ReMix:Street Fighter II: The World Warrior "Because Eels" 5:24

shredd (Matias Lehtoranta) makes his OCR debut & lives up to his pseudonym with this surprising & strangely effective metal take on Blanka's theme from SF2. When you stop and think about it, it makes sense, since Blanka is huge, angry, and enjoys electrifying his entire body - which seems pretty freakin' metal, to me - but his stage music has a tropical & South American vibe to it that I really couldn't see adapting well to an aggressive metal arrangement.... until now:

"This arrangement was made as a birthday present to my good friend, whose main character is Blanka in Ultra Street Fighter IV, a game that we are both passionate about. I wanted to avoid making a total copy-paste of the original tune, since I knew my friend likes covers that deviate a little from the original. I even discarded altogether the iconic bassline that starts off Blanka's theme. This is a syncopated, modern metal approach, in the footsteps of Meshuggah and other 8-string metal acts.

I changed the rhythmic mode from straight to a triplet feel. Low-chugging guitar riffs provide backing for Blanka's melodies, played on different synths. I spent time shaping and testing various synth sounds for lead and background layers, which are a big part of the whole arrangement and atmosphere. I did want to retain some of the naturalistic vibe of Blanka's character and his original theme music, reflected in the flute sounds on this arrangement.

There is a fair amount of original content, but it's mostly to provide some framework for familiar Blanka material. There isn't really any traditional guitar shredding - this is, first and foremost, a new interpretation of Blanka's theme rhythmically and tone-wise in the context of metal. Somewhere in the mix, there are small details, for example, the semi-mechanical jungle beat of the intro section appears again during the mysterious, quiet breakdown near the end.

In Street Fighter lore, Blanka is supposed to have gained his shocking superpowers from electric eels in the Brazilian jungles. This arrangement's title originates from a night out, during which my friend was asked, "Why is Blanka green?" He simply paused for bit, and said, "...because eels!!""

Nice context - I had a feeling the mix title might have a story behind it :) I was initially wary when listening to this because I didn't know where it was going, and I didn't hear much connection to the source, but it rewards perseverance with what is ultimately a very creative, interesting, and (in my opinion) successful arrangement; this isn't at all an intuitive or obvious approach to the source melody, but it works in the end, and I also think it channels some of the character's energy & ferocity, too. Nutritious writes:

"Triplet conversion is solid and a great idea. The timing change-ups were very well handled and a nice addition I wanted to single out. Performance was very tight and I can get behind the stop/start guitar style. Being nit-picky on production, I'd argue the rhythm guitar is slightly too overpowering against the drums and could be toned down slightly... Overall, great stuff. Very creative take on Blanka."

I'm happy when a ReMix surprises me & goes somewhere unexpected with a source, in a way that ends up working. This does that, as any initial conceptual uncertainty I had was eventually washed away. Blanka's a pretty br00tl dude, when it comes down to it ("No, not the headbite!"), and now he's got an arrangement of his theme that matches his temperament, if less so his geographical region. Very unique, memorable, and enjoyable debut from shredd - would love to hear more!