ReMix:Horizon Zero Dawn "The Edgerunner with Blazing Hair" 3:55

By Treyt

Arranging the music of 2 songs from 2 games ( view all )...

"Aloy's Theme", "Aloy's Theme: Forbidden West"

Primary Game: Horizon Zero Dawn (Sony , 2017, PS4), music by Alexis Smith, DarkMessenger, Joe Smith, Jonathan Williams, Joris de Man

Posted 2024-03-09, evaluated by the judges panel


Treyt debuts more modern games on OCR, bouncing from the indie hit Micro Mages now to the AAA hit Horizon franchise! Here, Trevor reshapes the cinematic style of Aloy's vocal themes from Zero Dawn & Forbidden West into a dark, electronic banger... with a touch of brightness? Give us an explanation, Treyt:

"Both official renditions of her theme have a lot of whimsical movement in them that doesn't lend toward an identifiable musical theme but more of a feeling/vibe, and the composer ties it all together with the recurring melody. I went a sort of similar path in a different genre, but leaned hard into combining the identifiable melody with the pacing and sound design of the dark club style Cyberpunk 2077 popularized, while staying true to my own personal tastes in energy and erring on the side of uplifting mystery and intensity/action to better represent Aloy's curious, confrontational, and optimistic nature over the genre's typical dark and oppressive vibes. I chose to include in-game samples from HZD's "Longleg" enemy machine, as their extended screeches fit the genre and arrangement nicely."

Though judge DarkSim also wanted a lil' lift in the volume level, Treyt's rendition was forceful and spirited, including surprising moments of beauty:

"Aloy's theme is very fitting [...], a powerful and emotive piece, and the female vocal melody that doesn't use words helps to give it a timeless, tribal feel. Anyway, enough about the source, on to the remix...

Source melody is presented immediately, with some tranquil bells, and there's a hint of what's to come with the robotic synth filtering in, and pulsating bass. 0:20 cements the cyberpunk/dark synthwave vibe, and I gotta say, I love the synth choices and the mixing is pretty clean [...]. Melody is handled by a different synth, then there's a break with the B section, and a huge build to some monstrous synth work at 1:30. Like a bunch of teenagers broke into a Cauldron and drank some Thunderjaw blood.

The break at 1:56 is a welcome one, again with some cool sound design. The glitchy Tallneck effects are a nice touch, and handled just well enough so that they sound slightly uncomfortable, but not so much that the high frequencies are piercing my ear drums. There's another build and then a really nice distorted arp at 2:50 that leads into the final chorus. We finish with the same instrumentation as the intro to bookend the track, and some beautiful reverb.

Throughout the track we're treated to some gorgeous sound design, from those soft, sweet bells to that snarling arp and screeching machine SFX. [...] Fantastic stuff, and great to see Horizon games getting some love here on OCR!"

It's too bad "ear candy" isn't a scientific music term, otherwise we'd start a tag for it and apply it to pieces like this! Treyt truly took the melody and rode the concept, developing lots of strong, varied ways of presenting it, with strong dynamic contrast throughout the arrangement thanks to a heaping helping o' fancy effects. Like prophetik music did in his vote, judge Chimpazilla raved over the effectiveness of the mellow intro immediately followed by sudden intensity:

"WOW what a track, starts out gentle and then shows its teeth hard, with all of the distortion and bitcrushing, all while a gorgeous glassy synth plays the melody. I love this arrangement. [...] I really love all the delicate bell tones and softness, contrasted with some of the heaviest EDM sounds possible. This one melts my face!"

Definitely stay alert out there! We'd hate for you to get your face melted by "The Edgerunner with Blazing Hair"... or would we? ;-)

Liontamer

Discussion

Latest 6 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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timaeus222
on 2024-04-07 17:24:24

Some cool distortion elements going on here! Might even call them edgy. ;-)

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CJthemusicdude
on 2024-03-23 20:57:15

The filter movement and groove at :18 was already really snazzy, but it just kicks into overdrive at the drop at :36. Verrry cool.

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Geoffrey Taucer
on 2024-03-12 18:50:36

OOOOOOH This is gorgeous! Really cool how you managed to make so much out of just the first few seconds of the source melody, and it works really well here!

Love the synths, and I especially love the glitching around 2 minutes in. The whole thing has just the right amount of edge and grit, and dropping back to the music box-ish sound at the end was exactly the right choice imo.

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The Vodoú Queen
on 2024-03-12 03:18:34

Beautiful and edge-driven take on both of Aloy's Themes from the games. :) Only got to play the first one in full, but this pumping Cyberpunk (yeah I got the reference :P) vision of yours for it is rad as hell--all it's missing is a Gunship-style male and female vocal ballad, haha. Love the glitches.

Keep it up, Trey. ♥

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H36T
on 2024-03-10 05:39:30

I've actually been looking forward to listening to this for a long time since I saw it in the queue. Cool take!

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Liontamer
on 2024-03-09 03:01:10

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Sources Arranged (2 Songs, 2 Games)


Primary Game:
Horizon Zero Dawn (Sony , 2017, PS4)
Music by Alexis Smith,DarkMessenger,Joe Smith,Jonathan Williams,Joris de Man
Songs:
"Aloy's Theme"
Additional Game:
Horizon Forbidden West (Sony , 2022, PS5)
Music by Alexis Smith,DarkMessenger,Joe Henson,Joris de Man,Lovisa Bergdahl,Oleksa Lozowchuk
Songs:
"Aloy's Theme: Forbidden West"

Tags (9)


Genre:
Synthwave
Mood:
Aggressive,Energetic,Trippy
Instrumentation:
Electronic,Synth
Additional:
Effects > Glitching
Effects > Lo-Fi
Time > 4/4 Time Signature

File Information


Name:
Horizon_Zero_Dawn_The_Edgerunner_with_Blazing_Hair_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
6,505,502 bytes
MD5:
1ff6f9dc4b3386e16347c2e032c125f4
Bitrate:
218Kbps
Duration:
3:55

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