Larsec - Arabian Zoids (Themed Solo)

OK… Looooooong story behind this one

It started when I fell in love with a beat. I wanted to do an ethnic thing with it; The beat, some ambient pads, a male Arabian singer and a guitar gently playing Arabic stuff in the background. An original piece by me…

But then I thought that I hadn't exactly created the beat myself, well I had sorta since it's layered from four diffrent beats that I fit together, but they were still loops, and I have thing about that; When I create something that's supposed to be orinal work I can't use drumloops, but that's just me

So I decided to look for a SID to use it for instead. Since I started remixing SIDs I have wanted to remix something by DRAX since he is the only famous SID composer I have met in real life (that I know of). I found a SID called araber (Arabian in English) and it seemed to fit perfectly so I did the first part of it, and I liked what I had done (3.25 - 3.52).

Then I ran into a wall. I simply couldn't make the rest of the SID 'fit'. I tried various things but I just couldn't get it to work the way I wanted it to. I had made an intro (the first 40 seconds of this track) and a friend told me that it reminded him of Zoids and I had thought that myself. It wasn't intentionel but that was the way it came out. I decided to do Zoids instead but keeping the Araber part (hence the title). I added a female vocalist (since I couldn't find a male one). I wanted the mix to sound minimal when the mix started. I wanted it to sound kinda clumsey and then have the sudden stab/crash/explosion to sort of say, Enough of this!, then lead it to the female vocalist.

When I was doing the lead guitar that comes in at 5.25 I had no idea what was supposed to come after that. I put in the strings and brought the guitar back in and almost completly stopped the track. Then I accidently played a few notes while running the cursor over the piano roll in Reason and the idea for the solo just jumped right into my head (6.31 - 7.39). I had been listening to a lot of Steve Vai the past month or so, that may have influenced that solo somewhat

I had decided that I wanted a solo to end it all. I did some diffrent stuff but nothing of what I did seemed to be what I wanted. I'm not exactly sure how but at some point the first bars of the solo came into my head and they seemed to fit. I could remember that it was a SID but not which one it was… I thought Galway and went through his SIDs and found out it was from Rambo. I then decided to take various themes and put them in the solo (again, hence the title )
They are:

8.20 - 8.27: Galway_Martin/Rambo_First_Blood_Part_II/Subtune 10
8.27 - 8.30: Galway_Martin/Parallax/Subtune 1
8.30 - 8.34: Just me wailing away…
8.34 - 8.37: Me doing Last Ninja inspired wailing
8.37 - 8.41: Daglish_Ben/Last_Ninja/Subtune 6
8.41 - 8.44: Follin_Brothers/Ghouls_n_Ghosts/Subtune 2
8.44 - 8.47: Brooke_Jason/Out_run/Subtune 1
8.47 - 9.01: Me wailing it out

The thing I am most proud of in this track is the forst solo from 6.31 to 7.39. For the fist time in a very long time I was able to throw away everything I had learned and just create something that sounded the way I wanted it to without worrying about if I was following the rules of harmony etc. I put in the the pad AFTER i did adjusted it to fit the lead guitar. That was a great experiance being able to do that again

The other thing about the solo is the teardown and build up… By the time you get to the solo I have torn everything down that I had build up, almost stopping the track completly. When the solo begins the track is just creeping along gently. Then when it changes from major to minor at 7.05 the drums come back in and the guitar becomes more 'alive' and the pace is somewhat pick up a bit more. When the pads do an unexpected shift to C-major at 7.29 the suspence starts to build. The C-major to D-Major must lead back to the G inwhich Zoids is played. What I really like is all that suspence and tenision hanging on that single guitar note from 7.36 - 7.39. It's even trembling a bit under the pressure… and Zoids comes back with a BANG! I love it!

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Achievements

ROTY 2003

3 Best c64 Remix

2 Most Innovative Remix (c64 or Amiga)

Shouts

layson shouts:

A very strong epic track. Great production effort in this

nonick shouts:

There some moments where it sounds really out of tune and in the second half it is getting boring.

saulc12 shouts:

Cool - can't think what else to say really

chosc shouts:

Yes there is a great athmosphere and feeling when I hear this sound!! Great work, you did that track very well!

naima shouts:

Beautiful

humorguy shouts:

Not a SID remix really, I'll give you that. But as a piece of music.... Wow!

sneck shouts:

Excellent work

kazcita shouts:

Epic!

omoroca shouts:

Doesn't sound too Arabian to me, aside from the female singer. But who cares, as long as it's that good! Excellent!

Ivar Reiss shouts:

This is great... Its like the soundtrack to Blade Runner 2 or something...

NecroPolo shouts:

Wonderful musical trip. IMO it's not the best version of Zoids, anyway.

All time classic!!!

Absolutely stunning.

I love it

This is impressive!

Give me more of this please:))

Ryrynz shouts:

Wonderul. Had this in my system for the past eight years.

greenwoodito shouts:

I really enjoyed this track. The guitar had some Dave Gilmour/Division Bell vibes. Great work!

Review by immacolata

18/02/2003

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Very great review, rating up there with the masters of ambience Mike Oldfield. I am particularly fond of the guitar. When I first heard the chanting female voice I thought Oh my god, not ANOTHER one. But quickly, i realized that this was indeed very fit. This remix both reveres the old and build it's own style. Which is also why I rate it less in nostalgia - it reminds a little of Zoids but is clearly strongly it's own work. I mean, I am not really thinking of zoids here.

