Track Notes: Zelda Rmx
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This remix medley of mine, based on various themes taken from Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda game franchise, seems to pop up now and then on the radar of various blogs, so I thought it might be useful to offer a few notes about the circumstances under which it was written. Although I’m a huge fan of the franchise, with many happy memories playing Zelda: A Link to the Past on my SNES, the remix didn’t come about purely as a celebration of the game and its music; it was written for a 2003 competition (I think it was 2003 anyway — my memory’s pretty hazy) hosted by UK games mag Computer and Video Games, and sponsored by Nintendo and Turnkey (a chain of UK music stores). The possibility of winning a Gamecube bundled with Zelda: Wind Waker, plus an Access Virus Indigo 2 VA synth, was too good to pass up. So over the course of one weekend I set about writing a little remix medley homage to the music of Hyrule.
As luck would have it, after completely forgetting about the competition, I got a phone call a few months later, from one of the competition organisers notifying me of my win, and a couple of days later I received the Gamecube and Access Virus, feeling like an excited kid on Christmas morning. Somewhat regretfully, I then sold the Virus a month or so after, as at the time I was wholly convinced VSTi synths were all I’d ever need (oops), and that the proceeds of the synth would be better spent purchasing another UAD-1 DSP card, as they were a just couple of hundred quid short of a grand at the time. Ah well, at least I still have the Gamecube (mostly used for Mario Kart!).
Tags: competition, nintendo, remix, synth, virus, zelda
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May 19th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Great arrangement of the originals. Those early Nintendo games have some amazing, iconic compositions in them, more of which deserve revisiting I think. (the Double Dragon 2 score being my personal favourite)
Always glad to hear more of your stuff, Chris. If you’ve got any other old tunes from the archives that aren’t likely to be commercially released, put them online!
May 19th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Uhhh… I just clicked the ‘Music’ link and discovered the treasure trove of vintage Ochre. Hooray!
May 20th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
This was the track that got me into you, Chris. I still love it, and some of Koji Kondo’s music is absolutely sublime. His work on Zelda especially.
May 31st, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Absolutely stunning. I’ve never been more addicted to a game than to the first Zelda on the Nes.
This remix, which I’ve been playing over and over again for years now, brings together the best of your excellent production skills and the emotion of the original score. It makes me happy every time I hear it.
July 16th, 2007 at 4:00 am
I FREAKIN LOVE THIS REMIX!!!!
I found it in 2003 and would basically listen to it all the time!! I even had it on my myspace for the longest time!! But then when singingfish was bought by aol I couldn’t find it for quite some time!! But then I did and the URL led me to your site!! Well I know I’m a girl and all but I used to play Zelda all the time!! The one with all of those song in I think the Ocarina of time!! Out of all the zelda games I find this one to be the best of them all!! Wind waker is all right and the other ones were okay to but the ocarina of time had something about it that just made me love it so ficken much!! Even after I beat it with that book that helped you with the levels and find all the peices of heart I would play it just for fun all the time!! Well I just want you to know that your remix is absolutely incredible and I love it and you deserve that Game cube!!!! Love your stuff!!!
July 16th, 2007 at 4:17 am
Oh yeah another thing I was wondering if you had a myspace?? If you don’t though I highly suggest you make one and put all of your wonderful work on there including this remix! hehe!! oh and have you ever thought about making a sweet music video for this remix!! I have so many ideas and made little skits but you should deffinatley think about it!! It would be the sickest thing in the world!! I can only imagine it now how amazingly legit it would look!! just some things I was thinking about that I forgot to put in my other comment that’s all!! haha!! well I really love your stuff!! it sounds really really cool!!
September 9th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
i love this and i love the games.
December 16th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Yay, Mario Kart! I’ve recently been playing this via an emulator on my xbox. Thanks dude, for all the amazing songs you’ve made available for free over the years-
one of these days I will hear/buy midsummer nights dreams, god willing.
Cheers,
m@
December 27th, 2007 at 12:53 am
Hello! I love your music! I was wondering what happened to REM Sleep Research! I really like that song and can’t seem to find it any more! I’ve searched it about a million times and still can’t seem to find it. If you could, maybe add it to your song listings cause I really love the tune! It’s an amazing song and would absolutely love to hear it again!
Jessica Carolyn Dyer