ReMix:Moon Patrol "The Road to Tyco Station" 3:20

By SpookyBlue

Arranging the music of one song...

"BGM"

Primary Game: Moon Patrol (Irem , 1982, ARC), music by Ichiro Takagi

Posted 2003-07-12, evaluated by the judges panel


SpookyBlue makes his OCR debut with a well-constructed nostalgia fest in the form of a synth-pop Moon Patrol ReMix. Introing with a myriad of different arcade sounds, complete with a nice arcade ambience to them, the main moon patrol theme - essentially a little riff that does your standard old-school rock'n'roll chord progression - comes in eventually, carried by a fat analog patch and backed by some effective electro drums coupled with percussive analog synth fx. There's good use of doubling, reverb, cross-panning, and filter modulation to assuage the fact that this is basically the one single theme played over and over. BUT, wait, it's not over - we get some really rather groovy organ soloing towards the end, an added surprise and while brief very well done. Things end round-robin, on an audio collage of recognizable 80's game fx and music. The oft-stoic and seldom-verbose Protricity summarizes: "It was pretty simplistic to start out, but I got into the beat, and the soloing. Good job there. The sound effects didnt mess everything up as happens sometimes." - which sounds accurate if succinct to me. Especially with the effects, this is one of those mixes that overtly aims more to capture the nostalgia and "feel" of the early arcade atmosphere, and not as much to do massive reinterpretation, but the soloing adds a lot to a pretty basic theme and the production varies things enough to keep it interesting. Good stuff, and a unique first mix from SpookyBlue.

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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TillyFun
on 2014-04-19 11:18:55

Oh man, what a beat. :D And not too background-y or foreground-y either. I'd love to play a game with this mix. ^_^

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WesternZypher
on 2010-12-20 12:36:54

Sounds like something out of Animusic!

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WesternZypher
on 2010-11-07 20:17:15
:)!!This should stay up for all time just because of how awesome the intro is. Nostalgia-funk all the way.
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Level 99
on 2009-12-23 13:55:10

That intro is absolutely classic. The sounds of all those classic games...it's audio-nostalgia-love.

I feel like that's the best part of the song too. The song was enjoyable, especially in that 80's-trying-to-be-futuristic musical sense. The panning on the drums was something I wasn't a fan of, though. Later on, when the panning-effects happen during the break, I liked it a little more, but it just feels very odd an unbalanced otherwise. Also, I like the lack of lots of layering to a point, but this felt a little empty at times.

Bringing back the sounds at the end was nice, too. In total, though, this could have had more substance, could have had gone more places, and could have gone longer. Oh well, still pretty cool.

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Bahamut
on 2009-10-02 04:25:45

That intro brings back memories ha!

The samples are pretty rough. The arrangement is ok, but I would've liked to hear this mix end with a sound from the arcade of someone dying in this game before fading in the other arcade sounds - I could be wrong with how the game works though, as I'm just assuming. I never actually played Moon Patrol myself...I think.

The intro also took too long to come in - the arcade background noise could be cut shorter so the listeners can get more into listening to the meat of the mix. I would've also liked to see some more progression development of the main part of the mix too, as the intro really killed its true length.

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42
on 2008-12-13 22:13:56

I love how the intro and ending is basically the background noise from an arcade. :grin:

One word leaps to my mind: Funky.

It is a little repetitive, but when factored into the grand scheme of things, it's doesn't matter that much.

This is an awesome mix and a new favorite of mine.

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DragonAvenger
on 2008-10-03 20:04:36

Cute melody with a nice approach. Never played the game, but I can picture what it would be like from this mix. It does get a bit stagnant after the Xth time through the same melody, but it never really got boring. Intro and outtro work well. Nice work.

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OA
on 2006-12-27 12:34:19

cool arcadeish intro that sets the mood well, and you can actually hear when thematically you'd put the quarter into the moonpatrol game. I admit I thought it stagnated a bit until there was a nice solo section right before the ending, but if you loved Moon Patrol, this should bring back some good memories.

