Sonic CD; Temporal Duality by OCReMix: A Lost in the Music Review

OCReMix is one of the busier groups around. This year alone they have produced 11 albums for the fans. From the much lauded Final Fantasy VI: Of Balance and Ruin to their first commercial release, For Everlasting Peace; 25 Years of Megaman, it seems that OCReMix doesn't know when to stop.

Apparentally OCReMix was courting some controvery among the fans with this albums release. As I never owned a Sega CD growing up, I had no idea there were 2 different soundtracks for the game. So instead of appeasing either side, the artists behind Temporal Duality decided to cover both versions. This wouldn't be the first time the OCReMix team has covered two soundtracks as they covered both the GBA and SNES versions of Donkey Kong Country 3 when they released Double the Trouble.

As I have often stated, I know very little about the Sonic series when it comes to music. I am mostly familiar with Sonic and Knuckles, but that was due to it being the first PC game I ever played. So going into Temporal Duality, I didn't know what to expect.

At 43 songs, like all OCReMix albums, there is a wide variety of musical genre's. You will find chiptune artists such as halc laying down a beat for his partner Sir Joradnius providing a rap for the Japanese version of Whacky Workbench, or Garpocalypse and SuperiorX making an electronica variation of the North American Collision Chaos.

With 43 wonderful songs, it is hard to choose one over the rest as they all bring something great. Magellanic and PROTO-DOME do a rock/jazz cover of Sonic Boom while OCReMix Overlord DJ Pretzel provides a techno/chiptune fusion of the North American Stardust Speedway track. I did notice that some tracks had a couple of releases and normally that would be a mark against it, but this time, each song was unique enough that I could give it a pass.

However, there is one issue I have with the album and it is more of a personal one and can seem petty. With the song A World in Motion, DusK's cover of Sonic Boom, I don't mind what they have done with the song. Infact they do a great job. However, I find myself missing The Blast Processors rendition of the song. In my opinion, DusK can't match the intensity of Master System's vocals as the latter has almost reached the levels of Raul Panther III from The Protomen.

I must reiterate that DusK is a good singer and I did enjoy his rendition of the song. I just feel that there is room to improve.

As much as I love bands such as The One Ups, halc and Smooth McGroove, when OCReMix puts out an album, I feel it is something special as they give the listener so much variety and in turn, can expose the listener to new music that they might have overlooked. That is why I enjoy the music from OCReMix.

You can download Sonic CD: Temporal Duality from their webpage.

To my American readers, Happy Thanksgiving. This is Daimo Mac and I am lost in the music.