Music
Kastle Rock
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Tim Follin – SOURCE: Solstice (Main Theme) |
| ARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Keyboards, Strings, Brass, English Horn, Bassoon, Timpani, Harpsichord | |
| GENRE: Symphonic Metal | |
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NOTES: So remember that MAGfest auction thing I did a year ago? Yeah, well, due to a lot of really shitty circumstances, I was only able to work on the songs the winners gave to me recently. This is the second of two songs, and it’s the Main theme from Solstice. I also entered this for the DoD April 2012 competition. While I did this is in my common Symphonic Metal style, the arrangement is actually pretty conservative. The original song is nearly 3 minutes long, so I didn’t have to add much, and most of the melodies are exactly as they are in the original tune. The goal basically became “make Tim Follin’s song come to life.” Most of the additions are in the accompanying instruments. By the way, the naming scheme for these two MAGfest uction/April 2012 DoD songs originally wasn’t deliberate, but then when I saw the word “Kastlerock” in a game summary about Solstice, I had to do it.
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Ragnar Rock
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Kuichi Sugiyama – SOURCE: Dragon Warrior IV (Overworld) |
| ARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums…Seriously that’s it. | |
| GENRE: RAWK | |
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NOTES: So remember that MAGfest auction thing I did a year ago? Yeah, well, due to a lot of really shitty circumstances, I was only able to work on the songs the winners gave to me recently. This is the first of two songs, and it’s the Overworld from Dragon Warrior IV. I didn’t have too many extravagent ideas for the arragement, so I decided to do it in a pretty straight-forward rock arrangement. This is probably my only remix with no keyboards. I entered this in the April 2012 DoD as an alternate as well as the other MAGfest Auction song.
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Metal Symphonized
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PROJECT: Earthbound Papas’ “Metal Hypnotized” Remix Contest |
| ARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Synth, Piano, Strings, Brass Section, Orchestral Percussion | |
| GENRE: Symphonized Metal | |
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NOTES:Ok so this is pretty freakin’ interesting. Nobuo Uematsu has a new band called “Earthbound Papas.” Earthbound Papas hosted a remix contest Oct. 26th – Jan. 31st. The contest was where they posted the separate tracks from one of their songs called “Metal Hypnotized,” and contestants would remix the song. The winner would get to perform on Earthbound Papas’ next album. Welp, I did it, and I WON! YES THAT IS RIGHT. I WILL BE PERFORMING ON NOBUO UEMATSU’S NEXT ALBUM. The song is more orchestral metal, as if I don’t already have enough of it. This also debuts my new guitar, the Ibanez SV5470.
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Dirty Kirby
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Jun Ishikawa – SOURCE: Kirby’s Dream Land 3 (Sand Canyon 2) |
| ARRANGED BY: Tony Dickinson & Sam “Shnabubula” Ascher-Weiss PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson – Lead Guitars, Rhythm Guitars, Bass, Keyboards; Sam “Shnabubula” Ascher-Weiss – Keyboards; Alex “housethegrate” Liss – Lead Guitars, Travis Moberg – Drums | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Percussion, Synths, Rhodes, Piano, CP-80, Gospel Choir | |
| GENRE: Dirty Jazz | |
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NOTES: This is the winning track from MAGfest X’s DoD. I’ve wanted to do this song in this style for a while, and finally got to it for that competition. This style is basically a shoutout to the band Dirty Loops (hence the name), that takes really terrible pop songs and makes them amazing. I’ve always wanted to do a full band remix, where each musician exclusively plays their own instrument, and this song started out that way but didn’t end up that way. Shnabubula was going to play all keys, but his recording schedule was pretty thick and then his MIDI/Recording computer died. In the end, he did the keys in the intro up until the main melody, and the piano solo. Sam also helped me come up with chord progressions and other stuff in a few sections in the song. Originally I was going to have Chris Feener do all the guitars, but he wasn’t able to record them, so I got housethegrate to do the solos at 1:56, 3:00, and 5:19. Travis Moberg does all the drums throughout the song.
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Grant Henry’s Flesh Crystal
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Kenji Yamamato & Minaka Hamano (arr. Jake “virt” Kaufman & Grant “Stemage” Henry) – SOURCE: Super Metroid’s Entire Soundtrack (Crystal Flash & various Metroid Metal arrangements) |
| REARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Nylon Acoustic Guitar, Steel Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Keyboards, Strings, Brass, Orchestral Percussion, Bongos, Shaker, Super Metroid Sound FX, Jesus Christ way too much to list | |
| GENRE: The Proggiest of Metal | |
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NOTES: Your ears aren’t deceiving you. Yes, this is a Crystal Flash cover and yes I transplanted Metroid Metal arrangements into the song. Since August 2011 was Recover Month, I had only one choice: Cover the one song that got me into remixing. This originally started off as just a straight Crystal Flash cover, but as I was working through the arrangement, I felt an urge to add a riff from one of the Metroid Metal arrangements in a certain section. It was originally supposed to be that one reference, but I decided to add more Metroid Metal arrangements to make this arrangement less of a straight cover. Metroid Metal was also one of the first remixing projects I ever listened to. I felt it only appropriate to do tribute to two of the best musicians I know, two of the best people on the planet, and two of the largest influences on my music.
