ReMix:Final Fantasy "Roaming... Please Wait" 5:41

"BONKERS" now officially makes me think of TWO things: the weird candy from the 1980's with TV ads that involved over-sized fruit being dropped on senior citizens AND Nicholas Steven Perry's growing oeuvre of aggressive, rock/metal VGM arrangements. Let's focus on the latter as it seems more topical; the ReMixer brings us another Random Encounter cut, this one a bit slower & more anthemic/celebratory than his previous arrangements, but still packing quite a punch:

"This song was decisively a very difficult and eye opening experience for me. For one, transforming the loveable very happy and adventureous melodies/feelings of the original song in to a Hard Rock/Metal song without it changing those feelings. Metal songs in generally are usually in just about any mode/key that is NOT a Major Key. The few ,such as Party Hard by Andrew W.K., are condemed by the average Metal Head as "LOl THIS ISN'T METAL" Even though by all means and purposes it sounds Metal(production wise), even if not to the average guy. (disagree? Sue me <(0.0<()

Originally, I was going to make an Orchestral Metal/Just Orchestral song. I toiled for months slaving away trying to come up with ideas how to make it work. From scrapping sheet music over and over again, to long walks with my body on auto pilot trying to figure it out. Soon after, I was shown some "Children of Bodom" songs by Strader, following this the song became an attempt to start off as a CoB song that fakeouted into the World Map theme. This too was a BUST, as I could just not make it work and make sense. Then one day, whilst working on sheets, I had come up with extensions of the melody, and played some guitar to it. ALL OF A SUDDEN MY MIND WAS BLOWN. Every single line fell into place pefectly and it all worked and made sense. Writing the rest of the song was no problem as I could hear in my head all of the ideas clearly."

Ah, artistic epiphany... regardless of your skill level, almost anyone can get writer's block, and it can be VERY demotivating & frustrating, especially when you don't have a ton of free time in which to explore ideas & see where they take you. Pardon the visceral metaphor, but it's almost like existential constipation, only it can last for weeks & even months. When you finally figure out a solution or land on a new approach, there's a catharsis there that is unique to the act of the creative process. Of art, silly. Nice processed lead guitars lend a fuzzy tone to this arrangement that's mostly slower & triumphant, but gets decidedly mo' metal at 2'58" as guitar leads into rapid-fire kicks, which segues into a brief chip interlude - schizophrenic, but in a fun, intentional, & flamboyant way. OA writes:

"Really nice arrangement, good guitar playing, pretty clear production, and a lot of personality; this track has it all. There was a good variety of sections without things feeling like they were dragging on, and the different synths meshed well with the guitars. I really like this one."

Love that chromatic percussion towards the end - mallets are so metal!! ...except when they're wood. Emu adds:

"I remember taking issue with the reverb levels when this one was up for project evaluation, but thankfully that's all been resolved and what we're left with is a very solid, uplifting rock medley. I really like the mood of this track and the interplay between the synths and the guitars. Congrats man, you're definitely improving your craft and the results are very solid."

Indeed; it would seem that both the confection of yore and the ReMixer of today share at least one thing in common, in that they both BONK YOU OUT. Mr. Perry clearly needs to ReMix Bonk's Adventure to fulfill his destiny (and give my old mix some much-needed company) - until then, though, enjoy another awesome mix!