ReMix:Tehkan World Cup "Playing in the Park" 3:01

A really cool, distinct pairing of bitcrushed percussion, rock, and an interesting smattering of synth components, including a bouyant squarish bass, make this Tehkan World Cup ReMix from Eino Keskitalo off Futebol Arte an enjoyable, memorable ride. It's a plucky arrangement that would still have been fun with a more traditional/unsurprising aesthetic, but I just love what the crunchy, crushed drum bits add to the flavor & texture; the artist writes:

"We found Tehkan World Cup via leafing through 1001 Video Games You Should Play Before You Die on the page next to Super Mario Bros., which is one of our favourites to play together. It's a 1985 arcade game and the writeup made it sound like a great head-to-head game I'd never heard of before. Turns out the gameplay relies on trackball controllers to do all sorts of neat stuff with the ball. Sounds great, but we don't have one (or two)!

So, actually playing the game will have to wait, but the short intro ditty was pretty catchy. When the World Cup EP recruitment thread came up, I decided to try to do an arrangement of it (the concept & the timing was too good to pass up).

To speed things up, I used an existing piece - one we made with the daughter as a Christmas present to her mother - as the basis of the production. My modest guitaring was done in five takes, and I picked the best bits from each, doing some doubling & other cheating in the solo part. Overall, I tried to work in broad strokes and take in any happy accidents."

Album director Ivan Hakštok chimes in:

"Eino's playful arrangement is the perfect way to kick this album off (see what I did there? Kick off, because football matches start with a kick-off? OK, I'm not that funny). The lo-fi sound and synth elements blend nicely with the guitar, and Eino did a nice twist to the source, which is less bouncy and more straightforward."

Jivemaster adds:

"Nice track, very crunchy. You have some great guitar playing as always. Although the overall sound of your track is similar, I didn't find myself craving more variation when listening through. The first half of the song felt a bit more samey than the second half, but you've thrown in different licks here and there to distinguish the different parts, which is great."

I think I liked this even more than the judges, who were themselves still quite positive - something about this melody, arranged this specific way, with this particular instrumentation just really clicks & feels right. Props to Eino for shining some light on this game; its Wiki article actually discusses the score at length, mentioning intonation and some hidden tunes. A fun, well-executed mix on its own that, as Ivan says, made for a great opener to the Futebol Arte EP!