ReMix: Mega Man Zero 2 'Cool Mind'
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- Game: Mega Man Zero 2 (Capcom, 2003, GBA)
- ReMixer(s): Dragonlord
- Composer(s): Chicken Mob, Ippo Yamada, Luna Umegaki, Masaki Suzuki, Tsutomu Kurihara
- Song(s): 'Ice Brain'
- Posted: 2005-04-08, evaluated by the judges
Very slick. While the placement of the respective words "zero" and "cool" so close together makes me recall the beautiful trainwreck that is Hackers and thus conjures desires to "hack" the "gibson" and complain about the "trashing" of my "rights", I shall refrain... Newcomer Dragonlord, hailing from Norway, makes an impressive debut with a techno groove jam chock full' o nifty aliased electronic synth textures that also incorporates some very tasty organisms (of the tonewheel variety) and reminds me of the funky first stage theme from Shinobi more than any Mega Man piece I've heard. The ReMixer writes:
"Recently I got myself a GBA, and I purchased the game MegaMan Zero 2 along with it, and while playing it, one of the songs was sorta just screaming "Reeeemix meeeeeee!" to me. I scurried over to the computer, and started working on it. I think there's around 7-8 hours of work put into this song, and personally I'm rather satisfied with how it turned out. The song itself is a mixture of a synth-organ, distorted synths and a healthy dose of drums to go with it, the whole thing mixed together with a little sense of rhythm, sprinkled with a few details here and there. Best served at high volume. Enjoy."
And satisfied he should be. At just over three minutes, the mix has a good amount of variety, solid production, a different and highly funkdafied sound due to some lo-fi synth elements which are discretely panned for optimal contrast, and the afforementioned organ which adds a less synthetic vibe and spreads the jam out a bit. I think Shariq comes closest to being the panel's resident Mega Man fanboy, so I'll let him exude a bit:
"Oh man oh man oh man. Awesome. Ice Brain is like the best track in the whole game; this remix TOTALLY does it justice too. Really tight beat + synth integration. Ridiculously groovy (omgbias). It follows the general progression of the original, but all of the parts are sufficiently tricked out for maximum enjoyment and variation."
But don't just take his word for it - the rest of the panel concurred, with Larry describing it as a "chill lil' number" and Wingless describing Dragonlord as "another great 'mixer who has an ear for the picoscopic details". So, basically, if this mix were a DVD, there'd be plenty of endorsements from names you can (hopefully) trust, right smack dab on the cover, instead of just vague promises of special features and single-word exclamatory quotes from "some guy who likes movies and what not" - programming and sequencing are tight, and while Larry in my mind correctly points out that a bit more could have been done percussively, I'm just pleased to hear this sort of variety of foreground synths integrated with organ. Dragonlord certainly has an ear for timing, and it shows right off the bat with this enjoyable MMZ2 mix that should have a very broad appeal.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the A chilling reminder that a great mix can come from anywhere and
sound like anything. This breakbeating, mouthslappin' song brings
to mind the "Chill" genre of techno, that relaxes and grooves you
at the same time. The song flys by before I know it, and that's not
a bad thing. Great Mix.
- Crulex on February 19, 2010
- Crulex on February 19, 2010
I like the way it's toned back on the energy from the original,
without taking away from the overall effect. it's great to hear a
remix of one of my favorite game soundtracks so far. :)
- GravitySuitCollector on December 20, 2009
- GravitySuitCollector on December 20, 2009
Great rhythmic organ chord comping here, super solid backing for
the dual synth leads. The beats take a bit of a backseat overall,
and the panned bass seems like a strange choice, but overall the
mix was pretty great. Transitions were solid, there was good
variation, and the source is cool enough to deserve this kind of
attention. I like it. :-)
- OA on December 4, 2009
- OA on December 4, 2009
This is way awesome, I'm sorry I missed it the first time
around!
I'm really into this whole groove bias thing :J
- Monobrow on December 5, 2007
I'm really into this whole groove bias thing :J
- Monobrow on December 5, 2007
I loved it!
It's really nice :D
It sounds like you made it in Reason but I don't really know (?)
