Awesome review on OC ReMix's IceCap Zone project, "ReCapitated"

Sometimes, it's the little things that make me smile. Check out this LiveJournal-based review on OCR's most recent project tackling Sonic the Hedgehog 3's IceCap Zone, ReCapitated:

ReCapitated
How did I not know about this?

It's a whole OCRemix arrangement project dedicated entirely to Sonic 3's Ice Cap theme. It's easily the most overmixed song in the gaming community, but that doesn't stop anyone from putting their spin on it. This is 18 tracks of the same song, remixed by different artists. Honestly, ever since the Duck Hunt remix project, I didn't think this kind of thing would fly anymore.

I guess why I didn't see it is because, it's not on the site projects forum of the web site. It's merely the artists getting together on their own to put out this album. Is it any good? Not really. It kind of listens like a few guys just dicking around on their keyboards. Some more organized than others, but I refuse to believe it's anywhere near a "best effort". One even mixed Chrono Trigger's Trial theme in the beginning and leads into some kind of weird crossover that should not be. It's not to say that the songs aren't worth checking out, it's just some of them are just plain bleh. Of course, what can you expect from the community's most single mixed song. There's only so much you can do with it.

In any case, check out the above link and have a listen.

Only the review's from June 28th. ... Did I forget to mention this? How did he know about the Duck Hunt project, but somehow not pick up on this? :-D

Too bad he didn't get into any specifics on the tracks. He probably thought mine was the best though, so I can understand him not wanting to tarnish the other songs in comparison. You know how it is.

Dhsu Presents: Doujin Spolight

Hey guys, it's your friendly neighborhood Dhsu here: ReMixer extraordinaire and Asian debonaire. My job is to familiarize all you gaijin with video game arrangements made by our friends in the Land of the Rising Sun. These arrangements are commonly referred to under the umbrella term "doujin" (i.e. amateur or fan) music, and are closely linked to Japan's large "DTM" (or "DeskTop Music") community. The recently-posted "Dignity Ark" by Ryo Lion is but one example of what the majority of Western ReMix-lovers are missing out on.

There are a number of factors that contribute to the relative inaccessibility of doujin arrangements: in addition to the obvious language barrier, the doujin community doesn't have (at least to my knowledge) the equivalent of dedicated, centralized submission sites like OCR or VGMix. The closest thing would probably be sites such as CREATOR BACKER that keep track of the myriad personal sites run by the artists. Also, like their American counterparts, Japanese arrangements aren't all good, so it's a task in itself to sort through all "bleh" stuff. What's worse, the arrangements that actually turn out to be amazing are often available only as part of albums sold on the artists' websites.

But hey, that's what I'm here for! I'll be your tour guide of sorts to the wonderful world of doujin music, sharing sites and various other finds that I've come across during my own travels. I did a Doujin Spotlight feature at ThaSauce too a while ago, so the 2 whole people who ever went there will know the drill. ;)

As I close this post, I do have a small confession to make: namely that I typically only check arrangements for games or sources that I'm familiar with. Since I'm a bit of a Squaresofgt, that means mostly Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger. Although that's pretty much the only thing Japanese people remix anyway, aside from Touhou and hentai games. :P Oh yeah, and the Ys series, but nobody's ever played those.