Speeding Towards Adventures: 25 Years of Sonic the Hedgehog / Speeding Towards Adventures: 25 Years of Sonic the Hedgehog / Speeding Towards Adventures: 25 Years of Sonic the Hedgehog

Speeding Towards Adventures: 25 Years of Sonic the Hedgehog
Comments from album director Stepan Sudilovskiy (Black_Doom), co-director Jorrith Schaap (Jorito), visual artist Davy Owen (Odai), and ReMixers
Album freely available at http://ocremix.org

Sonic has always been my favorite video game series. It has always meant a lot to me. I clearly remember the day when I asked my parents to buy some game and they bought Sonic Adventure DX. Of course, my reaction was nothing but fascination! The fast-paced addictive gameplay, vivid stages, and, of course, catchy music made my first experience of diving into Sonic universe one of the most memorable parts of my childhood. Then I started to learn more and more about Sonic the Hedgehog games, and they were all amazing to explore, but music remained the most enjoyable part of this entertainment. A few years later, I started to look for the soundtracks on the internet and downloaded almost every album existing at that time. I was listening to them on a daily basis, and I was listening to nothing but this music -- that's how obsessed I was with it!

In the middle of 2012, I came across a remix of "Special Stage" theme from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, "Red Sphere, Blue Sphere" by Ben Briggs. Apparently, I had to head over to the Project Chaos website, grab the whole album and listen to it. That was another experience that changed my life drastically -- the idea of giving all-time favorite video game music a completely new life impressed me a lot. So, a few days later, I visited OCR and started to wander around. I was really surprised by how many arrangements and arrangement albums were published there! Finally, in the beginning of 2013, I joined the community. It was also the time when Temporal Duality was in development, so I was following the progress very closely. I'm a Sonic fan after all, so how could I miss something like that? So I must admit that this album inspired me to start this recruiting this album! Big shoutout to SuperiorX and Phonetic Hero! ;)

Finally, about a year after registering on the OCR forums, I decided to start the album project. My vision for this project seemed to be simple: I wanted to cover as many games as possible (with up to 3 tracks per each game; yes, we ended up having 4 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 tracks, lol) as well as to represent a variety of music genres to represent the variety of Sonic's journeys. The project immediately started to gather lots of people, and that's not surprising at all, given how popular the Blue Blur is. And I understood that I needed some help, since the project was not going fast enough. This is where I asked Jorito to step in to direct the album along with me. Luckily, he agreed to help me, and that was one of those decisions that completely changed everything. From that moment, the project started to develop with immense speed. I just don't have enough words to express my gratitude -- he helped me so much! If I start to list everything he did for this album, I will probably never stop. Also, big thanks to Odai for such nice art, big thanks to the Sega composers for their work, and, finally, big thanks to all the musicians who contributed to this outstanding album. Directing it was a blast!

Enjoy!

- Stepan Sudilovsky (Black_Doom)

Even though I have been part of this album for quite a while as a ReMixer, it was pretty late  that I joined as an album co-director. And I'm glad I did, because it was an exciting and interesting experience to witness the creation of an album from "the other side." Since I'm no expert on things Sonic-related, I have to give mad props to Stepan for defining the vision for the project and doing a lot of the prep work that set things in motion and Odai for really capturing the Sonicness of Sonic. I was happy to be able to contribute some of my "get stuff done" skills, and helping guide the album and all the people who collaborated towards the final product was a blast. Really proud of the final result and I'm sure you'll enjoy the album as much as I did!

- Jorrith Schaap (Jorito)

OK, so I'm a Nintendo fanboy (boo! hiss!), so Mario was the icon that I grew up with. But when Black_Doom approached me to art an album commemorating 25 years of another extremely well-recognised childhood game character, how could I turn it down? My allegiances and rivalries were soon forgotten.

When I approached the design process of this album cover, it didn't take me long to realise I wanted to pay homage to Sonic the Hedgehog as he is most recognised. Within minutes, I was sketching up the concept of our blue friend busting through that oh-so-memorable winged star ring from the menu screens. No time for wagging fingers and badass posing. Let's get down to it! And the back cover displaying a modified level start screen naturally followed suit.

This whole procedure was a very organic one for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. With only mild suggestions from the directors, it didn't take me long to complete the whole thing, and I must say I'm pretty pleased with it. I think it captures and reflects the fun-loving, bright and adventurous themes of both the games and the character, and is a good balance for the ReMixes that have been made for the album.

- David Owen (Odai)

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1-01. Jorito feat. Trev Wignall, Hank "The Spank Tank" Jankerson, The Nikanoru - "Gotta Start from Somewhere"
Sources: Sonic the Hedgehog - "Title," "Invincibility"; Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - "Title"
Original Composers: Masato Nakamura, Tomonori Sawada

1-02. Jorito feat. Final Kingdom, Tuberz McGee, Furilas, Azzykay316 - "Speeding Towards Adventure"
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog - "Green Hill Zone"
Original Composer: Masato Nakamura

1-03. Eino Keskitalo - "Siilin melankolia"
Sources: Sonic the Hedgehog (GG) - "Bridge Zone," "Green Hill Zone"
Original Composers: Masato Nakamura, Yuzo Koshiro

1-04. Marvin Valentin - "My Frozen Gallery"
Source: Sonic Lost World - "Frozen Factory - Zone 1"
Original Composer: Tomoya Ohtani

