ReMix:Ecco: The Tides of Time "Two Tides (Sin City Mix)" 4:12

June is Pride Month, and although there's NEVER a wrong time to feature something from MkVaff, it's additionally special to showcase his work with him being a proud part of the LGBTQIA+ community. We've had this Ecco: Tides of Time theme arranged on OCR before, so it's a personal favorite of mine. halc's "Another Seascape", still one of my personal favorites from OCR's whole 4,000+ catalog, was killer and introduced me to the original song, so I'm over the moon to now hear MkVaff uniquely trick out "Two Tides" with a tip of the cap to trap. :-) MkVaff details how he wound up swimming down this particular lane:

"I love remixing music from the classics. Zelda, Sonic, the Final Fantasy series, Chrono Trigger -- all the big games I grew up with and spent so many hours playing when I was younger. But I also love getting the chance to discover some of the more obscure games and soundtracks that I missed through the years -- and Ecco: The Tides of Time was one of them.

I played the original Ecco the Dolphin on Genesis, and always thought it was an interesting game with its slow, deliberate pace and exploratory design. The soundtrack was much more ambient and experimental than a lot of the game music I remember from the time, but it fit the game perfectly.

While I was coming up with some ideas for more recent "Sin City" arrangements, I re-listened to the original Ecco the Dolphin soundtrack. It had some interesting music, but then I remembered that the game had a sequel on Genesis that I never had the chance to play. I checked out parts of this game on the Genesis Mini and it was very cool. Definitely an interesting game for its time with some unique music on the Genesis/MD. After checking out the music in The Tides of Time, I was very impressed with several of the tracks, and I was surprised by the overall complexity and quality of some of the songs on the tracklist. The music for the "Two Tides" stage in particular jumped out to me as having a solid, laid-back beat and some great synth sections.

I incorporated elements of trap music for this remix, as I wanted it to have a chill, moody, "underground" feel to it. I tried to incorporate both aspects since I thought they were important to retain in covering this theme. It's sometimes a challenging balancing act. Some of the Ecco music is pretty epic and dramatic, so I added some brassy synths in the later melody to add some excitement and to incorporate some of the "bigger" feeling of some of the songs in the Genesis Ecco soundtracks.

While I've recently covered some classics, I decided to submit this particular piece because it seemed like such a hidden gem from a soundtrack that I don't often hear in discussions compared to the more popular games that are known for their music. It was my very first time actually listening to the music from The Tides of Time, and I wanted to highlight some of the interesting, excellent material in that soundtrack.

Thanks for listening, and for joining me on this journey. Hope you enjoy!"

As I mentioned, huge fan of the original, so I love the potential of arranging a Genesis theme like this one, which sounds so skeletal. Judge prophetik music was indeed ready to go along; bask in his play-by-play account of the journey:

"opens with some ping-pong backing synths and a nice sweep effect that's fitting given the source material's locale. beat drops at 0:25. the snare's reminiscent of a sonar ping and the verb and backing synths also are reminiscent of water, so again this is a really cool idea for how to relate the source to the mix. the original's melody is honestly really beautiful and fitting into the synth sweeps is really nice.

there's a break at 1:39 and the Prelude-like arpeggios layered in here are nice, as the variety of leads used in this section. contrasting one with high reverb to one without it is a nice choice. the beat comes back in at 2:28 alongside a bit more buzz in the synths which is a nice change to dress it up a bit. 3:17 is a bit of a recap of the last line of the melody before we're on the downside of the work. there's a solid outro and then it's done. [...]

this is an easy vote. the synth work is impeccable as expected, the beat is great, and the adaptation is really smooth. excellent work."

MkVaff achieved a wonderful sonic expansion, beefing up and fleshing out "Two Tides" with richer sounds and fancier textures. The way he constantly traded off the melodic lead instrumentation starting at :50 was gorgeous, and you have the combination of sonar pings, water drips, and quiet countermelodic writing subtly adding character to the textures, all while the bass fulfills its role in a low-key way. MkVaff's production is so dialed in, it's incredible, which was enthusiastically co-signed by judge Chimpazilla:

"Right from the get-go I'm loving the wide, alive stereo soundscape. I love the gentle trap vibe happening here with the 808 bass and trap hats. All the elements fit together well and this is mixed to perfection, mastering is appropriate. Oh, awesome glassy/synthwavey lead starting at 2:29. So many arps going in the background, but the soundscape doesn't sound overcrowded and the leads shine through. This is just excellent, let's go."

Chimpa praised something that also hit my radar, as right at 2:28, when I was hoping we'd get something fresh on the next iteration of the verse, MkVaff changed up the leads and got more aggressive with the sound for some nice contrast. Hitting the chorus's line a second time at 3:18 right after an initial usage at 3:11 was super satisfying. Good thinning out of the textures at 3:47 to focus on the amazing sound design of the percussion & SFX to wind it down. Lush as lush can be, this is so, so smoove, and so, so loopable. Ecco fans, fins up, y'all are eatin' good tonight!

P.S. My hands clasped in atheist yet earnest prayer, MkV, please also arrange Defender of the Future sometime! We need more Tim Follin love, and I know you'd do an incredible job!

(And "rest in power" to Tim's brother Geoff, another legendary game composer, who recently fell to pancreatic cancer. VGM fans, please donate to Pancreatic Cancer UK per Tim's request.)