ReMix:Pony Island "Run Pony Run" 3:56

We're all about embracing the past around these parts. Obviously, the nostalgia goes pretty deep as far as old school game coverage, but, nah... we're not talking about that today, we're talking about old school music genre invocation. It's time to time travel back, back, back to the musical zeitgeist of the extremely distant 2010s with an equine-inspired dubstep mix of Pony Island, released six years ago this month! ;-) We always love when composers reach out to arrangers with kudos, so we'll let OCR judge Chimpazilla (Kristina Scheps) expound on the origins:

"Shameless Self-Panel™ here, but I wanted to get more feedback on this one and also subject all my favorite Js' ears to some foul wubbery. I went through a dubstep phase in 2018 and wrote a few similar tracks, but this was the only one that was a proper remix. I never submitted it because I had plans to make a Pony Island remix album; I started a couple of other tracks but computer problems and health problems put a stop to my progress. So, "Run Pony Run" sat on my SoundCloud gathering dust. I decided it was time for a necromaster and submission.

I had never heard of Pony Island until this remix ("Diabolus ex Machina") came through our inbox in 2016. I immediately loved the simple 8-bit source tune because it was in an unexpected style (8-bit trap!). My son and I bought Pony Island and played through it that night, and it made a heavy impression on me. The game itself is rather simple, but the deceptively lighthearted story continues to evolve in some very surprising, and very dark, ways. I really, really like this game. (Note to self, play through game again.) If you have time to kill and don't want to play it yourself (and if you want to laugh), here is Markiplier playing through the game.

While I really liked the "Adventure Awry" source tune used in "Diabolus", I found that "Enter Pony" really resonated with me and seemed to lend itself to a dubstep style. I put in a LOT of time on this remix. All those wubs were crafted, sequenced, processed, rendered, chopped, and/or re-processed and rendered again, multiple times. In this file there are renders of renders of renders. Each time I rendered a part out, it freed up my computer for more processing. I was happy with the vibe I created, and I still like it today and I hope others will too (you guys promised me dubstep isn't dead and I trust you on this!).

A couple of months after I uploaded this to my SoundCloud, I received a message from Jonah Senzel. He had combed the interwebz for remixes of his OST and found mine among a few others. So he reached out to say hello and thanks, and to ask for my address so he could send me a signed copy of his OST on vinyl. I was very flattered and I still have that album here (although I haven't had a turntable in... God knows how long!).

I have done a full source-use timestamp. The remix is 80% source. Generally, there are source motifs playing in various combinations throughout the track with the exception of the wub-only sections after the breakdown and even those are interspersed with snippets of source motifs. I hope you all dig this!"

Maybe we can link up Chimpa with Disco Dan -- since Dan's super big into VGM vinyl -- and get her some turntable recommendations? Maybe analog-related mastering should be a bucket list item for her? OK, OK, I'll stop turning those gears in my mind. It's just that Kris is widely known in the VGM arrangement community for being a mastering guru for hire and for training, and she's been kind enough to help many an artist fine-tune their nearly finished products to present in peak production proficiency. What does that mean when she herself is the artist from start to finish? You get something that sounds both clean AND dirty, in other words, rocking a sharp soundscape while battering your ears with intensity and aggression, shown off in a big way when the piece completes the build after the first minute. Judges were bowled over with wobbles, and asking for more, including prophetik music:

"the hit at 0:15 is delicious. the bass is so beefy there, i love it. i like the clicky xylo synth doing the descending arpeggio, that's a great way to keep it there but not have it as dominant as in the original.

the wubs are wubbalicious as expected. there a big break leading into about 2:00 and it gets real silly there. it's so obvious you spent a ton of time on the bass work in this - it's hand-crafted audio couture, only the wubbliest of wubs selected by our freshershest wubblyfarmers. i actually really like the hats when they come in for each wubbreak especially.

source is throughout, there's tons of creativity. the track sounds great. easy vote."

Many thanks to Jonah Senzel too for his generocity and outreach to Chimpazilla; getting the "attaboy/attagirl" from the original composer is always a great feeling, so we always encourage arrangers to publish their creations and don't be shy about putting them on the original composers' radars. It's not a mundane jumping task; the streets of appreciation go both ways! When she's got the "composer digs it" card in her back pocket, is there anyone out there who could turn against Kris's track?? Are there people out there who... [GASP]... hate dubstep??? If it helps, Jonah Senzel's source tune, "Enter Pony", kind of sounds like the ramp-up to Pokémon Red's "Victory Road", so if you really need convincing, pretend it's Pokemanz dubwub and remember to keep those musical appreciation settings on "OPEN"! :-D We're glad Chimpa didn't let this stallion of a track stand idly in the stable; if you need a clop clop of BIG PONY ENERGY, let this pony run!