ReMix: F-Zero 'The Freedom of Zero'

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Brandon Bush is, simply put, a superhero. Between his formidable academic background, laid back personality, wit, and multi-faceted musical abilities, one can't help feel that a little of that should have gone somewhere else, to someone else, simply in the interest of equity, but it all ended up in one dude; go figure. Perhaps we will eventually find out that he has a small midget living inside his spleen, from whence all his musical ability comes, or that he has subtle but important character flaws, and on one occasion in June of 1996 neglected to help an old lady cross the street. Seriously, ALL of his ReMixes are mini-opuses; he has no single magnum opus, because they're ALL of that caliber. Dragon Song comes to mind as his salient "piece"; I raved about it back then, and I still rave about it today. It's one of those mixes you can queue up for someone totally ignorant of OCR or video game music in general and knock their socks off with. And so it is with great pleasure that I give you his latest ReMix, from F-Zero. Harmony says:

"F-Zero is easily the game that I play most often these days with what little free time I have, so the soundtrack is absolutely burned into my head. That’s great though because it is truly a joy to hum along to. I was glad to hear JJT nail “Silence” but there are some other awesome as yet uncovered tracks that need some love. “White Land” is definitely one of them, and I’ve tried my best to do it and the other tracks I mixed great justice. Thanks Dave, Larry, judges and OCR for listening. I hope you enjoy your ride!

This mix is brought to you by (in addition to my new PC!): SONAR 6 SE, FL Studio 5, Casio CTK-551 (controller), Fender DG-20CE, my sexy man voice and my lovely lady Melissa’s sexy woman voice."

F-Zero indeed retains much of its luster when you go back and play it; they really nailed the concept on the first try, and I hope the series sees a new next-gen entry soon. While a Wii version that did the controls RIGHT would be groovy, I have to admit that seeing something like GX upgraded to 1080 HD would be downright breathtaking. But I digress; this vocal mix features not only Brandon's voice but his girlfriend Melissa's as well, for a rockin' "I had the time of my life" male-female duet, although she's playing the role (quite believably) of "F-Zero shuttle transport attendant voice," for lack of a better phrase, and not singing herself. Harmony provides his own harmony, as well as counter-melody, as there are some rapid, Barenaked Ladies style vocal layerings here. The whole piece is conceptual, as Brandon and Melissa take us on a shuttle ride through the world of F-Zero. There's plenty of variety, instrumental flourishes, and lyrical game references, and production is consistent with the rest of Brandon's oeuvre, i.e. unblemished, rich, and warm. The vocal morph pitch bend slide into the upper stratosphere at 0'40" is not only an awesome effect, it avoids gimmickery by being relevant to the libretto - Brandon's voice literally "takes off"; extremely cool. Organ plays a huge part, but piano, guitar, and especially nice, dynamically adaptive drums are all core elements. The arrangement packs at least a triple punch, probably more, with stylistic variation for each destination on the ride, and the overall work is a ridiculously imaginative and well-constructed homage to the game and its soundtrack. Bottom line: this ReMix is awesome, you must download it now, and if by some cruel twist of fate you've not yet checked out Brandon's other work, ensure that the F-Zero shuttle takes detours to Mana and the Spring Yard Zone on your return trip. Superb.

― djpretzel