Sven Harvey makes an overdue visit to
AmigaRemix
The first piece of music I shall make you
aware of is a very unusual one. 'Dweller' has created a piece of music called
'Memories of a Turbo Challenge'. Essentially it's a piano arrangement of Barry
Leitch's theme from the Lotus Turbo Challenge game (one of the most remixed
pieces of Amiga music ever). Now, to be honest, it's a bit pedestrian for me,
and I actually strained to try to hear the melody from the original theme tune.
However, it's a very different approach and should probably be listened through
at least once!
Project
X
However, rebalancing the Lotus remixes
comes the ever reliable 'daXX' with an electric guitar-based remix of the theme
from Lotus 3. This very up-tempo track is a brilliant rearrangement, which puts
more meat on the original track's bones, as it were, and the tune really suits
the chosen instruments. However, the music is further embellished for the good
with the addition of, admittedly, rather electronically processed vocals that
add that extra key element. Definitely the (daX)X factor in this case, making
Lotus 3 Metalmachine daXX RMX a must-have download.
Another slightly off-the-wall track
uploaded earlier this year is from a Remixer going by the name 'ThreszheR'.
This is a new arrangement of the loading music from the 1990 Elvira game. Going
by the title 'Elvira Loader Darkstyle' it's a very atmospheric piece of music,
and though I have to admit to not being familiar with the original by Dave
Hasler, I suspect this is a rather authentic update and clean-up rather than
anything too revolutionary, as it still feels like a classic piece of loading
music in that it appears to be building anticipation to the main title screen -
shame we don't get it!
Website:
amigaremix.com
Totally out of wacky land, however, is the
remix of 'The Great Bath' from Turrican 2, which remixer 'Mordi' has called
'the Seven Seas remix'. To be honest, it starts off sounding like it’s a remix
from Pirates! more than anything else. The instrumentation stays very reminiscent
of the Sid Meier classic (on the CD32 especially) but the theme tune from that
water level of the game soon thumps through.
Of course, you can never get away with an
Amiga Remix update with only one Turrican track, and 'MelodiousRefractions' has
brought us 'The Desert Rocks Remix' from the first level of Turrican 2. Very
reminiscent of the original music, the track succeeds brilliantly in instilling
a feeling of nostalgia in the listener for the original game, but it feels like
it could have been so much more. A missed opportunity perhaps?
My favourite track from this update of
Amiga Remix is from arranger Andrea Milana. Allister Brimble's original theme
from Project-X was a little tame in the mixing department, as was the remix
Allister did himself for his first CD release. A remix that was only available
on audio tape originally put some oomph back in (and it's on Amiga Remix with
an upload date of 5th April 2007) and since then remixes of the music have been
generally richer in sound.
Andreas 'Xplod remix' approaches the track
from a slightly different angle, with the intro rearrangement very much
influenced by dance music in clubs over the last ten to 15 years. The slow Introduction
of the melodic elements do draw out the intro to the track, but in this case
that is by no means a bad thing and enhances the feel of the track. A must-
have in my opinion, so go get it downloaded!
Head over to www.amigaremix.com for your
MP3 goodness!