Review by maharishi

17/02/2003

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Let me say first of all that I am a good friend of Larsec in real life, and I that I am not blessed with any musical skills whatsoever, except an occasional and passionate desire to break out in song or discreet humming of tunes 😊
I do appreciate music most definetely, though, but as an inductor of emotions and memories. I often react strongly emotionally to tunes because of what they bring forward in me. Its kind of like a surge of goosebumps that rushes my body. (I have heard Christians refer to it as the Holy Spirit 😊 lol)
Hmm, I'd better get to the point. I signed up as a member on the site just to be able to write this, and it's all because of you Larsec! I don't have any terms to describe any of the technical diddeleyidoo, that you fuss around with, but let me congratulate you anyway with the a purely emotional judgement I can humbly give. I love it Larsec. It gave me that surge of energy when the solo begins at 6. 31 and a strong sensation of sadness and beauty followed and giving the fact that I just fell in love (another story, but you know that one, hehe 😉 ) it speaks even more to me.

Keep up the spirit and life will bring you to the forefront of music, my friend. At least that is my wish for you.

Anders Lillemand

Review by craigg

18/02/2003

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For all its pseudo-industrial stomping, Zoids is actually a quite beautiful piece of music, as proven by O2's wonderful and lasting treatment of it, which also ended up on Back in Time 3. In some ways this remix follows a similar path, exploring the ambient side to the piece. The guitar lead, which could easily have jarred, is pushed back to good effect in the mix, and the bass pulses to add strength to the arrangement.

In some cases it perhaps moves a little too far from the original arrangement, and there's a little too much noodling here and there, but it would be churlish to penalise such an accomplished remix for a few minor niggles.

Review by beldin

18/02/2003

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Musicians most likely disagree, but for my taste the 9:29 long track contains far too many added pieces which have nothing in common with the great source theme. In particular, the female voice singing some completely unrelated Oriental stuff from 1:30 to 2:45 is something which makes me double-check whether what is playing is actually the correct track. Apart from that, the beginning sounds thin, and with the long Oriental singing, it takes too long for the remix to build up. Assuming it started around 3:53, it gets better, but not with regard to the mixing and the things that follow. It gets thinner again around 6:30 with a solo (nothing recognizable), followed by another own composition which almost fails to find its way back to the Zoids theme which in the last minute is disturbed by improvised and IMHO questionable and wild lead guitar playing. Conclusively, in the category of a SID remix -- as a remix of Zoids -- (and trying to follow and understand the arranger's long comment) I don't see many bits which make this remix more than average in its category. The sheer play-time can't compensate the ballast. In a stripped down version I could concentrate on a remix of Zoids and would rate it higher.

Review by Tas

21/02/2003

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This is a sublime piece of work from Larsec. I loved this tune right from the start, but it just gets better everytime i hear it. One of the most inventive remixes ever and so so very emotional to boot.

This remix isn't your typical like for like approach as with many remixes you hear. Starting of slowly the track seems to give you a false sense of security, but it really kicks off at the 1:30 mark where female arabian vocals are added, which just enhances the feel more than ever. At 2:30 the tune evolves slowly bringing an electric guitar in and replacing the vocals as the tempo slowly increases. Adding more instruments and effects along the way, and it just keeps evolving as it goes on.

It has everything a good musical ear should appreciate, mellow moments, attacking moments, and a massive amount of variety. Oh and it lasts just over 9 mins which is no bad thing as tracks like these can go on forever!

Excellence in remixing and excellence in music! superb!

Review by LaLa

01/03/2003

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Ever since Jarre's Millennium concert at the pyramids of Ghiza I've come to appreciate Arabic music more and more, especially modern Arabic pop and Arabic singing. This chill-out cover of Zoids has some of the latter - and that's where the Arabian attribute ends. So in this sense the title is a bit misleading. It may have started as an Arabian style cover, but then it morphs into a standard chill-out track, then into improvisational noodlings based on some SID classics. In other words, if you want to hear a coherent SID remix, steer far away from this one. The individual chunks of this remix are interesting, but as a whole they don't make any sense to me. After this 9 and a half minute long track I was left confused, not satisfied. The good point is that the technical quality of this track is pretty high.

Review by eliot

08/03/2003

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Besides the female voice there is nothing really arabian in this song. I like the voices very much, and I wished they where much longer and the leading instruments have been converted to this style too, 3:25 to 3:53 was at least a start or shall I say a try 😊 Some of the individual chunks at the end of the track do not need to make sense, but they feel wrong, Rambo at the beginning fits fine for me 😊
The stereo profile of the lead instruments is not existent 😒 and the low mp3 rate does not satisfy me. (I listen any music always with my headphones (Sennheiser SD590).) Besides a small glitch at 5:50 and the individual chunks on the end, this track is technically good.
The guitar solo is a highlight for me but also sounds a bit Mike Oldfield to me😉 - a SID-cover does not need to be a 1:1 cover, but should transport the flair of the C64.

Zoids is one of my all time favourites so the nostalgic impression has to be a 6. 0 😊

Review by LMan

17/02/2003

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This remix is so beautiful, I'm actually lacking the words to describe how beautiful. The whole thing sounds like a movie score, comparable to Dune, Blade Runner and Terminator (which have all great movie scores)😉

I've listened to this mix a thousand times, and will propably listen to it a thousand times more. Please, more of the same, Larsec!!!