TimeShift: The OverClocked ReMix 25th Anniversary Album / TimeShift: The OverClocked ReMix 25th Anniversary Album / TimeShift: The OverClocked ReMix 25th Anniversary Album

TimeShift: The OverClocked ReMix 25th Anniversary Album
Comments from album director Dyluck
Album freely available at https://timeshift.ocremix.org

ABOUT THE ALBUM

When the internet literally had a sound, that of the screech and whine of a dial-up modem...

...we had OverClocked ReMix.

Older than the smartphone, before TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Myspace and LiveJournal...

Before there was even Wikipedia, and when this thing called "Google" was on training wheels...

...one fateful December night, as the world looked towards the new millennium and fretted about the Y2K bug, djpretzel started uploading a few of his musical creations based on rearranging video game music into new forms. Since then, OverClocked ReMix has been at the forefront of video game music arrangement and has stayed as the premier location for this art form for a quarter of a century. Not only does it look forward to the future with the encouragement and growth of new artists, but always has an eye turned towards the past.

As a venerable location for the creative arts, especially in regards to honoring and celebrating what would otherwise be considered transient music, the fact that OCR has lasted for so long and kept its esteemed position is testimony to its mission and the caliber of its artists keeping its flame burning.

In January 2024, so as to celebrate the impending 25th Anniversary, the challenge was laid down to make an album that took the focus away from the old, though well-loved, stalwarts of OCR and focused instead on the VGM younger than the site, to rearrange the new classics and to make new discoveries. Those who signed up for the album and were older than the site were forbidden from submitting work primarily from a source pre-dating OCR.

That's not to say that the old classics haven't made it onto here, because what's a 25th birthday party without some greatest hits? So, in the spirit of reimagination, a few old classics have made it onto here primarily thanks to the work of the younger-than-OCR artist JSABlixer.

A foreign time period of sources was set upon foreigners, to create a new nostalgia. A real TimeShift.

As the album progressed in its short timeframe, I was particularly struck by the spirit of collaboration and support that has been the hallmark of the OCR community. Everyone lifted each other up and, through our sheer determination, we present to you our celebration album.

This is OverClocked ReMix at 25 years of age. We were here.

Whether you take this album as a mere mile-marker or the source of inspiration for the next great work, the arrangers and I hope you enjoy this selection of ReMixes. Here's to the next 25 years!

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

I've long been a fan of OverClocked ReMix, discovering it back in the frontier days of the pre-social media web. As an artist, I've always been attracted to the post-modern paradigm of taking something and repurposing it: and here OCR does it with my favorite musical medium, that of the video game soundtrack. Despite my eagerness for the site's mission, I long held myself back from taking part in its community out of fear that my music and my knowledge was far too inferior. This was much to my detriment when this community is about building each other up.

Second to this, I've disciplined myself to listen to OCR's entire catalog chronologically. For many years, my listening collection never went beyond the days of "classic" OCR, back when the mission of the site was still very experimental, the OCR album was rare, and each ReMix felt more definitive because its post-modern upcycling hadn't been done until that point in time. As I write, I am only just reaching the halfway point through listening to the entire catalog.

So, once I came out of my time capsule and took a more active part in the community, and armed with my knowledge of ReMixes of yore, I wanted to give something back to the artistic movement that continues to inspire me. In all honesty, the album idea of taking older ReMixers and getting them to ReMix VGM newer than the site, and vice-versa, was a shower thought. So when I put forward the idea of the album to the community, I quickly realized another tenet of OverClocked ReMix: own the idea and make it happen.

The call went out and soon it was answered. Suddenly, I found myself directing an album, and it has been a learning process for me. I've seen myself more as a facilitator rather than a director, with fellow artists being the moderators for the album's content. Ultimately though, decisions about the music must fall upon the person in charge. Knowing that it has been a race against time to try and make one of the site's anniversaries has fueled much of the drive for the album. It's not had the time to bake for years like some of the venerable, classic albums. The music is immediate and, in some cases, experimental.

But that has been one of the great draws of OverClocked ReMix for me: the experimentation of the medium of video game music arrangement. I wanted to capture some of that nostalgic energy that underpins much of the older portions of the OCR catalog. And so, that's why the album is split into three parts, each named after an old color of a previous iteration of the OCR website in tribute, and headed by one of JSABlixer's ReMixes of an old classic. The honor of leading the album was given to our special guest artist, Mega Ran, and the album itself is bookended with a ReMix of a remix for a truly post-modern twist. Truly, it is my hope that in doing this I've been able to pay tribute to the continuum of the past quarter-century.

It has been a great honor and privilege to direct this album. My thanks go to my fellow artists for their hard work on their submissions and support, to Chris Kohler for mastering the album, to the judges and sages for their guidance, to the community for their faith in me, and to you, the listener, for taking the time to celebrate with us OverClocked ReMix at 25 years.