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Disco Night, Baby!
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Kazuo Hanzawa – SOURCE: Gunstar Heroes (Goodnight, Baby!) |
| ARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitar, Bass, Drums, Keyboards, Synths, Percussion | |
| PROJECT: Punchfest 15 “The Rip-offs”: September 11th, 2011 | |
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NOTES: Punchfest is the demon child of Dwelling of Duels and Punchfest, created by SnappleMan and named by virt (for all the punch-inseveryone will be doing through these competitions. The rules are everyone gets in an IRC room, and with a given theme, we make a real song (as opposed to strict MIDI in Punchfest). You are given 6 hours to make the song (as opposed to 1 hour in Kwakfest).
The first Punchfest in a long time (8 months I believe). The theme was music from games that were designed to capitalize on already successful game formats (i.e. tons of games ripping off Mega Man gameplay). I didn’t come up with many original ideas, but per suggestion by Nick the Newbie I did “Goodnight, Baby!” from the soundtrack in a similar style to some techno type official soundtrack version I found elsewhere. Also I added quotes from Frost* songs “Hyperventilate” and “Milliontown.” |
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F*** YOU DR. MANHATTAN (aka “The Freak Winged Boy from Ipanema”)
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Yuzo Koshiro (arr. Hugo “Dr. Manhattan” Vinicius) – SOURCE: Ys I & II (PC-Engine) (The Freak Winged Boy) |
| REARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Nylon Acoustic Guitar, Clean Electric Guitar, Rhodes, Acoustic Bass, Drums | |
| GENRE: Cheezz (Cheesy Jazz) | |
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NOTES: …Alright…so DoD August 2009′s theme was “Recover Month” where you arranged another remixer’s DoD song. I was already doing Grant Henry’s Flesh Crystal for my main entry, but I talked to fellow remixer and widely perceived rival of mine Dr. Manhattan (real name Hugo Vinicius) and said that he and I should do a pair of alts where we cover one of the other’s songs and turn them into really silly genres. But neither us would tell the other what we were doing. So I took Hugo’s “The Freak Winged Boy” which is originally a totally metal Ys 3 arrangement. But I took the main melody, changed the key to the relative major, found some jazz chords that fit around the melody…and profitted. And as a first, this is the first DoD song I ever made that DOESN’T feature live bass. I played acoustic bass on my keyboard because bass guitar would’ve been wildly inappropriate.
Click here for Dr. Manhattan’s original song. You’ll probably need some context. |
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Sand Crabs
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PROJECT: School Projects |
| WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Ethnic Percussion, Strings, Zourna, Oud, Saz, Sitar | |
| GENRE: Action Movie Desert Chase | |
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NOTES: This is another I song I made for my Intro to Music Apps class from my Spring 2011 semester. This time the project was to use instruments from Logic to create a song. I said SCREW THAT and took a few loops and made something on Cubase on my own gear. This song was actually written with a storyline in mind. Imagine you are Liam Neeson, once again as a CIA Operative or assassin or other guy with a super vague background that knows martial arts and shit (like he is in every movie). You are in a cliche middle eastern setting. Now listen to the song.
0:00-The scene comes into focus and you’re in a persian market. There are people selling blankets and fruits, and a little kid trying to peddle you VHS duplicates of sitcoms shown on UPN in the 90′s. You’re amused by this and go on your way WHEN… It doesn’t even matter if you like Liam Neeson. Imagine yourself as Daniel Craig, Matt Damon, Jason Statham, Keanu Reeves circa 1999 (well, maybe that’s pushing it)…doesn’t make a difference. You’re a hollywood badass who kicks ass, takes names, and knows 47 different ways to kill a man with an ironing board. |
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Ysta La Vista, Baby
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Yuzo Koshiro/Brad Fiedel – SOURCE: Ys I & II (PC-Engine)/Terminator 2 (The Termination/Main Theme) |
| ARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Organ, Piano, Synths, Strings, Brass, Percussion, Big Loud Cinematic Drums, Arnold Schwarzenegger | |
| GENRE: METUHL | |
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NOTES: This was my first DoD entry since my last MAGfest entry. My laptop died and I had to get it repaired before I could do anything…and then the first repair didn’t actually work so I had to send it back…anyways I was itching to make music so the first thing I did was this song. It’s a song I had been thinking about for a while, first suggested by my friend Nick Marinelli. It’s the boss theme from Ys I & II. Since it’s called “The Termination” I decided to do some puns with The Terminator, including adding some clips of Arnold and covering the main theme right at the end.
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Funk in 60ish Seconds
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PROJECT: School Projects |
| WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Funky Synth, Piano, Rhodes, Bass, Drums | |
| GENRE: FAWNK | |
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NOTES: This may not be an official Punchfest track, but it sure feels like one, and it was made in much the same way. During the Spring 2011 semester at school I was enrolled in a “Intro to Music Apps” class where we learned how to operate Pro Tools and Logic Pro, and the projects included making various tunes. This is one of the songs I made. I made it during a single 75 minute class period while teaching myself Pro Tools at the same time…and not to mention teaching myself to hit all the right keys on the keyboard! I’ll probably make this into a full song with real instruments sometime.
All instruments played live (drums 50% live) using instruments found in Pro Tools. |
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