin' takes on classic tracks. Awesome.

― djpretzel