Origin Story

Putting together the remix albums for FEZ was quite fun, and it was exciting getting remixes in from people and hearing all the various takes on the material. That was the best part!

I think someone else had the idea, but I can't remember who. People started approaching me with remixes after some word got out that there was a remix album in the works. I only asked a handful of people, but got some really great remixes from people I didn't ask or know, and they ended up making it into the project because of their quality level. I initially intended to do a single remix album, but due to the number of remixes I split it into two parts, ⌾FZ: Side F, and ⌾FZ: Side Z.

FZ: Side E

Also tucked away on the second remix album is a mini EP of sorts which contains all the game and promotional music not released on the original soundtrack.

Launch Trailer

"Long" Trailer, aka "Trail" from Side E.

Putting It All Together

It might seem obvious, but it's worth mentioning that there is quite a lot of correspondence that goes into the process.

One of the early challenges is figuring out how to collect all the work together, how to build a tracklisting, and how to make sure you don't have 20 people all remixing the same song - that happened somewhat in the case of "Adventure", and I tried to avoid this by asking people to pick track(s) they wanted to remix, and letting them know when certain tracks had been accounted for. At the end of the day though, I still received like 6 or 7 "Adventure" remixes, and decided to relegate some of them to the end of Side Z (the second album) as "bonus" tracks, just to keep the listening experience from feeling too monotonous.

Rights & Legal Issues

The biggest hurdle really with staging a remix album is all the bureaucracy you (potentially) have to deal with. When later on I participated in a remix album for Beasts of Balance, we intentionally didn't do a wider distribution because of the experience I had with FZ.

If you're planning to do a remix album it's important to be aware of the choices you make regarding rights assignment, and revenue splitting with remix artists. The more generous you are, the more complicated it can get unfortunately. We had to sign agreements with every artist, and then setting up revenue splits with everyone can also be cumbersome. There's also the (theoretical) matter of any future usage situations, which may require multiple signoffs depending on how you structure things.

The simplest setup is probably just to do the same rights assignment for every track - either let the remixers retain full rights to the masters, or you retain them. This way, you don't have to handle different tracks differently. I made the mistake of treating some tracks as covers, and others as unique works - this made things a bit more complicated later on.

I recently contributed to a remix album where the artist had a lot of trouble with their distributor getting all the artists' signoff permission to release the album. This is also a potential hurdle, especially with the more hands off distributors, who look for you to get these kinds of permissions so that they are absolved of any liability in the event someone's music is released without their knowledge or permission.

Even with all that said I'm really glad we made the FZ albums, and people genuine love them. So I think the hassle was worth it ! Just worth considering some of the things that can come along with it :)

"A small band of galactic travelers are bound together by mysterious circumstances. Meanwhile, in the darkest reaches of the universe, an unparalleled force dwells on ambiguous intentions."

I started writing this album in 2006, four years before its release, and around the same time I finished #Level. Some of the tracks have been revised significantly from their original formats, however a few of them initially slated to be a part of this album are absent. I could not give them the proper treatment without drastically impacting the original nature of those pieces, so I’ve left them off, deciding instead to release them in their original form in the near future.

Some of the tracks are products of a wonderful competition I participated in called “30 Songs in 30 Days”. For those of you who enjoy making things, I highly recommend these types of events; creating lots of varied material in a short amount of time is an amazing experience and one everyone ought to explore.

Track Descriptions

Prologue
You encounter a mysterious force and the journey begins.

Can you identify the material that this song uses? It originally started out as a fully fledged revamp of ♫The Solar Prime Elite from ⌾Deorbit, but it wasn't really panning out, so I decided to make this abridged version instead.

Jump Error
A navigational miscalculation, skirmish. Another jump, lost in space.

I've played this song at just about every single one of my concerts, with just a handful of exceptions.

I originally wrote this song a good 5 years or so before the album came out.

Compositionally, the original version is different in a couple of ways. There are a few less chord changes, no ritardandos, and some drum patterns that I think are a little cruder.

Club Wolf
A navigational miscalculation, skirmish. Another jump, lost in space.

I think this may be the only song I've played at every single concert since I started playing concerts in 2007. Except for that one time we did a FEZ concert in Austin.

I originally wrote this song a good 5 years or so before the album came out.

Compositionally, the original version is different in a couple of ways. There are a few less chord changes, no ritardandos, and some drum patterns that I think are a little cruder.

Adrift
Floating through space.

There is a lot of pulse width modulation in this track.

The New Formation
The appearance (and disappearance) of a previously unknown fleet.

Beta's Brilliancy
You learn the ways of the Solar Prime Elite.

This track is made using a single, crazy synth patch in Reason's THOR. It was originally created during a 30 Songs in 30 Days competition.

With the exception of the notes, this track is almost entirely controlled by a single pass of pitchbend data. Each time you bounce the song, it sounds different. So I bounced it a couple times and mixed them together!

Ensis
Traveling through the far reaches of space utilizing your new skills. A joy ride.

This is the second iteration of this song. I added a breakdown in the new version to break things up a bit, since it's a somewhat long tune. There are some pretty unusual time signature / polymeter things going on in this song. Listen for the open hi-hat (read: noise) that creates a 5/8 polymeter in the drums.

Day of Reflection
Heroes take time to reflect.

This song was inspired by demoscene music, and Jasper's Journeys, a platformer by indie developer Lexaloffle

The "bell" sample was actually taken directly from one of the songs from that game. I also used it in my music game, #January.

Wagering Lights (feat. Derris-Kharlan)
Space exploration leads to a skirmish.

This song was originally released as a collaboration with Derris-Kharlan on 8bitcollective, a now defunct chipmusic site. We went under the name "Venn & Euler" at the time. The first half of the song is largely Derris-Kharlan's composition, while the second half is mine.

Counter of the Cumulus

A grand battle commences, on the eve of the surprise appearance of the unknown fleet.

Submerciful
The massive enemy fleet, disabled, enters the atmosphere of a habitable planet and sinks into the depths of its deepest ocean. Small signs of survival are still apparent.

This is one of only two songs on this album that don't use THOR.

Constellations
There's a silly jazz version of 'The New Formation' tucked away at the end of this piece.

released January 1, 2011

Mastered by Sean Sinclair
"Wagering Lights" co-written by Derris-Kharlan

THANKS AND SHOUTOUTS:
My wonderful family for their unwavering love and support, Sean Sinclair for being a great friend and always lending a critical ear, Nathan Antony for kicking butt, Dr. Jeffrey Baust, Michael Brigida for showing me the synthesis ropes, and the rest of my wonderful teachers at Berklee College of Music, the BOSTON8BIT crew (James, Lydia, Chris, Carl, you know who you are!), Steve Jenkins for his hospitality, generosity and friendship, Marc Beaudette and Matt Doughty, Jake Kaufman for generally being awesome, Grant Henry for the same reasons, Andy Baio, Samuel Ascher-Weiss, Joey Mariano, Eirik Suhrke, Joseph White, Jeff Lindsay, Ben McGraw, Chris Lobay, George Kokoris, Duncan Watt, LN Lurie, Abe Stein, the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, Jenn de la Vega, Tom Colletti, Anthony Colletti, and last but not least, to all of you who help make my dreams come true by supporting me through my music. To all my friends who in haste I have forgotten, I apologize in advance! Thank you all for your support, and enjoy the music!