Romeo Knight - Ballblazer (feat. Beastie Boys)

Track info

Arranged by:

Romeo Knight Veteran

Member profile:

Eike Steffen (romeo_knight)

Original SID:

Listen at DeepSID

Original composed by:

Russell Lieblich

Also check out:

1 other remix of Ballblazer

Duration:

3:26

Released:

07/02/2006

All-Time charts position:

749

Score:

88%

Story

My 10th remix - and the first one without playing a single guitar note at all.
(instead I let Boz do it 😉 )
Thanks to the one and only Beastie Boys for the a cappella of "All lifestyles", taken from
www.beastieboys.com/remixers.php

Here are the full credits:

Original Atari 800/5200 music - Peter Langston
C64 SID music - Russell Lieblich
Vocals - The Beastie Boys
Synths, beats and FX - Reaktor 5/Guitar Rig 2
Pseudo random sequence synth - EZPoly
Guitar - Boz
Voice talents:

Slan Sterling – Bob Sarlatte
Arboster Kipling – Rick Cimino
Lazer Lite Announcer – Laurie Bauman Arnold

Voice recording engineer - Mark Escott@Berke Sound, San Francisco
taken from a Ballblazer press conference video, 1984

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Achievements

ROTY 2006

3 Most Innovative Remix (c64 or Amiga)

Shouts

Makke shouts:

That's a pretty damn accurate BB impersonation! And tune isn't bad either.;)

Waz shouts:

Intriguing mix of the original tune and Beasties all over the place, and it works too. Hip hop and don't stop. It's a sabotage if you don't get your body movin', intergalatic stylee.

Ziphoid shouts:

It's hard not to give this an outstanding rating, 'coz that's exactly what it is. Outstanding. Soo cool useage of the BB rap...

Danceaway shouts:

Great remix and sounds great!!!

infamous shouts:

Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow god damn.. WOW!

tony.rc shouts:

Good Golly!! Great commentary + Beastie Boys. Did some just notice the remix bar raise?

DMC shouts:

Outstanding work. Damn perfect. As I like the Beastie-Style alot I am very impressed. But I missed some really nice turntable-cuts on this one! ;-) I´m a bit angry coz me had the idea too mixing a BB-Acapella with some oldschool C64 Tune. ;) Anyway.

ifadeo shouts:

Brilliant Remix!!! His best so far... Mehr davon Eiiiikeeee....;-)

dafunk shouts:

OMG, I really dig this!

gibs shouts:

It's incredible how the vocals are working with the music!!!

zuckerfrei shouts:

Doubtless one of the most professional remixes ever released here....!

weasel shouts:

How great is THAT idea now, huh!? :-DD Perfect mixing and sounds so damn _real_ as if BBoys would have come to the same idea themselves! :-D Simply perfect fitting oldschool Beastie C64 Boys retro feeling! :-D

eliot shouts:

How great is this idea? Does not work, coz it's just SID (are not SIDs with something overlayed banned by RKO rulez? )... Maybe I'm confused. The best part indeed is, that Romeo doesn't play guitar at all :-)

aero shouts:

Not really my cup of tea, but very well done indeed

the64bit shouts:

WooW realy cool song!

vosla shouts:

Not a BB fan but it's such a friggin good remix I got to love it!

DHS shouts:

Simply put, *genious*. And yes, I'm angry with myself for not knowing about the BB free acappellas :) Must put a patch to it :)

k_rostoen shouts:

Very nice remix.

Skitz shouts:

Ahhhhhhhhh Yeaah - let the beat DROP! Technically brilliant and great use of the BB rapping...

Boz shouts:

Hehe, love this tune. Great mash of Ballblazer (I've always loved the simple but effective tune) and BB, one of my fave bands. Top!

LMan shouts:

Kick ass!

