ReMix: NiGHTS into dreams... 'She Can Has Long Ears'
- Game: NiGHTS into dreams... (Sega, 1996, SAT)
- ReMixer(s): Fishy
- Composer(s): Fumie Kumatani, Naofumi Hataya, Tomoko Sasaki
- Song(s): 'She Had Long Ears'
- Posted: 2011-10-28, evaluated by the judges
- Album: Featured on NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming
I like my NiGHTS mixes how I like my tacos... Fishy. Actually, I prefer beef, and Cain is but one member of a talented platoon of mixers, led by Captain Bortz, who this year have given Sega's pedo-purple flying hero a magnificent musical tribute. I guess I just like thinking about tacos; sue me. Mr. McCormack writes:
"I quit about 5 projects a while back because I was a bit disenchanted with the process of remixing music from games I hadn't actually played. This was the only track I was working on at the time that survived the cull just because of how silly it was. I really had no idea what I was doing for much of this. Definitely a challenge to work on, featuring several places that were really not my comfort zone at the time. Definitely a Muse influence on the first half of the track. The rest in an obscure mish-mash of Satriani, Jazz, S3&K and god knows what else."
So Muse... were his muse? How symmetrical. The arrangement is indeed schizo, with some wild changeups, call-and-answer battles, and a weird blend of styles, including what sounds almost like Russian folk music, a crazy carnival, jazz wankery, rock, and prog all rolled into one. I use "wankery" as a term of endearment, of course. Director Stevo "Touch the Kids" Bortz gives good comment:
"This song is a rollercoaster ride. The source is extremely difficult to arrange, with three distinct sections that greatly vary in genre. Mr. McCormack follows suit with a tri-sectioned track that draws elements from Alt-Prog Rock and Jazz, among other influences. With top-notch production, insanely tight guitars, superbly sequenced support instruments, and likely the most insane guitar/piano-organ solo battles I've ever heard, 'She Can Has Long Ears' defies classification. This song is great for the active listener, so I politely say "shut up and enjoy the ride" to you."
Cain paneled this himself, just to see what his observant judgepeers thought; OA writes:
"I heard you are good at guitar."
Deia adds:
"Preposterous, fish don't have fingers, and therefore cannot play a guitar."
They'll be here all week at the Tropicana. Pensive insights aside, this track gave Lucid Dreaming a bit of the good old crazy, which juxtaposed nicely against the dominant thread of happy, flying-with-pants wonderment. My only nitpick was that, from a mastering perspective, it seemed like the very high end was a bit muted, and it could have been opened up a bit more for an airier sound. That's an extreme nitpick, though - I just didn't want all this praise to go to Cain's head, so I had to mention something. Great, more eclectic work from Fishy that still upholds his excellent production & performance standards!
DAT BASS it makes me pumped every time I hear this.
Then after a playful melody line the guitar comes in. She can has long prog metal leeeds.
1:53 just brings hilarity at the fun playful Jazziness.
This whole album is about playful melodies and having fun with the music.
Which is EXACTLY what has happened here.
And you thought that was an ending at 3:00? Nope. He was just warming up.
- Tuberz McGee on December 25, 2011
I already made a “can has” joke with the Attention Deficit review, so I’ll refrain from doing so here. Guitar at 0:22! It’s quite epic, I must say, and quite a counterpoint to the previous track. The riffs repeat until 1:14, when they enter a new cycle. I’m just waiting for the guitar solo. This has an awesome atmosphere. Add in the fact it keeps switching styles (at 1:54 is a good example). And the guitar solo comes in at about 2:08. This a very crazy song… I love it!! It keeps switching between guitar and keys. Fake ending at 2:52. It leads into even more epic guitar at 3:04 or so that comes right back into the riffs used earlier in the track. Suddenly, Strago’s theme from Final Fantasy VI popped into my head. Explosion at 3:47 or so ends it.
Great song. Nice listen. There's my review of it from the album.
- Mirby on December 23, 2011
The chords and harmonies remind me a bit of Final Fantasy. The guitar tone is thick and low, a little too much for my taste, but it's not exactly bothering me. The rhythms seem a bit simple. It's definitely not the best work I've heard from you, but it's pretty rocking. The guitars seem a bit detached from the drums.
SWEEET Jazz break at ~2 minutes. Those rides, man, love em. And that piano. It's glossy and punchy, fills up the empty parts of the soundscape nicely. The guitar tone is muffled and the phasering seems a bit like a gimmick more than adding to the tone.
I guess I just don't like the guitar tone in this mix. The arrangement itself is nice and diverse (love that jazz break), but the production needs a tiny bit of work.
- Neblix on December 15, 2011
- Crulex on December 9, 2011
- Bahamut on December 2, 2011
I should play this on Saturday (lol j/k I can barely play it at all, that solo is comped to hell and back).
- Fishy on December 1, 2011
And indeed the track didn't disappoint with an intro reminiscent of Muse's "Uprising" with the synth bass and some solid performance work before bringing in the source material melody ay 0:47. The arrangement ended up being modestly straight-forward since, but given the direction and genre changes throughout the whole thing and the general execution behind these transitions - even production-wise - it works well even with the light expansions thrown in along the way, most notably the Satriani-esque piano/guitar solos past the 2:30 mark. I gotta say the change to the downbeat section at 3:00 was the icing on the cake for me, returning to the core element of the melody and showing a clear amount of showmanship with the guitar expression there.
I'm definitely keeping a hold on this one for some time - takes guts to handle such a complex track and bring it to that kind of level, so nice going Fishy! (Oh, and see ya on Saturday :D)
- Rexy on November 30, 2011
- Emunator on October 28, 2011
- GTAHater836 on October 28, 2011