Posted 2009-07-14, evaluated by djpretzel

Doug writes:

"So this one is a piano improvisation on the second Brinstar theme which I did for Reserve Tank: VARIAtions. I was reluctant on submitting it but I think now perhaps it's worth a shot. I'm sad to admit that Metroid is another game that I haven't played. However, I love this track and decided to see what I could do with it! Enjoy :)"

Wat!? Ain't played no Metroid? Or Super Metroid, rather? ShameUltima. It is, as they say, all good, however, since DrumUltima makes the excellent musics, regardless of his empirical experience with the games he happens to be arranging. Piano here is a little distant/watery, but that does jive with the title - it does sound lonely, perhaps fitting background music to a film scene in which a melancholy dowager walks down a leaf-covered sidewalk on a cold Autumn morning... alright, you got me, I just wanted to work the word "dowager" into a writeup... somehow. It's a little ironic that, while Doug's last mix was ALL drums, this one has none... although piano does often get categorized as chromatic percussion. For a first solo piano mix, this is some very solid stuff, and it's all the more impressive as an improvisation. It's simpler & rawer than Doug's other, more elaborate arrangements, and it leans effectively on performance for impact, with dynamics and tempo both keeping things wonderfully human. Some of the modifications to the progression & intonation are really fascinating - I could see building additional, complete arrangements of the source around these ideas, milking them for even more, which is definitely a compliment to the artist's creativity.

This is brooding, dark, stewing source material, and while Doug definitely keeps the brooding & and the dark, he's altered the stewing to more of a full course dinner: something with more range, emotion, and development. That's exactly what you need to do to pull off a solo piano piece, in my opinion, so kudos for a wonderful take on a classic theme and for showing even more versatility as both an arranger and a performer. Now go play the damn game already :)