Dan shouts:

Yay! Damn catchy and a plain hoot!

fnordpojk shouts:

Not a big fan of BB, but a big fan of mashups in general, and for me, this just doesn't work out. Can't say why, though.

westerling shouts:

Extremely good!!

kwed shouts:

Pretty damn good mix that. And that's not an impersonation - it's the real deal. And legit too. Check http://www.beastieboys.com/remixers.php

solsol shouts:

This song rocks

nickenstien shouts:

I am loving this tune soo much! The combination of SID with BB rapping is awesome and works so so well. Also the talky parts add loads of atmosphere. Fantastic!:)

amigamer shouts:

Very good remix

Mayhem shouts:

Probably one of the most original "remixes" ever made!

pg shouts:

This one rocks!:-)

cyphre shouts:

Nice idea to mix this cool tune with BB :)

anaconda shouts:

What a heck does this song on rko?!;)

koroner shouts:

Excellent!

zine shouts:

Dont like at all

omoroca shouts:

Good idea with the spoken intro. And nice mixing, very well-balanced. But this one relies too much on the (publically available) Beasty Boys samples and adds nothing specific itself.

sebuko shouts:

That´s so hot n pretty freakin. I love this and been waiting so long for it!!!

nicodaemus shouts:

Great blazing... Yes, well you know.

vurtx shouts:

The original SID is one of the very few tunes that sounded better on its rival the Atari 800. This is an original and excellent remix but Romeo if you're reading this, any chance of the instrumental version?

Satanarchist shouts:

Oh no! The awesome Ballblazer future funk completely destroyed by white boy rap, get it off and you'll get an outstanding!

Nebdar shouts:

It doesn't hit my taste or good ear

kenaup shouts:

Great Romeo!

GlenBenton shouts:

Argh! Absolutely terrible!

Review by the_jinx

08/02/2006

Technique

Artistic skill

Nostalgia factor

Overall rating

Amazing remix.. Also love the non beasty vocals..
It's one of the most original remixes I heard in a while..

Review by buzzard

09/02/2006

Technique

Artistic skill

Nostalgia factor

Overall rating

Rap is not my thing, so I judge the track on my opinion of it's musical merits.
Marvellous!
Love the track, love all the samples and the composition of the tune.
One of the better technical remixes for quite a while.
I'd definitely like to see one of the classics remixed by these guys, something like the last ninja or rtype, because of the technical brilliance of this track.

Review by gibs

09/02/2006

Technique

Artistic skill

Nostalgia factor

Overall rating

Romeo Knight strike again with a new style but it's not just to say "I can do this too" because it's perfectly done! he knows exactly what he's doing and this is why the rap performance fit perfectly with the main riff of the SID!
"this thing work with this one" and you will not find another C64 riff that could work better.
Of course he could follow the bass with his guitar to sound like many fusion bands but he prefer to let the SID screaming just to say "this chip is not dead, it still alive!!! "

Review by craigg

09/02/2006

Technique

Artistic skill

Nostalgia factor

Overall rating

With the majority of C64 remixes being SIDs reworked with new instruments, it's great to hear something that wouldn't sound out of place in the charts - a genuine, high-quality mash-up. The Ballblazer riff is, of course, one of the very few available SIDs that have sufficient hook for pop tracks, and also to carry the kind of vocals in this track.

I'm no Beastie Boys fan, but I still rate this track highly anyway, partly because it's clearly a decent production, partly because it just sounds good, and partly because this is the direction C64 remixes really need to be going in for the scene to have a future - actual songs, not just SID "X" the orchestral version, SID "X" the "rock" version, SID "X" the "take the MIDI and assign some fairly random instruments to it" version.

Good stuff, Romeo Knight. More, please.

Review by jgb

10/02/2006

Technique

Artistic skill

Nostalgia factor

Overall rating

Technically this could do with another round of mixing and mastering. The synth chords and the bass are mixed too high. The kick is hidden somewhere in the background. The whole mix feels like it is lacking a bit in the bass compartment, but I'm a sucker for deep bass so this could be an artistic decision. Not enough space in the mix for the vocals.

Well chosen sounds and fx. The structure of the song is really good, though a bit too reliant on the synth chords/bass combination. That could be developed a bit more. Really like the synth solo! The vocals fit the tune perfectly!

The overall feeling of the remix is somewhere along Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and Rockwell's "Somebody's watching me". The 80:s feel is all over the song.

Nostalgic? Not a bit, haven't heard either the original SID nor the BB track.