ReMix:The Silver Case "Lunar Phase" 3:24

Very cool! Our first ReMix of Japanese PS1/Windows adventure game Silver comes from game composer Garoad (Michael Kelly), who wrote the (excellent!) soundtrack for indie sci-fi bartending hit VA-11 HALL-A, which even has a vinyl of the OST out now from Black Screen Records. His OCR debut takes the original more traditional jazz/synth/beats jam and fusions it up with some ambient components & more intricate rhythms:

"Masafumi Takada's use of synthesizers are a big inspiration for my own music. I wanted to remix his track, "The Silver Case," as a tribute to him and also to a wonderful game!"

Very cool atmosphere, here, with swift breaks/accompaniment juxtaposed against evolving, layered melodic & harmonic components, and a nice variety of lead instruments. Judges did have some concerns about repetition, with some of the additive/subtractive tweaks being more subtle and potentially not differentiating sections from one another enough, but Jivemaster summarizes the prevailing sentiment:

"Great sounds, albeit reminiscent of the original source tune. Nice breakbeat drums to drive the mix forward. Very atmospheric backing instruments. The trumpet at 1:10 was a nice inclusion though I wish it played more than the 2 variant patterns it goes through. Your arrangement sounds quite loop/layer based. Not a bad thing when done right. New layers are added in fairly frequently, with the overall palette of patterns changing often. Guitar lead at 2:12 is a great addition. The fade out worked ok on this one. Production quality is pretty decent, I would've liked to see some more low end clarity, but things are still audible for what's here. The arrangement didn't feel like it dragged and while more in pattern variation would've been nice, I think the changes across the track do enough to keep things interesting."

Agreed, although 1'10" sounded more like a sax than a trumpet, to me. Sir_NutS had a case of the old-school scene feels:

"This sounds like something you would've heard in OCR back around 2005 or so. The obvious dnb loops, somewhat stiff piano, and not entirely realistic instruments.

And I quite liked it.

All in all, I think this is above the bar for me. Like I said it's very old school sounding, if someone had shown me this and told me it's a lost Scott Peeples track from the mid 2000's I would have believed it. And Scott Peeples is the bomb."

Roger that, although the last Peeples we posted was back in 2002, so I guess it's older-school than Mike thinks ;) I especially liked the electric guitar bit, which had the right amount of edge & helped seal the deal in achieving a specific aesthetic. Solid stuff from Michael, arranging a Japanese adventure game with the type of musical insight & talent that shows why he was the perfect artist for VA-11 HALL-A. Enjoy!