Marriage in Heaven - Tetris meets her man

[Totta]

As you are all aware of, Tetris is a really hard song to cover. Not only is Wally Beben's amazing song 25 minutes long but it also uses a rythm that is out of this world, making all attempts to remix it to sound more like a remake than a remix.

But there are also so much talent in the song. Wally really poured all his creative genious and artistic musical skills into this one. I'm sure noone could have done it better and it surely must be his life's musical masterpiece so I still wanted to give it a try.

So what angle should I use?

I first tried it as a techno song but soon realized that the song's "3/4'ish rythm with a twist" got totally lost in a straight 4/4 world. All soul just went out the window. I then persued it as a reggae song which actually would translate quite well but I don't have the skills to make a reggae song sound realistic so that was also a dead end for me.

Finally I thought like this: Ok, the song is pretty close to a double time walz anyway (6/4). What songs are out there using this rythm (besides 90% of Iron Maiden's work?) Then it struck me... and this is the result:

Remember that this is still a Work In Progress. I'm not done with the swisches and swosches yet and there are still a few bits and pieces I feel can be improved. Have a listen anyway and give me your thoughts, please!

(and yes, Tetris is a female song - it must be, since it's beautiful)

[Chris Abbott]

Interesting!

Darren Izzard and I did a full version of Tetris which is kind of buried since it's not on RKO: during that, we found that the second part of the tune is in 10/8 time: i.e. 1231231212, where there are only four on-beats: 5/4 expressed in 8ths would be 1212121212. There's quite a few pieces in 5/4 ("Take Five" being the prototypical one), but 10/8 is pretty rare. Only thing which comes close is the arpeggio underpinning Oxygene 2 which is in a different time signature to the rest of the piece.

As I recall
Chris

[Totta]

One day I must hunt Beben down and ask him how the Tetris song really came about. Did he begin with the strange rythm track and just improvised the rest or did he set out to create something different using deliberately rare rythms?

I think my "conversion" to 6/4 became rather good anyway, all things in consideration, even though I had to fiddle quite a lot with putting delays on serveral notes to make them go off "in between" the normal places. I wanted to keep as much of the original song as possible... when possible.

And I had lots of fun doing it.

[Totta]

After some more tweaking and twiddling of the swisches and swosches (and sometimes swasches), I've now uploaded the finished tune to the same address and posted it on RKO too. Hopefully someone besides me will like it too.

/Totta
Bulldog- ChoirMix, The Mansion, and now Tetris - OxyMix

[Dumper]

I certainly like it, excellent work Totta.

[Totta]

Anyone heard the original bassdrum sample in my remix then?
I just had to include some kind of homage to the original somewhere

[Tom-Cat]

Hi Totta!

GREAT Remix ! I love it ... I am a big fan of JMJ and Tetris is my favorite C64 tune... as you said - it is hard to remix and I think this is the first remix that does the tune justice! I just wish one thing - it would be longer... doesn't need to be 25 minutes, but 10-15 with some other parts of the original in it... that would just make it even better. Anyway - great work ! Thank you!

[Kate-Z]

Lovely arrangement, very nicely done For me however, Tetris is one of these untouchable masterpieces in its original form, and no remix has yet managed to capture the feeling of the original track - thats just my opinion though!

However, as an alternative take on the piece yours works very well, and is an enjoyable experience... though I miss the "BWAH BWAH BW-BW-BWAAAH BWAAHH" of the originals somewhat indefinable instrument

\o/

[Totta]

Lovely arrangement, very nicely done For me however, Tetris is one of these untouchable masterpieces in its original form, and no remix has yet managed to capture the feeling of the original track - thats just my opinion though!

Mine too. Tetris is a masterpiece and is at it's best as it is.

However, as an alternative take on the piece yours works very well, and is an enjoyable experience... though I miss the "BWAH BWAH BW-BW-BWAAAH BWAAHH" of the originals somewhat indefinable instrument

Don't we all
However, there are bits and pieces of the original here and there in my remix. The BWAH BWAH can be heard in the break in the middle and the high pitch scaledown note sequence can be heard behind everything in the break as well as in the ending if you listen carefully

The fun thing about the BWAH BWAH is that it is really indefinable. Is it a drum? Is it a base instrument? Is it a sound effect? By listening to other's remixes, the opinion seems to vary. I chose to exclude it almost totally since it defines the original too much and prevents a remix from becoming a remix but instead just a remake.