-Dyluck

Part 1: Orange

1. Xaleph feat. Mega Ran, Audiomint, pointblanket - "Accept the Truth"
Source: Final Fantasy XVI - "Land of Eikons"
Original Composers: Masayoshi Soken, Nobuo Uematsu

Xaleph: arrangement, piano
Mega Ran: male vocals, lyrics
Audiomint: female vocals
pointblanket: violinist

2. JSABlixer - "Stupid Thorns!"
Source: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - "Stickerbush Symphony"
Original Composer: David Wise

3. Mel Decision feat. Treyt - "Shafts of Sunlight"
Sources: Horizon Zero Dawn - "City on the Mesa"
Original Composer: Joris de Man

4. Moebius feat. Azmodea - "Faster Than Light (But Not Fast Enough)"
Source: Stellaris - "Faster Than Light"
Original Composer: Andreas Waldetoft

Moebius: arrangement, Synth V Solaria vocals
Azmodea: vocals

5. Ridley Snipes - "Known Unknowns"
Source: Outer Wilds - "Outer Wilds"
Original Composer: Andrew Prahlow

6. Sbeast - "All for One and One for All"
Source: Castle Crashers - "Four Brave Champions"
Original Composer: David Orr

7. prophetik music - "Beat of the Heart"
Source: Slay the Spire - "The Heart"
Original Composer: Clark Aboud

Part 2: Indigo

8. JSABlixer - "A Dance for Bygone Days"
Sources: Crypt of the NecroDancer - "Dance of the Decorous (3-2 Cold)", "March of the Profane (3-2 Hot)"; Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light - "Story 4: Victory on Every Map", "Story 2: Beginning of Every Map"; Fire Emblem Gaiden - "Overall Map: Chapter 4 (The Land of Sorrow)"; Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 - "Leif's Army, Seeking Victory Leif"; Cameo: Undertale - "MEGALOVANIA"
Original Composers: Yuka Tsukiyojo (Fire Emblem series), Danny Baranowsky (Crypt of the NecroDancer), Toby Fox (Undertale)

9. aluminum - "Providence"
Source: Binding of Isaac - "Thine Wrath..."
Original Composer: Danny Baranowsky

10. The Vodoú Queen feat. gravitygauntlet, Mel Decision, JSABlixer - "A Fugue for a Hunter / A Reverie for a Beast"
Sources: Bloodborne - "Ludwig, the Holy Blade", "Ludwig, the Accursed", "The Hunter", "Cleric Beast"; Dark Souls III - "Vordt of the Boreal Valley"
Original Composers: Nobuyoshi Suzuki ("Ludwig, the Holy Blade", "Ludwig, the Accursed"), Ryan Amon ("The Hunter"), Tsukasa Saitoh - ("Cleric Beast"); Motoi Sakuraba ("Vordt of the Boreal Valley")

The Vodoú Queen - arrangement
gravitygauntlet - additional layered synths, drums & compositional VSTi
Mel Decision - arrangement transposition to F#m, additional spooky SFX
JSABlixer - additional Game Boy transitional SFX

11. gravitygauntlet - "Prog Wrong/Enmity"
Sources: ValiDate: Struggling Singles in Your Area - "The Wrong Turn"; "Enmity to Go" (prototype)
Original Composers: Kevin Killjoy, Adrian Wahrer

12. 100%ROEMER - "THE ALL-INCLUSIVE EXCLUSIVE-CLUB FOR HAIRY FISH-MEN WHO SHOOT FOREVER-TURBO ALARM-CLOCKS"
Sources: Lisa: The Painful - "Forever Turbo Heat Dance", "Pebble Man", "Men's Hair Club"
Original Composer: Austin Jorgensen

13. mo.oorgan - "A Long Night, 'Til Morning Comes"
Sources: Animal Crossing: Wild World - "01am", "Café (The Roost)", "Attic"
Original Composers: Kazumi Totaka, Asuka Hayazaki

Part 3: Silver

14. JSABlixer - "Corridors of TimeShift"
Source: Chrono Trigger - "Corridors of Time"
Original Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda

15. Dyluck - "Jacaranda Dreams"
Sources: SimCity 4 - "Terrain", "By the Bay"
Original Composers: The Humble Brothers (Ken Marshall, Traz Damji), Jerry Martin

16. Moebius feat. Luisa Böhmer, Lucas Guimaraes - "Day Market"
Source: Stardew Valley - "Night Market"
Original Composer: Eric Barone

Moebius: arrangement
Luisa Böhmer: clarinet
Lucas Guimaraes: saxophone

17. Jorito feat. Sirenstar, pixelseph, prophetik music - "Queen of the Groove"
Source: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - "Queen's Blood"
Original Composers: Mitsuto Suzuki, Junnosuke Usui

Jorito: arrangement, lyrics, vocoder, mixing, production
Sirenstar: vocals
pixelseph: guitars
prophetik music: alto saxophone

18. Cosmoptera - "Through a Mirror Darkly"
Source: Kirby & The Amazing Mirror - "Last Boss/Second Form"
Original Composers: Hironobu Inagaki, Atsuyoshi Isemura

19. Pixels & Paradiddles feat. The Vodoú Queen, Moebius, gravitygauntlet, Mel Decision, Dyluck, Nicole Chang - "Children of Light"
Sources: Final Fantasy XIV - "More Than Truth", "Who Brings Shadow", "Four-fold Knowing", "Answers"
Original Composers: Masayoshi Soken ("Who Brings Shadow", "Four-fold Knowing", "More Than Truth"), Yukiko Takada ("More Than Truth"), Nobuo Uematsu ("Answers")

pixelseph - arrangement/composition, vocals, guitars, bass, additional lyrics, mixing
paradiddlesjosh - drums, EWI, synth/orchestral/harpejji programming, vocals
The Vodoú Queen - vocals
Moebius - Synth V Solaria vocals
gravitygauntlet - vocals
Mel Decision - vocals
Dyluck - vocals
Nicole Chang - vocals