ReMix:Pokémon Red Version "Dream Eater Mix" 4:26

...AND THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY FLOOD CONTINUES!!

Many of you might not know this, but for the first seven or so years of OCR, we didn't post a SINGLE ReMix of any POKEMANZ games. There were plenty of submissions, sure, but for whatever reason no one could put together something that could catch 'em all & get past the judges. My how times have changed... the second half of OCR's existence to date has been a completely different story, with 44 mixes and two albums, representing some of the most creative & musical VGM arrangements we've heard. Unless you've been around since the very early days, it's hard to appreciate just how huge a shift that really represents, with seven years of nada and then a steady influx of awesomeness. Here to contribute to that trend is newcomer Solkrieg (Ryan Watson), who unleashes a creepy, unsettling wallop of "SPOOKYSTEP" with this dubstep ReMix of Pokémon Red for the Game Boy:

"Why can I not stop listening to "Lavender Town"?! I love the song so much that I think this is my fourth mix of it. I just cannot get enough. I was inspired to create all my mixes of this song based off all the "creepy pasta" I have read. It was a lot of fun reading through all of them and gave me chills. The song that impacted me the most during my childhood was "Lavender Town," coincidentally enough. So I decided to give it a ReMix and I feel it turned out fantastic. This song is creepy dubstep. I feel I really captured the mood of all the creepy stories I've read."

Very, very well done - I've been watching American Horror Story lately (great show, highly recommended), and this is right up that alley, blending new with old and aggressive with insidiously disturbing & taking dubstep somewhere that I personally hadn't heard it go. Vinnie writes:

"Lavender Town is a pretty creepy, minimal song and one I did not expect to lend itself well to the wub. In Ryan's first submission to us, he proves to be an expert at distilling that creepy essence and blasting it out in widescreen. This is a massive, crazy track that keeps building and building until it breaks, making excellent use of automation to maintain forward momentum. I love how the melodies from the game sometimes take front and center, and sometimes just get swept up in the chaos."

Kris adds:

"I've gotta comment on this, this is WOW. What a great treatment of that silly yet disturbing source tune. This mix has just enough happy-ish chords and timbres (music box), that it creates some real harmonic (and even emotional) dissonance with the Lavender Town melody, which really works here. Awesome wubbery and the sub-bass execution is some of the best I've heard. Nice track, welcome aboard, please do more!"

There's nothing quite like a great concept executed to perfection, or at least past the point of diminishing returns. Spooky little girl singing has never been so galvanized with terrifying wubs of electricity - I'm gonna have to again reference American Horror Story, as the jolts of super-aggressive, over-the-top bass here are the auditory equivalent of shock therapy as employed in the show's second season. Hold on to your sanity; great debut from Solkrieg, definitely looking forward to hearing more!