Pictionary "No Eraser, 10B Only, Final Destination!" 3:32

We're proud to introduce our newest judge, Chilean jazz/prog/fusion specialist jnWake! He joins Pixels & Paradiddles on the panel, along with new sage Treyt to hopefully strengthen our feedback to the VGM arrangement community, so, to celebrate, we've got a solo DoD-winning effort from Wake that honors only the greatest VGM composer on God's green earth, my personal favorite VGM composer Tim Follin! Follin's known for overdelivering on his soundtracks, so in turn, jnWake majorly dressed up Pictionary's title theme in his trademark jazzy, funky fusion:

"And yet more Dwelling of Duels. For April 2024's VGM Con, DoD decided to host a special competition, a Tornado of Solos for the iconic "Title Theme" from Pictionary (NES). This type of competition is different from the standard DoD competition in the sense that everyone has to cover the same source instead of having a theme and freedom to choose a source that fits. Since everyone was doing the same track, part of the challenge (for me, at least) was covering it in a way that would stand out.

Anyway, this source has become kind of a meme in the VGM community thanks to the "IT WAS JUST PICTIONARY TIM" comments and such but, if I'm being honest, it's not the most impressive Tim Follin work, IMO. Although the sound design is impressive, the composition itself is much less crazy than other Follin works (like Solstice, for example). In any case, it has a ton of fun riffs and solos, so it was still fun to cover. For my take, I went for a jazz-ish cover, since it's a style that comes somewhat naturally to me and wouldn't require me to hunt for any collabers. I also didn't have much time to do the remix for several reasons (work and the death of my computer among them), so, yeah, it was kind of a miracle I even made it in time... Somewhat unexpectedly, given the circumstances, my track was actually the winner of the competition, so, yay me, I suppose."

Sure it's hard to compare Follin's other great NES tunes to Solstice or Silver Surfer, but if this was somehow Tim Follin with his foot *not* fully on the gas, I bow in humility, because Pictionary's been a jam from moment one and we're glad Wake decided to tackle it. Part of what caught our eye for having jnWake try out for the judges panel was his thorough arrangement breakdowns:

"K, as usual, I'll highlight some parts of the source to make judging easier. 0:08 features the first main melody of the source, 0:15 features the second main melody, 0:22 we'll call the "arpeggios" section, 0:34 is the "funky riff", 0:48 is the main solo, and 1:26 is the outro.

Now, for my remix:

0:00-0:04: Intro, taken directly from the source. I raised the BPM a little bit, from 128 to around 138.
0:04-0:32: First solo, the chord progression is based on the "arpeggios" of the source while the lead is based on the first few bars of the main solo. At 0:18, I change up the chord progression a bit while the synths play something similar to the arpeggios part. 0:25 has a fun synth run!
0:32-0:52: Main riff returns with a funky bass and then we enter into the first main melody over a different chord progression.
0:53-1:14: Slowed down version of the second main melody followed by a return to the main riff.
1:14-1:53: Arpeggios section followed by another synth solo, reprising the chord progression from the first solo. 1:43 has a weird piano/synth run that acts as bridge.
1:53-2:53: Funky riff followed by 2 solos. 2:07 has a polyphonic solo. I don't do them often, but it was fun. I wanted the 2 solos to feel different and that was a good way of doing it. 2:22 has a more standard synth solo over a jazzy chord progression (gotta love them stacked 4ths). The ending of the solo at 2:49 is also the ending of the solo from the source.
2:53-3:14: Reprise of first main melody and then second main melody.
3:14-end: Outro of the source covered pretty directly.

That's it. Hope you enjoy my weird take on this iconic Follin theme!"

Enjoy we did, with judge Hemophiliac celebrating two great musical tastes being combined:

"This source is right in your wheelhouse. I do enjoy your proggy-esque work.

Source usage is not a problem here at all, lots of interpretation and riffing on those wild Follin lines. I like how at 1:59 you emulated the opening from the source some with the doubling of the chip lines with slightly different voices. [...] Great work.

"Awesome, wild, and crazy". That's your Pictionary hint for guessing at this: YES"

Fellow judge Gario was in the same relm as Charles Cornell & his fans, pleasantly surprised at how much effort Wake expended in honoring "just" an NES theme (we know better, of course):

"It was just Pictionary, jnWake!

All joking aside, this ain't an easy track to arrange just because of how complex the source is (it is Tim Follin, after all), but you do a pretty good job making it your own by using the source as the backbone to your wankin' leads and solos (and we all love wankery here on OCR). [...]

Overall the production is good enough, the instrument choice is juicy with some fantastic leads mixed in with classic NES rectangle waves, and the arrangement is fantastic (arranging Tim Follin, to boot!), I don't see any reason not to post this. Nice work!"

Follin always went ham on his title themes, so we're honored to have our newest judge represent Pictionary's so well. Judge prophetik music went so far as to say "this is outrageous as expected. you didn't need to go this hard. excellent job." One can only hope we eventually get some Spider-Man and the X-Men representation around here one day; maybe Wake would crush one of those Follin themes too! ;-)