Glad you liked it though
Glad you wrote a comment too... just like you did on my The Mansion remix a couple of months ago. Feedback is ALWAYS appreciated.

[Totta]

Hi Totta!

GREAT Remix ! I love it ... I am a big fan of JMJ and Tetris is my favorite C64 tune... as you said - it is hard to remix and I think this is the first remix that does the tune justice! I just wish one thing - it would be longer... doesn't need to be 25 minutes, but 10-15 with some other parts of the original in it... that would just make it even better. Anyway - great work ! Thank you!

You have provided me with an idea. I don't know if there will be anything coming out of it but it would be nice to try to recreate the whole song in a kindof Jarre style where the current remix is just a part of it. The question is how I can prevent it from being boring and repetative. Maybe try to mimic the whole Oxygene album since all songs are interconnected in that one. We can begin with Oxy1, move into Oxy 2 for the first half of Tetris and then continue into 3,4,5 and 6... but only using the Tetris melodies instead. I mean, Oxy 2 should work pretty well with the slow first part of Tetris.

That would really be something to put ones teeth in.
However, I don't have the time right now. I'm focusing on our new Android game called RummyFight. Check it out. It's a Wordfeud killer

[Tom-Cat]

You have provided me with an idea. I don't know if there will be anything coming out of it but it would be nice to try to recreate the whole song in a kindof Jarre style where the current remix is just a part of it.

Well, if anyone can pull it off then it is you Looking very much forward to that

The question is how I can prevent it from being boring and repetative. Maybe try to mimic the whole Oxygene album since all songs are interconnected in that one. We can begin with Oxy1, move into Oxy 2 for the first half of Tetris and then continue into 3,4,5 and 6... but only using the Tetris melodies instead. I mean, Oxy 2 should work pretty well with the slow first part of Tetris.
That would really be something to put ones teeth in. However, I don't have the time right now.

I bet it will take quite some time to do too, but we will be waiting patiently I wish you best with your Android games ! I kinda wanted to get into that myself... did a few games so far, but need to port them over to Android...

[Kate-Z]

Just out of interest.. whilst trawling the web looking for interesting retro orientated podcasts and the like to listen to whilst at the gym.. I stumbled across this gobsmacking little find.. I havent listened to it yet.. am a bit scared lol

http://www.bitfellas.org/page.php?176

BitJam Episode #41:

"14. Tetris Remix (MT-32) by Wally Beben
This piece stands on its own by far. When I first heard tetris playing on the c64, we didnt realise it had music due to its quiet start. I remember a few of us sitting there being blown away wondering when, if ever it was going to loop.. A few years later, and the Roland MT32 / LAPC1 sound card had become the in house musicians favourite. It gave us the ability to create the sounds we'd always dreamed of. Sadly not many gamers bought them, So it felt like we were only writing the music so other game musicians would hear it. I'd talked to wally beben on the phone while I was at Ocean, and he was excited to hear someone else had an mt32 and while he hadn't had the opportunity to work on it commercially at the time, he had "knocked up" a demo of his c64 tetris music. I've made a point over the years of keeping this safe, which given the bi-annual machine formats, system crashes etc, it's a miracle it survived. I'm very glad it did tho as it's an absolutely beautiful piece, and still can bring a tear to my eye listening to it all these years later. This is the first time this piece has been broadcast to the public. Sit back, turn the lights out, light up and enjoy.."

[Kate-Z]

okay.. a product of its time... perhaps a little twee sounding now.. but is a creation of the original composer, and therefore priceless

[Tom-Cat]

Interesting ... just listening to it. Not really much ... unfortunetly. C64 version walks all over it, it is full 25 minutes though. would be nice to get the midi file of it

[Chris Abbott]

Not too bad for 2000



this was from an original MIDI file put together by Darren Izzard, then recorded and mucked about with by me.

I really don't see why people have such a downer on "remakes" though: what's wrong with keeping the soul but enhancing the loveliness, eh?

Chris