ReMix:Solstice: The Quest for the Staff of Demnos "Pegasus Boots" 5:02

after all these years that segment from 3:09 - 3:15 remains the most satisfying collection of sounds to ever grace my ears

So I didn't even know about this until I went looking for "Dirge for the Follin" (where is that?). This remix is fucking awesome, and you can quote me on that. And I don't even like sax in the normal course of life, but damn if it doesn't sound great here. I'm far too lazy to host niceworkguy.jpg, so imagine it in this space:

I think this could totally fit the bill as the soundtrack to a film noir involving spies. The co-op saxophones take the source lead for a sexy slitherfest, i.e. they work sneakily while at the same time emitting a laid-back aura. Many of the other players, with their raw, distant, and gritty quality to them, help develop the darkly intelligent character of this mix. There's dust-scattering thumps, throaty synths that don't need cough medicine to sufficiently carry the source's primary/secondary melodies, and some DEEP bass lurkers (at 2:28, one of my favorite parts), to name a few examples. Also, the saxes seem like able contenders to guide the listener through the 7/4 time signature section (1:44 - 2:16), the "I wanna try something different" foray at 3:29, and the unexplored Solstice rooms at 3:38+ (which, amusingly, has a few moments of feeling like it needs to find its way back [3:56 and 4:05] before it does so successfully).

It's a musical maze that, for me, is easier to navigate than the game itself. Maybe if I donned a fedora and a trench coat and had a dim street lamp above my head...

This is just a thicket of ideas sporadically twisted into the shape of music, and I love every second of it. Seriously, Shnabubula has the perfect ear for possibility; what something could sound like and not necessarily what it should sound like by normal musical standards. And that is a precious thing for a listener to have access to.

I certianly don't take this for granted. It supercedes any misgivings about sample quality and superficial rubbish like that. That is deviating from the entire point. This is more than entertainment. It's expression. Some people might find this mix to be like a foreign film without subtitles, and I don't claim to 100% 'get' this mix, but it's one of those things that just the fact it got made fascinates me. That's common among Shnab's work, but a total rarity in life.

This track is just fun to listen to. I love interwoven lines, and Sam's stuff is always packed with them. Structurally, the sections don't always tie strongly to each other, but there is always so much going on, you can just jam. Excellent stuff.

I've been listening to this track on loop a lot lately. It's just such a neat piece. I don't know anything that sounds even remotely like it.

I've never played Solstice, but this track was an instant hit for me. Some of it reminds me of the band Battles, which I've enjoyed recently.

The contrast between lo-fi drums and the brighter foreground instruments creates a lot of space in the mix, I think. Either way, the arrangement is/sounds deliciously sparse, even with all the many many notes played. I agree with other posters that the sax sounds a bit artificial, but after a few listens it has started to sound more like a "feature" than a flaw. (The most bothering thing about the sax to me is that sometimes there's a jarringly louder note in the middle of a run, it's a subtle effect but makes it sound like it was cut-and-pasted together from two takes or something.. well, to me at least.) But any way, that's a minor criticism on an otherwise fabulous track.

Yay, first post.

--Eino

Current favorite remix.

Shna's "abstractions" never come off as messy or to me. Lo fi, almost always. Experimental, for sure. Confusing, sometimes. Requiring of many, many listens? Always. Each time I listen to a Shnamix, I find new things that I like about it, new sections that sound very cool, experiments with sound that stimulate.

Meh, maybe I'm a fanboy for this sort of stuff.

My opinion to a tee. You hear a Shna mix and time and again a section crops up where you think "Whoa, never heard that bit before. Cool". There's just so many layers that songs like Pegasus Boots work on that makes them the ultimate in replayability. And that's even if you don't know the source.

Now imagine if Sam did anything along the lines of hip hop.. possibilities?

Have I mentioned how much I want to choreograph something to this? Cause I TOTALLY do.

n00bs like MrBogus

Ouch.

You want to know how anyone can beat the game in under seven minutes? I want to know how to get more than seventy seven percent of the map. Find me a video of THAT and I WILL birth your children (even though China is keeping me from even birthing a healthy stool).

Check http://speeddemosarchive.com/Solstice.html; it has a 100% room run in fifteen minutes.

Yeah, I just watched Lucid's speed run independent of this, and all I could think was "What the hell is going on with this game?" The gameplay never made any sense the whole way through.

But yeah, the mix is still good, but be sure to check out the source material. Personally, I was already open-minded to this without it. But for a lot of n00bs like MrBogus above it's just like EarthBound where, if you've never heard the source material, some of the weirder mixes apparently sound like dogshit.

I've tried listening to this many times, and it just doesn't jive in my head. I'm sure there are boatloads of structural nuances I'm missing, but this is one of Shna's mixes that is too inaccessible for me.

You want to know how anyone can beat the game in under seven minutes? I want to know how to get more than seventy seven percent of the map. Find me a video of THAT and I WILL birth your children (even though China is keeping me from even birthing a healthy stool).

Check http://speeddemosarchive.com/Solstice.html; it has a 100% room run in fifteen minutes.

Jesus Fucking Christ.

Your run is innapropriate. That is the best word for it.

Hours of my life dedicated to that game and all I managed to find was seventy some percent. Secret rooms under spikes? Insane-O leaps and credit collections? No death? FIFTEEN MINUTES?

Very nice, sir. I have finally seen every room in the game.