Hell yeah, Road Rash! Played this, including Road Rash II, so much back in the day, so I appreciate the source tune choice and the source's quirky instrumentation is super nostalgic for me.

The track was 4:43-long, so I needed to identify the source in use for at least 141.5 seconds to consider the source tune dominant in the arrangement.

:00-1:44, 1:58-2:13, 2:51-3:05, 3:21-3:28, 4:13-4:18.5, 4:35.5-4:37.5 = 148.5 seconds or 56.46% overt source usage

I agree with proph that there's OK original writing using the Road Rash-style instrumentation, but it's at the expense of sticking with the source theme, after too conservative a first half that didn't stand apart enough from the original song. After that, it seems like it's more about keeping a similar beat patterns and then vamping on top of that, as mentioned in the submission comments; I'd have appreciated some timestamping on when beat and/or bass patterns from the source were being used as the foundation of the track, but this gets by on overall source usage.

Arrangement opens up very conservatively, albeit with a personalized sound at least. The lead comes in at :29 over the top with a more distant sound. This is all a decent intro, but I'm waiting for more personalization of the arrangement beyond this instrument adaptation and I haven't gotten anything a minute in.

At 1:29, we finally get to those changes, then 1:44 seems to do an original section with a focus on SFX before bringing back the source theme at 1:59, again staying pretty conservative. It begins going in the right direction, but only after 2 minutes in. Beats felt thin until 3:21.

3:21 gets more active with things, and the mixing feels too loud, but I'll be OK. 3:51 drops some elements out with another bit of SFX yells, then concludes with a relatively aimless finish.

Dynamically, this does grate after a while and just trucks on at the same relative intensity, though that's no different than the source itself, so I understand the thinking behind it, even if it drags. There's a change in the textures/beats at 2:13 for another way to be different than the original, but on the whole this all still feels relatively minimalist when it comes to overall interpretation, so it's not distinctly interpreted *enough* to roll with it here yet. The critiques on instrumentation and lack of dynamics may feel like a personal taste thing; to me it this sounds like it's holding too closely to the structure and tone of the original, dipping some toes in the water with personalizing the approach, but not fully immersing in enough interpretive ideas yet.

No need to alter this further if it goes against the spirit of what you're aiming to accomplish here with this tribute. That said, if you feel you can do that, there's potential here. More can be done to have this version stand apart from the original track.

NO (resubmit)