ReMix:Gunman Clive 2 "High Clive" 3:46

Oh, April Fool's Day, you silly, you. Of course, we're NOT allowing music primarily focusing on video game sound effects, so our Pong "ReMix" by Xaleph, ZackParrish, and me went poof! But we sure had a legit barnburner for A1 as well from Insane Cup Posse that's not going anywhere, and now we've got another ReMix from members of the DoD posse, as jnWake & minusworld have a musical standoff with Arne Hörberg's boss fight music from Gunman Clive 2! jnWake moseyed up to the bar to tell us about this one:

"More stuff from Dwelling of Duels! This one is a remix of the boss theme "Fight On" from Gunman Clive 2 I wrote for Wild West month in June 2023. The point of that month was to make a theme from a Wild West theme and I figured almost everyone would make something that sounded very Wild West-ish, so I went in the opposite direction and just did a prog. metal track. I recruited minusworld from DoD to play guitars and bass, and his parts added a lot to make this mix more powerful. The guitar solos in particular are sick!

Anyway, regarding the arrangement, it's mostly very similar to the source. The original song is extremely frantic, high tempo, and rarely stays on the same section for too long. I kept the parts more or less the same than the original but took the tempo down and gave each section more time to breathe, which changed the vibe to a more "epic" one rather than the frantic vibe of the original.

Gunman Clive series is a pretty unknown one, so it was fun to cover it and give it some deserved spotlight. DoD liked this track, so I hope you guys do as well!"

How very un-Western this Gunman Clive source is. Alright, that caught me off guard, not gonna lie.

Mega Man/"Get a Weapon"-style blips at :11? Alright, *that* caught me off guard, not gonna lie.

Nothing's making sense around here. :-D If you've never experienced Gunman Clive, our hero fights some... decidedly non-traditional enemies when it comes to the Wild West, so embracing an outside-the-box instrumentation approach for this actually makes a LOT of sense. :-) jnWake was kind enough to provide a source usage breakdown, which is good study material for y'all musicians, since this was the bronze medal entry for its DoD month:

"0:00-0:11: This is directly based on the source's intro, with a repetition and slight changes.
0:11-0:22: Surprise chiptune! I thought it'd be funny to start very metal and shift to this. This section is directly based on the part that comes right after the intro in the original.
0:22-0:33: The same but now with the "metal" instruments.
0:33-0:55: This is based on the section that comes right after in the source. The main changes I did were two: first, I heavily slowed the main melody, giving it a more epic feel (obligatory strings help that); second, I slightly altered the melody on the second repetition for more variation.
0:55-1:07: Once again, I followed the source's order and this section is based on what comes after the previous section. I didn't really change the melody's chords here.
1:07-1:11: As usual, just the next section of the source, but with my interpretation.
1:11-1:18: Intro repeat!
1:18-1:45: I got more creative here with source reinterpretation here. The guitar riff is based on the intro riff, keeping the F-E-higher E "melody" and using it to create a new riff with a fun (IMO) rhythm. Brass and chiptunes enter later to transition into the next section.
1:45-2:37: Solos! The backing riff on the guitars is another variation of the intro, but it's now high E-F-E and each 4 bars end with a phrase from the intro as well. This section is heavily Symphony X-inspired, so I did my best Michael Pinnella impression with the synth patch.
2:37-3:00: This section is based on the same melody as the chiptune part, but the chord progression is changed for more of a "build-up" feel.
3:00-3:22: This is a repetition of the 0:33 section, but the second repetition ups the tempo and changes the chord progression to become the "climax" of the song. There's also some differences in the lead guitar to accomodate for the new chord progression.
3:22-3:33: Basically, a repetition of 0:55.
3:33-3:40: Basically, a repetition of 1:07 but with an additional chiptune part.
3:40-3:46: Ending, based on the part of the source that plays before it loops."

Commendable job taking those opening riffs from the original and keeping them in play for most of the first 2/3rds, which also kept the solo section grounded in some reference to the original. As previously noted, I was surprised by the immediate twists and turns this piece took, not unlike judge prophetik music, who assumed "Oh snap, sounds like Dream Theater!" and then immediately went "Aww shucks". :-D Actually, in breaking down what he dug about jnWake & minusworld's, proph was extemely simpatico with why this had such a standout showing in Dwelling of Duels:

"immediate DT vibes from the intro. immediate not-DT vibes from the following 11 seconds :< The first presentation of the melodic material however could have easily come from any of a dozen melodic prog metal bands i can think of. the aggressive riff work with soaring melodic line is a style i just love personally.

1:47's solo work sounds great as you hand off between the synth and guitars. there's a nice break at 2:37 or so with the ep, and it ramps up nice to the melodic material in the guitar at around 2:58. there's a fairly eclectic variety of textures over the last 10s, and then it's done.

mastering sounds uber-clear and balances the variety of timbres nicely. arrangement is dope as expected. nice work."

The way the brass from 1:12-1:18 danced around the stereo field was a nice touch, and the instrumentation changes up so readily throughout that you find yourself just getting wrapped up in the proggy sensibilities here. This piece also illustrates how, just like OCR, DoD can't be oversimplified to its community only getting hyped over tracks covering legendary old school games. Part of that outlaw spirit of the Wild West has gotta be tackling some newer games too, and the DoD fam were all aboard, much like judge MindWanderer, another satisfied listener:

"You clearly had a lot of fun with this! It's a pretty wild trip, and it sounds great. It goes to a lot of weird places, but stays entirely coherent. Strong work."

Much like the Gunman Clive series itself, this arrangement goes a lot of weird places but stays coherent, so MW couldn't have better encapsulated how well jnWake and minusworld's partnership for this ReMix aligns with the spirit of the game's presentation. Awesome rock/synth fusion by jnWake & minusworld that brought entirely new dimensions to this source tune! :-)