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Liontamer
on 2004-12-31 10:51:59

Nice, straightforward mix; the intro outro are pretty nostalgic as well. I was doing some database work though, and, in my searching, came up with SpookyBlue's other site. http://www.painteddogs.com

That's pretty cool. Our community is made up of a very diverse group, I'll say that!

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Xelebes
on 2003-07-30 05:15:06

Wow, I never knew someone could blur the line between electro-clash and true electro.

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spookyblue
on 2003-07-27 01:23:25

I really had no idea how this arrangement would be received. In truth, I'd given up on it until I came across something in my server logs that pointed back to the judge's forum. So, I *just now* found out TRTTS had made the cut. Woohoo!

This was a lot of fun to do. Simplistic? Oh yeah. That's me to a tee. :lol: I've been composing and arranging for years, and I guess I've sort of developed a "sound" that's nice-happy-upbeat, but sappy in a Commodore 64 sort of way. That's why Moon Patrol was the perfect first-submission to OCR.

Anyway, thanks for the comments and kind words. I've got my eye on a few oooooold pieces that I hope will bring back some fun memories. Anything but another Final Fantasy remix. Ack. If anyone's interested, there are a few interesting pieces and a great War of The Worlds bit I did for Halloween last year on my website. http://www.spookyblue.com/sounds.htm

I'd love to hear reaction on that one.

Thanks again!

SpookyBlue

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LuckyXIII
on 2003-07-16 01:06:18

This is one of the coolest remixes I've heard in a while. The game itself hearkens me back to obscure yet pleasant memories of a short-lived friendship when I was 4 or 5 with a guy who seemed to have it all. Awesome room, awesome house, and he had a video game system! I guess it was a commodore or something...I don't know. But he played this game all the time - - anyway - - the MIX:

it's repetitive but it's handled with the greatest of ease - it's a catchy melody i don't mind repeating especially with the variations of it each time it passes. the sound quality is top-notch, the use of the bookended sound effects is clever and perfect for creating an atmosphere conducive to enjoying the mix in the head of any child of the '80's arcades.

Great first submission.

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Eccles
on 2003-07-13 12:19:46

...this thing has pac-man in the intro.

+5 points straight off.

And also Defender, slot machines and...I think Joust...

¿Im not overly keen on the mish-mash at the beginning...though thats pretty much a direct recording of the game, isnt it?

Something like that.

Its pretty repetetive...and only an okay track so that kinda grinds it.

Its pretty okay and only gets slightly better when the drums kick in.

not really a lot I can say cause there's not a huge ammount there to comment on, but a pretty good tune.

Much recommended (and especially for those who love this game)

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The Coop
on 2003-07-13 04:49:00

Ah Moon Patrol.

Many an hour spent in the arcade and on my Atari XE playing that game. Catchy little basic tune that I used to play on my old K-mart special keyboard :lol:

First off, I'll give this mix credit for being creative in it's intro and outro. Cool bits of nastalgia there :D. The mix when the music gets started uses nice, clean samples with some interesting effects added into the rhythm and some good sequencing to boot. I like the electric piano sounding solo and thought it added a good touch.

But... well...

Something felt like it was missing. As the song progessed, I expected this thing to bust out into an all out assault (namely after the electric piano solo), but that bust out never came. It felt like a build up that never lead anywhere... it just came back in on itself and left.

As I said, it's well crafted. But, it just didn't feel like it really went anywhere. That's just my thoughts.

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djpretzel
on 2003-07-13 00:43:40

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Moon Patrol (Irem , 1982, ARC)
Music by Ichiro Takagi
Songs:
"BGM"

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File Information


Name:
Moon_Patrol_The_Road_to_Tyco_Station_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
4,879,783 bytes
MD5:
61a013f1071aebaea2a6c61a5521c86c
Bitrate:
192Kbps
Duration:
3:20

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