ReMix:Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "Dark Waters" 3:51

It's 2/2/22... so how about some Sonic 2? MkVaff (Mike Vafeas) hits us with his first featured mix of the year and his FIFTY-FIFTH (!) featured mix on OCR, as he turns his sights to a fun EDM take on "Oil Ocean Zone":

"Greetings, friends! And Happy New Year!

Going through my remixes, there are about two more that I think may be OCR-worthy, so I'm sending the first one for your consideration. Hope you enjoy!

It had been such a while since I'd revisited any of the Sonic the Hedgehog soundtracks, so I figured I would try and incorporate some Sonic goodness into my latest group of remixes.

I always thought the original "Oil Ocean Zone" track was such a cool song - it was a perfect example for me as to why I fell in love with game music in the first place. It's an unapologetic combination of different influences from different parts of the world created with strict technical limitations into something new, interesting, and awesome.

As with a lot of my work, I approached this mix with little more than a vague idea of the sound that I was looking for. So much of my process is pure trial and error and random discovery of things that *might* work along the way - and this remix ended up being a good example of that.

I knew that I wanted to keep some of the wonderful Middle Eastern vibes from the original piece, but I also wanted to slow the song down and give it more of a pronounced rhythm. The more deliberate, almost military stomping feel that went with the slower pace of the remix as it came together seemed to work well for my ears, so I ended up leaning in that direction.

While the end result of my remix sounds fairly different than its source material, I'd like to hope that I captured some of the spirit of combining different elements and sensibilities into something new that the original song had done so wonderfully.

Thanks as always, please be safe and stay well!"

It's almost impossible for me to hear or even think of this theme without conjuring up the legendary "WT-40" mix from wayyyyyy back in (checks notes...) 2007, so if you haven't heard that take, you just gotta. This is comparatively a little more conservative, but I like the extra layered rhythms Mike's added in, and in general the vibe/presentation is in the classic, old-school MkVaff tradition: groovy, well-produced, and pretty damn hard not to like. Liontamer evaluated:

"Love hearing Mike work in his creative pocket so-to-speak, as this arrangement approach fits really nicely alongside his earlier OCR works. You've got a melodically conservative approach that focuses on personalizing the instrumentation and mood to give it that unique stamp to stand apart from the original. I indeed dug how the original beats drove this forward, and liked the very subtle inclusion of the source tune's bassline (which was always a smooth component of the original song) and like the quick playing around with the rhythms along with some cool instrumentation changes from 1:40-2:00. There's a lot of good sound design underlying the melody that also gave this a different tone and character. A fun take on a Sonic theme that I'm actually surprised doesn't get more love!"

Maybe it's the titular fossil fuels & the impending doom they represent, who knows? The source is a banger, though, and Mike's given us a spin that infuses it with the most classic elements/aspects of his style. Enjoy!