- zilver on September 30, 2006
It's really nice :D
It sounds like you made it in Reason but I don't really know (?)
- zilver on September 30, 2006
Those three minutes just flies by. This is one chill remix!
It began well, the organ reminded me of the sound my freezer gives away when you opens it, so the sound is cool alright. When it picks up the synths its coolfactor ascends to new heights, and the organ playing its groovy melody in the back is just excellent. It takes a break at 1:30, but is back in the flow when the music proceeds further. He may be the lord of the Dragons, but with this remix he might as well be the lord of the dancefloor.
He lives in Norway? Good to see that many Scandinavians are getting some attention at this site. Funky remix dragonlord, and an enjoyable listen for me. Thanks dude.
- Bummerdude on January 7, 2006
It began well, the organ reminded me of the sound my freezer gives away when you opens it, so the sound is cool alright. When it picks up the synths its coolfactor ascends to new heights, and the organ playing its groovy melody in the back is just excellent. It takes a break at 1:30, but is back in the flow when the music proceeds further. He may be the lord of the Dragons, but with this remix he might as well be the lord of the dancefloor.
samic' wrote: I'm proud to say that I've actually met Dragonlord in person, and he is about as cool as his funky style is.
He lives in Norway? Good to see that many Scandinavians are getting some attention at this site. Funky remix dragonlord, and an enjoyable listen for me. Thanks dude.
- Bummerdude on January 7, 2006
I'm proud to say that I've actually met Dragonlord in person, and
he is about as cool as his funky style is. Been hearing his mixes a
good while before I heard this, and man, what a funky style he has
got. And this of course, is no exeption. Funky, funky, funky to the
core.
- samic' on May 11, 2005
- samic' on May 11, 2005
reminds me of Disco Dan's stuff, can't quite put my finger on
it...
it's a good thing though :P
- Bobwillis on May 7, 2005
it's a good thing though :P
- Bobwillis on May 7, 2005
you know, it's been a long time since i actually sat down and wrote
a review. but i felt this song truly deserved one because of the
POTENTIAL for greatness.
let me start by saying that the arrangement here is awesome. one would expect a decent arrangement from one of OCR's esteemed judges, but the work here stands above and beyond. the pad used in the beginning is quite beautiful, and creates a nice light suspenseful feeling. some nice subdued piano with delay adds greatly as well. in fact, everything seems very well placed. the percussion seems far too subdued however. i keep waiting for the percussion to start kicking ass and it never does. also, the dropout at 0:55 and the repetition of the motif at 1:14 were unnecessary and seemed like they were there only to add to the final length. the percussion starting at 1:07 was FAR too quiet, and seemed to just be there as minimal filler. you should have raised the volume. and if you had it so low so as not to detract from the orchestration/arrangement, then you should have used some other method to keep focus away from it, or done away with it entirely. for some strange reason my brain does not like having the drums so low in the mix. it's like WHY FOR PERCUSSION SO QUIET. and on that note, the overall volume of this mix is way too low. and there needed to be much more low to mid-range on the EQ as well. i can't hear any bass at all. at 2:04 we get another drop out, followed by a change in exposition. here things start to pick up the pace a bit. but yet again, the percussion is lacking severely. however, the usage of the choir here is very adept, and accents the progression nicely. some synth stabs are used in here as well to decent effect. at 3:11 there is again yet another dropout. at 3:35 we return to the main theme once again. at 3:58 an attempt at spicing up the percussion is made, which only lasts 8 measures, is contrived, too quiet, and muddled in the EQ. it drops back into the subdued percussion once again until 4:45 where the song sets into conclusion mode and heads on out to the end. i must add that the ending here is well conceived.
so overall.. i would say though the arrangement and instrumentation here is CHOICE, the song is about 2 minutes too long, and is lacking in both the percussion and mixing departments.
