ReMix: Mega Man 9 'Blackout Tower'
- Game: Mega Man 9 (Capcom, 2008, WII)
- ReMixer(s): Neblix
- Composer(s): Hiroki Isogai, Ippo Yamada, Ryo Kawakami, Yu Shimoda
- Song(s): 'Elec Man Stage', 'Plug Electric (Plug Man Stage)'
- Posted: 2012-08-16, evaluated by the judges
Clever mix title for an arrangement of 'Plug Man' and 'Elec Man' ;) Neblix debuted back in May of 2011, and this follow-up dnb/dubstep electronica MM1/MM9 mix from the 2011 GRMRB shows progress & development since then. He writes:
"I remembered to myself that anything that's happy can be made sad or dark by simply transposing it, so that's exactly what I did. :D The dubstep breakdown is sort of inspired by a dubstep remix zircon showed a couple weeks back, and I figured since dubstep is the trendy thing nowadays I'd try my hand at it. I mixed DnB and dubstep (as seen before in bLiNd's Blue Skies mix) and got a dirty, powerful, and apocalyptic piece of high energy in-your-face megaman music."
No shortage of confidence, I guess, but it's definitely a solid track that affirms and exceeds Neblix's original mixpost, demonstrates a good handle on a lot of fundamentals like panning, layering, and employing a variety of synths, and expands into some genre-bending, with a pretty nifty synth solo in there, too. The dubstep influence is probably going to strike hardcore fans of the genre as a little simplistic, i.e. too comfortable calling it dubstep just because there's a wobble bass w/ LFO modulation, but if you ignore the labels & you're not a purist (which incidentally are two keys to living a happy life), I think you'll appreciate it as just another component of the overall arrangement. Jesse approved it, with a couple reservations:
"Fun, energetic track. Plenty of dynamics keeping things interesting. A couple smallish gripes. The bass drone you use...it's really a bit overused. Add a little rhythm. Low frequencies can be really tiresome when they are constantly there. The dubstep bass isn't executed very well. Your LFO rates are kind of too jumpy, and not synched sounding. The breakdown hurts the momentum of the track as a result."
I didn't feel quite as strongly on those points, but I do see where they're coming from. Still, this is a high-energy second mixpost from Nabeel, and most importantly one that shows an improving & expanding skillset, which is all any of us can hope for; good stuff.
- Dark_T_Zeratul on August 27, 2012
- New80s+ on August 25, 2012
- zach72 on August 16, 2012