ReMix: The Guardian Legend 'Starflake Jazz'
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- Game: The Guardian Legend (Irem, 1988, NES)
- ReMixer(s): Shnabubula
- Composer(s): Masatomo Miyamoto, Takeshi Santo
- Song(s):
- Posted: 2005-12-11, evaluated by the judges
For some reason, I kept reading this title as 'Cornflake Jazz'... I think I need to eat more. Firstly, I'd like to congratulate judge GrayLightning , who will be embarking on his third year as an OCR judge starting tomorrow, for two rock-solid years of servitude and manual labor - he's made the site a better, grayer place, for which we offer thanks and pudding snacks. Sam writes:
"The first ReMix I ever wrote, "Red Spiders", was from Guardian Legend.... so I guess this is like a return to my roots. I have a strong personal attachment to this GAME where as with all of my other remixes, my attachment was primarily to the composers. Miyamo Shant [or Michael as I like to call him since his name phonetically in spanish means "my call"..... actually I'm pretty shocked that this isn't already his official nickname] is a decent composer, but I wouldn't study his stuff in the same way I do my other favorite composers. Guaridan Legend is a game that I absolutely adored as a child, so this source tune was chosen out of nostalgia since corridors 5, 6, 15, and 16 were my favorites corridors [and area 10 was my favorite area {red spiders}]. When I wrote this I had been listening to The Elastic Band's new album "momentum" and so everything I wrote came out sounding like this.... I couldn't help it, as a result I have my first real "Jazz" remix...."
Personally, I hear a bit of Joe Zawinul/Weather Report in there, too. Straight out from the acoustic drums drippin' with feel, you know this is gonna be a little different from Sam's avant-garde or classical avenues. And, you know it's gonna be good. The bass, which stays panned pretty hard left most of the mix, has a very effective filter on it that lets the picking articulation come through selectively. Similarly, you've got electric piano and organ stabs with wah, so the whole thing is one filtered, wah'd jam, with all elements in complete synergy. I think I liked this a bit better than the rest of the panel; percussively, at least, it's my favorite Shnabubula mix, and I think some of the individual parts here contain passages that count amongst the brighter gems in the artist's arsenal of impressive phrasedom. There's some transitions, like 3'45", that don't really work for me, and in general I'd have preferred the overall tempo/swing remain consistent and the numerous themes that Sam's working with been mutated to match, not vice versa. But the whole EP solo from 2'16" to 3'18" represents what I think is some of his best extended soloing, with the accompaniment underneath not sitting complacently, but grooving on its own complimentary riff quite often. The Wingless, who seemed intent on referring to Shnabubula as 'Shane' for a reason only he could know, offers:
"Though my TGL bias will shine through irregardless, this is an extremely well done piece. A perfect example of clean complexity. Density that does not suffer from clutter because of its meticulous planning. The source material is only like, what, 8 measures long? But each movement of this piece has it's own... environment. A texture, sound, cadence, timbre, feel. Whathaveyous."
Like Chock Full'o Nuts, it's vacuum-packed to keep flavor in, and true to form, there's a dizzying number of notes and leitmotifs, but the funkier passages should appeal even to those with an aversion to the sometimes more academic qualities of Sam's work. Plus, if you like filtering and wah... you gonna get some.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the To me, it sounds like the predominant instrument here is one of those plastic tubes that has one of those noise makers in it, and one has to keep flipping it end over end to make that throaty "eeEAAAUuuu" sound.
It gets an A for originality not much else.
- 42 on January 11, 2009
I think a few times it gets a little too self-indulgent, and the ending is pretty weak, but it is overall a very good mix. Nice work.
- OA on May 30, 2008
- Radiowar on July 2, 2006
- meccaneer on March 26, 2006
- watkinzez on December 14, 2005
bladiator wrote: Shna sent this to me a while back, and I ACTUALLY listen to it. That tells you something, cause most of his stuff is way to freaky weird for me. Nice work Sam.
My thoughts exactly. His stuff is usually a bit too abstract for my personal tastes, but I enjoyed this one.
- PlastikBag on December 13, 2005
I can hear the Flecktones in this piece too.
I always love Shna's stuff because it's so interesting to listen too.
- myf on December 12, 2005
This reduces the over all flavor of the piece and is one ear heavy.
Later on there is bass panned more normally which is good times.
The drums are unacceptable to me.
Edirol is a very nice percussion set, but the drums are too all over the place. While varied, this is very distracting to me.
The clavi and main lead work is very nice.
This mix has plenty of pros, but it certainly has its cons.
Overall I'd yes this too. But Its not really my cup of tea as far as remixes go.
- Trenthian on December 12, 2005
I wish it could have been done with better samples, or have a more polished feel to it but as it stands, it's great. Thanks.
- arias on December 12, 2005
Yeah, okay. Sure you did. Whatever you say.
(It's about time you did something [i]my [/i]way :) )
Funny thing is, I haven't even listened to it yet.
-chth
- chthonic on December 12, 2005
Not that that really matters, since Shnabubula + Guardian Legend still = instant win in my book. Per the norm, this wins.
- CHz on December 12, 2005
I'd pretend I know what I'm talking about to give "criticism" but that would be a silly sick joke on par with Gigli.
Ok fine, I will. I want more instrumental variety considering you used drums, bass, and two synths for the entire song. I want a break from your infatuation with that sine wav.
Ben Affleck lol.
- PassivePretentiousness on December 12, 2005
- RoeTaKa on December 12, 2005
First heard this right back at the start of August, so long ago that I'd totally forgotten it hadn't been posted on the site already. So it came as a bit of a surprise to see it crop up all of a sudden. I'm unfamiliar with the game and its music, never even heard of it before I heard Red Spiders. Naturally that makes it hard to tell what's original and what's source material, though it's safe to say that the former is plentiful, as is usually the case. Contrary to DJP there, it's certainly not my favourite mix, though it's another cool direction away from the typical "shnab" sound, just as the previous two submissions have been. I wonder what's next on the agenda?
Not really too critical here, just rambling for no real reason. I like it, particularly the percussion. Good stuff.
- Dave Harris on December 11, 2005
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