ReMix:Vampire Killer "Number of the Beats" 3:56

Hey, didn't we JUST post "The Slumber of the Beast"? And now "Number of the Beats"? Chalk it up to bizarre coincidence, as Jorito (Jorrith Schaap) circles back to Vampire Killer (MSX), this time arranging the titular source tune with an EDM treatment with complextro elements:

"Since you never can have enough "Vampire Killer," here's the other version I did of this track (I submitted another version earlier). This is actually an oldie that I did early 2014 for an MSX game cover compo, where it ended at second place. It also was definitely my way back into music after doing nothing music-related for years. Learned a ton of new things while creating this track and it firmly set me on this path of composing and learning that I still enjoy a lot.

Back when I created this, complextro was all the hype, with lots of inspiration from zircon, Madeon, and the likes. Sounded interesting enough to give a shot at this EDM business and incorporate some complextro bass stuff myself. Also played around with all these short arps that are all over the place, and, in general, I had a lot of fun while creating this track.

The German speech part was ripped and edited from the PC-Engine version of Dracula X. Thought it'd fit well. Quick translation:

"In the good old days, people still lived quiet and in peace. Nobody believed things would change in the future. After 100 years, evil rose again. The lord of evil, count Dracula has awakened."

That's all, enjoy!"

Fun stuff; to me, it feels more like traditional dance EDM than straight complextro, since I usually associate the latter with more glitching and FX, especially on the beats. This keeps a pretty steady momentum, but the bass definitely has some fun & there's plenty of intricate detail. The highlight, however, is the climax - towards the end, when electric guitar gets layered in, things really do ascend to pretty badass levels, fully delivering on the arrangement's potential and, well, kicking some ass. Judges noted several production issues but were all feeling the arrangement; Larry writes:

"At 2:56, I would have liked to have heard something different with the arrangement, which finally happened at 3:11 with the electric guitar doubling the chorus; nice touch there to finish with something high energy and different before the winddown. The electric guitar synth sequencing wasn't the best, but that was almost completely mitigated by layering it with the electrosynth and downplaying the need for it to sound realistic.

There could be some production things tightened up, and I see why Chimpa went borderline, but it wasn't a huge enough deal for me to go NO on when the arrangement was strong; the production improvements would just be a "nice to have." I really enjoyed Jorrith's take on a classic theme here!"

Agreed; the mix has a nice arc to it, and I like that it finishes hard & strong given the considerable downtime involved with the German dialogue sample. I'd hesitate to characterize it as modern complextro, but it's got some of those sensibilities/aesthetics going on, it's fun, and while there are some production nits to pick, the climax washes away dem nits with amped up energy & mojo. Good stuff from Jorito!