Terra Obscura

Have you ever noticed that the same half-dozen videogame soundtracks get covered and remixed over and over again? You know the usual suspects: Super Mario Bros., Mega Man II and those age-old motifs from the Castlevania and Legend of Zelda series.

Well, to quote the late Michael Jackson, you are not alone.

My comrades from The Nerdy Show have not only marked the same trend, but are actively taking steps to remedy it. Specifically, they have recently unveiled a project called the Rare Game Remix Challenge. It's a contest. The kind of contest that offers the requisite fabulous prizes.

The first in this ongoing series of month-long game music remix contests centers on indie rapper Astronautalis and his love of the greatest variation-on-a-theme-puzzler of all time Tetris Attack.

What's the true skinny, you say? Why I've loving copy/pasted it below:

THE CHALLENGE

Create a hip hop instrumental sampling from the score of Tetris Attack… BECAUSE ASTRONAUTALIS IS GOING TO RAP OVER IT! You choose the style, you set pace, just make an exceptional track that makes Astro’s heart swell with puzzle tile explosions and he’ll bless it with his expert wordsmithery. But that’s not all… second and third place winning beats will receive rhymes from two mystery nerdcore rappers. Be creative, if you want to re-orchestrate a track - do it, got nuts. Do what must be done in the name of awesomeness.
DOWNLOAD this month's audio collection and let the fun begin!

THE RULES

All Tetris Attack hip hop instrumentals must sample predominantly from the score to Tetris Attack (called “Panel De Pon” in Japan). Tracks should be no longer than 4 minutes and of a quality of at least 128kbps. In your submission e-mail you must list every Tetris Attack track you sampled from, as well as any additional samples. Nerdy Show will judge your track on its overall quality, concept and execution to decide how it stacks up. Contact contest@nerdyshow.com with any questions.

THE PRIZES

1st Place: Astronautalis raps over your track. You become a legend.

2nd Place: Masurao of Krondor Krew raps over your track. Your girlfriend still loves you.

3rd Place: MC Coolwhip raps over your track. You find your pet dog.

Winning tracks (with and without vocals) as well as noteworthy runners-up will be hosted on nerdyshow.com for listening/ downloading and 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place will be played on a forthcoming episode of Nerdy Show.

RESTRICTIONS

All contest submissions must be original works composed for this contest. Submissions found to have been previously existing will be disqualified.

MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS

Multiple submissions from a single entrant are allowed, BUT only one of the entrant’s submissions will be chosen. Submitting multiple submissions will not increase your chances of winning, so be sure to only submit your best.

HOW LONG IS THIS CONTEST?

The entire month of December! All entries must be sent in by 11:59pm EST December 31st 2009. Judging will commence immediately thereafter and winners will be announced shortly.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Submit your contest entry to contest@nerdyshow.com (again, must be recieved by 11:59pm EST December 31st 2009)

Be sure to put either “remix contest” or “tetris attack contest” in the subject heading so we know what you’re submitting for. In the body of the e-mail tell us your name/ handle and every game and track you sampled from. Be sure that the e-mail address you send from is your primary address as it’s where we’ll contact you.

LEGAL

Nerdy Show claims no ownership of the provided tracks. We celebrate this amazing and seldom-heard music and hope that this contest will raise awareness of its existence as well as the great work of its composers. Please contact info@nerdyshow.com with any legal concerns.

Now that you know the rules, I suggest you download the remix kit and get to poppin'. As a number of my favorite producers/remixers are regular readers of Hipster, please!, I can't help but think that several of y'all are easily up to the task.

Plus, the better the response to this first outing, the more interesting each subsequent Nerdy Show contest will surely be.