- suzumebachi on May 1, 2005
let me start by saying that the arrangement here is awesome. one would expect a decent arrangement from one of OCR's esteemed judges, but the work here stands above and beyond. the pad used in the beginning is quite beautiful, and creates a nice light suspenseful feeling. some nice subdued piano with delay adds greatly as well. in fact, everything seems very well placed. the percussion seems far too subdued however. i keep waiting for the percussion to start kicking ass and it never does. also, the dropout at 0:55 and the repetition of the motif at 1:14 were unnecessary and seemed like they were there only to add to the final length. the percussion starting at 1:07 was FAR too quiet, and seemed to just be there as minimal filler. you should have raised the volume. and if you had it so low so as not to detract from the orchestration/arrangement, then you should have used some other method to keep focus away from it, or done away with it entirely. for some strange reason my brain does not like having the drums so low in the mix. it's like WHY FOR PERCUSSION SO QUIET. and on that note, the overall volume of this mix is way too low. and there needed to be much more low to mid-range on the EQ as well. i can't hear any bass at all. at 2:04 we get another drop out, followed by a change in exposition. here things start to pick up the pace a bit. but yet again, the percussion is lacking severely. however, the usage of the choir here is very adept, and accents the progression nicely. some synth stabs are used in here as well to decent effect. at 3:11 there is again yet another dropout. at 3:35 we return to the main theme once again. at 3:58 an attempt at spicing up the percussion is made, which only lasts 8 measures, is contrived, too quiet, and muddled in the EQ. it drops back into the subdued percussion once again until 4:45 where the song sets into conclusion mode and heads on out to the end. i must add that the ending here is well conceived.
so overall.. i would say though the arrangement and instrumentation here is CHOICE, the song is about 2 minutes too long, and is lacking in both the percussion and mixing departments.
- suzumebachi on May 1, 2005
Okay, seriously, this stuff is funky dope. I loved the way you
turned this song (which seemed kinda drab when I played the game),
into one heck of a remix. I can't really put my finger on what
exactly was good about it; it rocks in every way. Congratulations
on a job well done.
- PyromanEXE on April 27, 2005
- PyromanEXE on April 27, 2005
I just now downloaded this song onto my flash drive while at school
and started listening to it... wow, I must say this is definitely
something. I love clean techno such as this, simple instruments,
not really all that cluttered in variation of instruments (well,
overly so at least), too many techno songs out there try and throw
every single little synth trick they have into a song. Such as
slowdown and intentional ugly distortion, that can work sometimes..
but this formula for this song is simply stupendous, not to mention
the end result. My God...
I remember the last MMZ2 song was outstanding in it's own right, but I didn't really pick up the original melody instantly like I did with this one, it's very amazing that all these hi-tech little beeps could flow together without any true glue, and still work flawlessly.
This is going on my next VGMCD for sure, outstanding job Dragonlord, I salute you.
- Weirdboyscott on April 20, 2005
I remember the last MMZ2 song was outstanding in it's own right, but I didn't really pick up the original melody instantly like I did with this one, it's very amazing that all these hi-tech little beeps could flow together without any true glue, and still work flawlessly.
This is going on my next VGMCD for sure, outstanding job Dragonlord, I salute you.
- Weirdboyscott on April 20, 2005
Wow, this is really cool. It's pretty damn catchy and there's a lot
going on without making it sound noisy or busy. My only gripe about
it is that the ending was kind of abrupt and disappointing.
I wanted a beeping/organ frenzy, but hey, you can't always get what you want. Still, it's some pretty smooth stuff.
- Mr. 47 on April 16, 2005
I wanted a beeping/organ frenzy, but hey, you can't always get what you want. Still, it's some pretty smooth stuff.
- Mr. 47 on April 16, 2005
lol! This is awesome... long time since I heard an organ being used
in something this fun. There's a lot of megaman spirit here, too.
Something in here brings back memories of the olden golden days...
Sweet. :)
- Dafydd on April 15, 2005
- Dafydd on April 15, 2005
Nice synth sounds, nice groove...
... this mix is entering my collection of favorite OCRemixes
- Coucou on April 13, 2005
... this mix is entering my collection of favorite OCRemixes
- Coucou on April 13, 2005
The only Megaman remix on this site that I actually enjoy.
Congratulations, my friend...you've done us all a favor.
- Claado Shou on April 11, 2005
- Claado Shou on April 11, 2005
