ReMix:Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge "Electric" 3:09

A very intriguing source usage approach by German newcomer SovRin, who used backing composition from Monkey Island 2 as the foundation of an electro wonderland:

"I grew up in the 90s, and Monkey Island and its music have always meant a great deal to me. The music to this day is often stuck in my head and has inspired not a few of my own songs.

This one is the first time that I took notes from a MIDI file. It's called Mi2Escape.midi from SCUMMBar.com.

As I mainly do chipstep or dubstep with video game influences, this was really fun to do, although I only took the "background" notes played from the harpsichord mainly, not to rip off the main theme from Monkey Island, which is very recognizable.

This track has a lot of my own sound design in it, especially the basses, of course, but I try to lead with the playful melody of the original track. It also has a little nod towards Last Ninja in the intro, but that was just a gimmick.

I took mainly 2 parts of the harpsichord melody and worked it into a 128BPM rhythm (the original being quite chaotic and all over the place) and switched it to D#.

Overall, it took roughly 13 hours to make, was quite fun, and I hope the reference is audible."

It's a treat to have two electronic music mavens on the judges panel lend their specialized insights here, first with DarkSim full of praise for SovRin's decisions:

"Cool intro with the filtered chips, bass and FX. Nasty subbass from 0:16 really sets the mood. Love that initial hit at 0:45, there's loads of detail and the sound design you'd expect from a complextro/chipstep/dubstep/whatever the kids call it these days style. I was a little concerned that the subbass would outstay its welcome once the groove kicked in, but thankfully at 1:19 when the main section begins, you switch it out. Great decision, and a fantastic 30 seconds. The Monkey Island theme isn't overtly used here, but it might have been nice to hint at at more strongly. I think fans of the series looking for a remix may be disappointed that we don't hear the theme at least once, however I really like your twist on the melody and how you've made it your own."

DarkSim's not wrong in that I can forsee folks waiting for that telltale Monkey Island melody to arrive and going "Ah, shucks" when they only get LeChip instead of LeChuck, so that won't be a surprise; I still point to an exemplary instance where a source theme successfully functioned as more of a background element behind wholly original melodies by the ReMixer, SGX's "Kick Your A". In a situation where the VGM's more of a backdrop for original writing, the original writing's gotta be catchy, and the ReMixer overperformed there, as SovRin delivered fun sounds and clever techniques that chiptune and fakebit listeners are easily going to latch onto, including judge Flexstyle:

"2013 called, and they said that the loudness wars weren't over yet. Also that crunchy basslines will remain cool forever. Pretty sure at least that last one is correct! :P [...]

Interesting choice to focus on the background elements of the song, but hey, it definitely works for this track. I dig that this thing keeps trying new stuff out without getting stale, but still gives us callbacks to song sections as well. Well done. Something else I want to call attention to: the beat very rarely changes throughout the sections, with JUUUUST enough fills to keep things moving along. However, it works because you end up using synth elements to change the rhythm instead -- a good example is the SID bassline at about 1:19, which acts as a 16th-note percussive element of its own for that section. Just a note for anyone looking through these decisions for what to maybe imitate in their own tracks.

Creative take on a good source tune, with some great energy!"

The ending fades off pretty quickly, but the track loops reasonably well, so you'll be back to the action in no time. If you like what you hear, you better dive into SovRin's catalog, with other fun fakebit tracks including treats like "The Doctor". Props to SovRin for thinking of us and sending in his densest and most sophisticated music execution yet!