ReMix:EarthBound "Ashes in the Snow Man" 5:08

We just celebrated EarthBound's 30th anniversary with the release of The Impact of Iwata album together with Nintendo Force magazine, and it's been a lil' mini-renaissance on OCR for EB's soundtrack this past year! Bringing us our fourth ReMix in this Motherlode is jmr channeling three important post-rock influences (and one thoughtful, intellectual one) in his recent DoD entry:

"Hey, all! Hope you're doing well! "Snowman" from EarthBound in a post-rock style, inspired by the band Mono and post-rock VGM musician Cory Johnson.

Last month, I used Dwelling of Duels as an excuse to shake off the rust and try recording a solo arrangement for the first time in a while. Normally, I'd turn to my Marshall Art bandmates for something like this - I'm severely outclassed as a guitarist compared to Mikhail and Cory, and I haven't programmed anything other than FamiTracker drums in years (and why would you, with ErichWK and Kev Ragone around?) - but I thought it would be a fun challenge for myself to make something entirely on my own.

As the title of the arrangement alludes, this track is heavily inspired by the band Mono, particularly their song "Ashes in the Snow". There are some clear aesthetic and arrangement choices that are, shall we say, "borrowed" from that song (especially the drone and glockenspiel intro), but as my song proceeds I think it becomes its own thing and leans less into their specific sound.

A large number of the choices I made for the guitar tones and drum production (kick and snare spring reverb! :D) owe a lot to Cory Johnson's music. Cory's been an inspiration and a friend for over a decade now, and I've had the opportunity to collaborate with him quite a few times, so it's maybe natural that his style would rub off on me. I think a few DoD voters might have thought this was one of his entries; I am merely the Big 8 to Cory's Coca-Cola.

I've also got to highlight one final influence - ella guro's "Unleashed!...". I posted a review of that track back in 2016:

"It's always been one of my favorites on the site, and I feel like some of the original material I've done with Marshall Art might owe itself to the noisy, abrasive sound and chaotic drums of this remix.

I kind of want to do my own version of this source at some point, but then I listen to this and realize how hard it'd be to make something I like more than this."

So, here I am almost a decade later, finally recording the arrangement I had in mind back then. It's pretty clear how that version influenced mine: BIG AND LOUD AND SATURATED DRUMS. Thanks for the inspiration, Liz.

One final note: the intro drone. It is intentionally uncomfortably long. I decorated that section with a Carl Sagan sample from an interview about the risks of nuclear winter that is awfully, scarily relevant to today's climate change crisis. That drone sets the tone for the rest of the arrangement in a way that I felt simply didn't work when cut down. The whole idea is to create a mood of tension, discomfort, and unease, so if you don't like how long it takes the song to start, I say it's done its job.

All the best, and I hope you enjoy the track!"

Whether it's dusting off & polishing up a long--dormant track, finally arranging a long-beloved theme, or in this case executing a concept one long ago felt unqualified to create, we're always proud of the collective community's full circle moments! Judge prophetik music appreciated the gradual build and production approach of jmr's novel genre bend to this classic theme:

"opening glock works surprisingly well with the heavily distorted drone. opening guitar tone is beautiful too, the backing part's light filtering really is very nice. there's a great build into 1:50 and a nice delicate approach to this section - the triplets are a great choice. i always think of bLiNd's approach to this track as the definitive version, so it's fun to hear a significantly different feel. 2:44's when the build starts a bit. continuing to include the glock is nice here, and the bass tone is really nice too. 3:23's texture just sounds loud to me. i like the idea and the frenetic, energetic drive that the drums have through here [...]

following the big section, we get a very patient outro in a similar vein to the initial drone.

i'm reminded of some parts of Bon Iver's self-titled album in the mastering and approach of this remix. there's an earthiness to the arrangement that is much more personal than some highly-curated, uber-mastered tracks we've gotten recently. this is a neat idea and i really appreciate the patience it takes throughout to express what it's saying."

Like prophetik, Emunator also digs post-rock, putting jmr over for authentically channeling its experimental trappings and also comparing him to another big act:

"Once the glockenspiel enters the picture, we're in some gorgeous territory. It evokes a sort of delicate Pikmin-meets-post rock vibe that, as someone who obsessed over post rock to a very weird degree back in high school and college, I knew it wasn't going to stay that way forever. You build up with a gentle dynamic curve though, leaving plenty of time to appreciate the different layers of texture that you add on piece by piece. It blows wide open at 3:24, and we're blasting off into space. You don't hold any punches back and I think the piece is all the stronger for it. The outro winds down once again with some feedback and the glockenspiel, and it's gorgeous. You could tell me that this was a B-side from Sigur Rós' album Takk and, except for the conspicuously-missing Icelandic falsetto, I wouldn't have questioned you at all."

I'll just say, anyone down with Carl Sagan's cool with me. After the source theme arrived at :45, there was a great gradual build of the textures until 1:50, and I of course enjoyed the rhythmic changes. Nice transition into the chorus section at 1:50 as well; I love the tension of the backing parts here, especially knowing the influences. It's also cool to have slight ReMix-of-a-ReMix vibes with the ella guro send-up at 3:42! jmr wanted to challenge himself here, so even though there may have been some feelings of intimidation or biting off more than he could chew, it feels like everything fell in its right place. A lovely choice of a theme as always, and a very cool experience that leans into EarthBound's quirky, homey feel with some stylish post-rock grit and grime!