1-05. YamaYama - "Trouble in Watertown"
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - "Hydrocity Zone: Act 2"
Original Composers: Bobby Brooks, Brad Buxer, C. Cirocco Jones, Darryl Ross, Doug Grigsby III, Geoff Grace, Jun Senoue, Masaru Setsumaru, Masayuki Nagao, Michael Jackson, Sachio Ogawa, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Tokuhiko Uwabo, Tomonori Sawada, Yoshiaki Kashima

1-06. DusK - "Hedgehog Elimination Engine"
Source: Sonic & Knuckles - "Boss"
Original Composers: Howard Drossin, Jun Senoue, Masaru Setsumaru, Masayuki Nagao, Sachio Ogawa, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Tokuhiko Uwabo, Tomonori Sawada, Yoshiaki Kashima

1-07. Sterlyng Powell - "The Power of Choices"
Source: Sonic Advance 3 - "Options"
Original Composers: Fumie Kumatani, Hideaki Kobayashi, Kenichi Tokoi, Masaru Setsumaru, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Tomoya Ohtani

1-08. zykO - "The Long War"
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - "Oil Ocean Zone"
Original Composer: Masato Nakamura

1-09. WillRock - "Electromotive Skyforce"
Sources: Sonic & Knuckles - "Flying Battery Zone: Act 1," "Flying Battery Zone: Act 2"
Original Composers: Howard Drossin, Jun Senoue, Masaru Setsumaru, Masayuki Nagao, Sachio Ogawa, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Tokuhiko Uwabo, Tomonori Sawada, Yoshiaki Kashima

1-10. Unknown Alias - "Zero Unit's Remaining"
Source: Sonic Adventure - "Theme of 'E-102γ'"
Original Composer: Fumie Kumatani

2-01. Pl511 - "Never Fear the Fall"
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog (XB360) - "His World ~Theme of Sonic the Hedgehog~"; Cameos: Mega Man 9 - "Galaxy Fantasy (Galaxy Man Stage)," Sonic the Hedgehog - "Green Hill Zone"
Original Composers: Tomoya Ohtani, Yu Shimoda, Masato Nakamura

2-02. Audiocolor - "The Path Less Trampled"
Sources: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - "Competition Menu," "File Select"
Original Composers: Bobby Brooks, Brad Buxer, C. Cirocco Jones, Darryl Ross, Doug Grigsby III, Geoff Grace, Jun Senoue, Masaru Setsumaru, Masayuki Nagao, Michael Jackson, Sachio Ogawa, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Tokuhiko Uwabo, Tomonori Sawada, Yoshiaki Kashima

2-03. Tuberz McGee - "By the Seaside"
Source: Sonic Heroes - "Stage 01 : Seaside Hill"
Original Composer: Jun Senoue

2-04. jnWake - "Chemical Fusion"
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - "Chemical Plant Zone"
Original Composer: Masato Nakamura

2-05. Faseeh, Jorito feat. Joshua Taipale - "Minecart Adventures"
Source: Sonic Rush Adventure - "Coral Cave (Act 1)"
Original Composer: Mariko Nanba

2-06. Bowlerhat feat. audio fidelity - "Underwater Jog"
Source: Sonic Colors - "Aquarium Park - Act 1"
Original Composer: Tomoya Ohtani

2-07. Sbeast - "Of Cruelty and Mustache"
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - "Robotnik Battle"
Original Composer: Masato Nakamura

2-08. HeavenWraith - "Pax Eggmanica -Sear & Reave-"
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog - "Scrap Brain Zone"
Original Composer: Masato Nakamura

2-09. Chernabogue feat. Furilas, Tuberz McGee, Hank "The Spank Tank" Jankerson - "Skabotnik"
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - "Final Boss"
Original Composers: Bobby Brooks, Brad Buxer, C. Cirocco Jones, Darryl Ross, Doug Grigsby III, Geoff Grace, Jun Senoue, Masaru Setsumaru, Masayuki Nagao, Michael Jackson, Sachio Ogawa, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Tokuhiko Uwabo, Tomonori Sawada, Yoshiaki Kashima

2-10. KingTiger - "The Light at the End"
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - "Ending"; Cameos: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - "Title Screen," Sonic & Knuckles - "Title Screen," "Ending"
Original Composers: Bobby Brooks, Brad Buxer, C. Cirocco Jones, Darryl Ross, Doug Grigsby III, Geoff Grace, Michael Jackson, Tomonori Sawada, Howard Drossin

3-01. Jorito feat. Tuberz McGee, Furilas, Azzykay316 - "Speeding Towards Adventure (Instrumental)"
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog - "Green Hill Zone"
Original Composer: Masato Nakamura

3-02. Tuberz McGee - "By the Seaside (Instrumental)"
Source: Sonic Heroes - "Stage 01 : Seaside Hill"
Original Composer: Jun Senoue

3-03. KingTiger - "The Light at the End (Club Edit)"
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - "Ending"; Cameos: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - "Title Screen," Sonic & Knuckles - "Title Screen," "Ending"
Original Composers: Bobby Brooks, Brad Buxer, C. Cirocco Jones, Darryl Ross, Doug Grigsby III, Geoff Grace, Michael Jackson, Tomonori Sawada, Howard Drossin