ReMix: Super Mario Bros. 'Water Main'

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Super Mario Bros.

Brad Smith seems to have a thing for ReMixing water-related music from SMB; first he gave us the drifting, lovely AquaticInterlude, and now returns with a peppier, rockin' take on the underground theme. Not particularly water-related, perhaps, but there's lots of pipes, hence 'Water Main' seems an apt title. Guitar-heads take note - this mix is guitar-based, and features some nifty improv work 'round the middle portion. At only two minutes long, it's pretty brief, but so is the source material, and there's enough expansion, modification, and new shtuff to make this well worth your while. Disco Dan elucidates: "ok satriani... No seriously, I can see this ending up on Kazaa as 'Joe Satriani - Mario Underground Theme.mp3' Anyway, this is high quality and well played, though pretty damn short, but I suppose that's ok too in this case. Interesting to see how you took a 4/4 song and turned it into 6/8. Good stuff." - there's a few renditions of this theme available here on OCR, and UnderworldRock is also guitar-based, but this is still a distinct and welcome take on a classic. Check it out.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
I can't tell if the guitar are real or synthetic. If they are synthetic, nice work. If they are real, time for a new amp. :(
I found this too be too sparse and hollow for my taste, as well as it being the melody verbatim with a wanktacular solo stitched on.
Now i'm as guilty as the next guitarist of cranking the wankitude up for solos, but this one seemed excessive and even sloppy.
Sorry, this mix just wasn't for me at all. :(

- OA on December 18, 2006
the drums on this song kick major ass. the addition of the guitars hrlped give this song some depth. the guitars going crazy with a solo part was just right. kudos. A

- engine_num1 on April 23, 2004
I'm not an expert on any of the technical stuff. But I can say one thing: 00:38 gives me the chills. :o Worth adding to my collection if only just for that part.
I really like the whole piece though.

- blackmyst on April 13, 2003
Heyo. I didn't know this was up already! I guess I don't have much to say about this in reply except that a "water main" is a kind of big pipe, hence why I thought it an appropriate name for music from the level you take a big pipe down into. Also, in the first Super Mario Bros. it was already in a 6/4 (or 3/4) metre. It didn't become 4/4 until they redid it for Super Mario Bros. 3. (By the way, 6/8 usually means two triplets per bar, which really doesn't describe this piece at all.)
As for comments on the guitar work, I really, really don't deserve any comparison to Satriani, but I will agree that the guitar is very noisy and rough (the way I hoped it would sound :wink: ). I don't know what people find so odd about the drums (maybe the snare processing and distortion? maybe it's just the fact that it's an mp3?).
Anyhow, thanks for all the comments everybody!

- bradsmith on April 2, 2003
Rockin'! Worth the download. Quality guitar work.
The drums and such don't sound too strange to me... djpretzel's joke that it might end up getting re/mis-labeled and thrown out on Kazaa isn't too unrealistic, it sounds not unlike a good loose/jam session-esque cut.
This is one of those tunes that just amazes me when I think that it was written for the NES, especially the last part of the melody before it loops back on itself.

- fisherman on April 2, 2003
...So, let me get this straight...
...THIS is the water main theme?!?

- Daikun on April 2, 2003
Perhaps this could've been encoded a tad higher? The beginning had a few of those tiny encoding glitches.
Some interesting improv in the middle. But the guitar sounds like its coming from one of those little amps. Now, I'm not one to talk about guitar sound or anything, but these probably could have used some more low EQ, and maybe a bit less mid EQ. Or perhaps it was because it was a little empty behind the guitar (just drums).
But, I did enjoy the piece.

- Ryan8bit on April 1, 2003
I really liked it, short and to the point. That scratchy guitar solo and drum beat had my 'rockin' to tha beat'. Really nice, I hope to hear more stuff like this from you.
-sx

- square-x on March 31, 2003
Hrm. This peice was very odd sounding. The drums sounded a little funny, as well as the guitar being a little scratchy. But other then that its pretty good for the most part.

- Mario Buu on March 31, 2003
I really like this as well... but for someone, i can't get off the drums... they just sound...[i]off[/i]... to me...

- flipsideshooze on March 31, 2003
I really like it...But...It's not the Water theme really...It's the underground theme...Maybe a link was mixed up?

- Mikey on March 31, 2003
For me, the real problem with this mix was the low quality of the audio, especially the drums. The guitar work in itself is quite good, but the drums sound so strange that it's really distracting.

- Cuddly PyramidHead on March 31, 2003
Nintendo mix with guitars? Who could ask for anything else? Seriously though, this remix is just plain awesome, the only fault is that its a tad too short... ahh well, thats what the loop feature is for. :wink:

- Weirdboyscott on March 31, 2003
Eh... not enough to impress me or make me want to listen to it more than once. Even if it was longer... I don't think I'd want to hear any more of that low quality guitar work.... even if it was trying to sound like that, I couldn't tell, and it just didn't work for me. And there were very few other instruments to smooth it out. In a time when so many mixes are getting denied in order to "improve the overall quality" or whatever, I'm surprised this one made the cut.
Edit: Just heard the "Underworld Rock" mix linked in the write-up, man that's SO much better.

- Psycrow on March 31, 2003
i thought it was very intresting as well doing that from a 4/4 tune
very good how it starts and everything, the only thing i really didnt like is where the guitar kinda goes in its own world kinda too many notes, but still this remix roxs keep it up...

- TFLthuG on March 31, 2003

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