doublejbass

This, on a site that is too full of itself to approve the Mario Twins, something a hell of a lot funnier than this? It's silly, and I like it, but come on, I'll take hypocrisy for $1600.

This is clearly the best remix on this site. Many of the posted songs are the result of glamer-kiddies who get their hands on a copy of Fruity Loops and have no feel for the music, and essentially just create a "techno enhancement" that ends up sounding manufactured, lame, and most of the time, I'd really rather just listen to the original NSF. For this song, however, that is clearly not the case. It did not surprise me to see that this jazz band did mostly other things, "normal music." In their music, they demonstrate a clear understanding of the style, and take a melody that has always been one of the staples of great video game music and follow its natural evolution to give it the proper treatment in the style it was composed in in the first place. The improvisational breaks, most notably the first solo, are a pure joy to listen to, as they build on the progressions in silky smooth fashion, and the way this performance pulls us back, keeping the intensity at full blast, and expertly builds us back up to their rocking finale leaves nothing to be desired. In the end, its artistry and expertise set it in a class above all the rest of the songs on this site, and far above all but the very best of the rest. It takes something like this to make a listener realize just where the bar should be. Highest recommendation. *****

I must respectfully disagree with the multitude of positive reviews I've seen. While I respect the innovation and originality that went into crafting this remix, in the end, it is brought down by pretentious lyrics and a simply bad performance. I was once told by a coach "People notice when you pick songs that are too hard for you, not too easy." I'm most certainly not a vocal snob, but the vocal performance here is an example of purely poor singing. A good grunge or rock voice would have been right at home with the material. Instead, there's out-of-tune, out-of-quality stuff that permeates the piece almost the entire way through. It sounds like this kid thinks that he's a whole lot better than he is, and he feels that subjecting us to his angstful screaming is somehow acceptable. He knows what style he wants to imitate, but great performances in this genre never deviate from the basics of singing. Kurt Cobain had the hallmark voice of the style, and yet, despite his unique vocal quality, always sang a clear, tuned melody. Never has an instance of a pretender or imitator been so obvious as here, where the artist completely misses the mark. Out-of-tune, stilted low-quality singing is never acceptable, to think that it is in this style of rock is to demean the great musicians who perform it, and this remixer merely contributes to the idea that modern rock is more noise than music. The last thing you want to think while listening to a remix is "I can do better," and in the end, listening to it is painful enough that I want to re-record it with a decent vocal track. Either that or listen to "Little Mac's Confession" to remind myself that some of the remixers here DO know how to sing. The final word, of course, is that I will not download another remix from this artist, if he ever produces more. I understand that this is a very negative review, but I have tried to refrain from being mean for the sake of being mean. I've also clearly explained my opinions. This is as nice as I can be while still being honest, so anything else would be a compromise. I'm hoping that this policy is just to keep things civil, because a review site without honest negative reviews is no review site at all.

Impossible bosses? Battletoads anyone?