ReMix:The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap "Bag Full of Kinstones" 3:22

We are proud to release our 68th FREE community arrangement album, Hometown Heroes: Town Themes Arranged!!

In case the title didn't make things pleasantly intuitive, this album focuses on town themes, much like our BadAss trilogy highlighted boss themes. Album director DaMonz (Emery Monzerol) writes:

"Once again, I was very lucky to work with the talented and passionate members of the OCR community. Hometown Heroes offers a neat little package of emotions, most of which are nice and warm and comforting. Being home, missing home, and returning home are recurring themes that create a nice range of feelings as explored by the different contributors to this project. Even though the concept of the project is restrictive to town themes, the multiple interpretations still make it a nice, varied experience. Every individual piece brings something different to the table.

As a contributor, which is how I started with this project, Hometown Heroes has been an interesting change of pace for me. Usually, my music-making tendencies are a bit on the crazy side of things, with occasional exceptions. This is one of those exceptions, and it's good to take a deep breath and to make things with a BPM slower than 160 once in a while."

Indeed it is; it's also appropriate that we're releasing this between Veteran's Day (heroes, returning home from abroad, etc.) and Thanksgiving (being thankful, often for one's family and community) - I think both occasions ask us to stop and reflect on our priorities, our homes & towns, and our friends & family. This album started off as a conceptual suggestion from DarkeSword, and then Mirby took the ball and ran with it for a while, with Emery eventually resurrecting & completing the effort - a community/family alley-oop, if you will. I love the idea, and I think its potential has been realized in a way that makes this a very unique experience.

Our first flood mix is from Lemonectric, formerly known as Hylian Lemon, and sets a mellow, nostalgic, & familiar retro feel while arranging some Minish Cap; HH director DaMonz writes:

"To start things up, Lemonectric (formerly known as Hylian Lemon) gets the ball rolling with a cheerful, chippy, groovy piece of awesomeness. The minimalist (and deliciously quirky) sound design used by Ben for this track and the simple (but clever and very effective) arrangement are, in my opinion, extremely fitting for setting the mood of the album. It sets expectations to be just where they should be: this album offers a comfortable listen, but it's not all about being, as djp put it, "serene and pastoral." It's also about having fun. Truly great work by Ben, as always!"

Liontamer offers his take:

"This could have went in other melodic directions, but subtle variations were there alongside the smooth integration of "Picori Festival," while Ben also had transition sections (first used at :37) that were reminiscent of Mario 3's Grass Land theme. For any fans of chippy material, Lemonectric and other Hometown Heroes artists will make you a happy VGM fan. Here, I'm digging the Genesis sound palette and the swagger brought on by the rhythmic changes. You sure this isn't from Sonic & Knuckles: The Mushroom Hill Cap? ;-)"

Definitely some FM goodness to match the purer chip leads, and the whole thing is plucky in an affable, inoffensive, but still engaging manner. It's also got some pep in its step, setting the stage for an album that, while laid back & often relaxing, also has moments of joy, silliness, funk, & reflection. Enjoy Ben's ReMix, and please enjoy Hometown Heroes - it's an album that a relatively small team put their heart & souls into, and we hope you dig the concept & the execution. Nuestra casa es su casa :)