fisherman

Great joearb! Groovalistic. The organ and piano are perfect The transition at 0:44, where the next section that comes in causes dissonance with the stuff before... it can be understood in the context of what's going on, not the end of the world, but for all y'all remixers out there, that's a thing to be careful to avoid. It's something you'd get marked down for in a music theory class! And the transition right before 3:00, it felt like it was going to have a tempo change... a "hung" note, as djpretzel put it. That don't keep me from appreciating a good bit of music when I hear it though.

I think the oriental flavor in this may replace the Oriental flavor ramen as my favorite thing with that flavor! =P Okay... maybe not... and a bad pun. But I did enjoy the mix. Nothing earth-shattering, to be sure. It could be something right out of a game soundtrack itself, but at least it'd be an /interesting/ and well-done track right out of a game soundtrack.

"This is the way to do trance" Quite! My only complaint would be for more! Another go around 5:00-ish, get /really/ heavy on the beat? C'mon! I did have to do a bit of EQ foolin' to get the low end to a satisfactory level though. If this is gay, consider me homosexual as well. I think you've just missed the point of trance music. I see what he's saying though. Too much techno/trance tends to be.. boring? Dull? Cliche? Uninteresting? This doesn't fall into those traps. Very nice!

What else is there to say? It's polished, professional... get it! Woohoo! And I love that sax... I'm really picky about bad sax sounds too, so that's saying something! Awesome rhythm too, the bongos give the beat /so/ much more energy. Wow, down to every last detail... if the bells had been just a little bit more intrusive, the sax a bit less in quality, the drums a bit more bland, this would have barely stuck out from anything else... it's that polished quality that really makes this one shine.

Awesome work! I love when remixes put live vocals or instruments in, it just makes it so much more ORGANIC. The effort is well worth it! His voice gets bashed, but seriously... you hear singers on the radio who aren't that good. It works with his style. The controversial 5:28-end section? Yuck. I wouldn't even call it "harmonies" as some people have - it's just dissonance. The rest of the song is great though... I agree 100% with this: As I read this, I could practically, hear the ending that way. A couple more loops, building in insensity, winding it up, jamming, winding it up, and on the last note - cutting out and finishing quietly with just the voice, maybe a mellow guitar chord. Would've made this absolutely phenomenal.

Get. This. NOW. This is the shit, plain an' simple. I never imagined the original could sound like this. And once the Ben Folds inspiration was mentioned, I definitely hear it. I can practically seehim up on the stage playing most of this. The only constructive criticisms I can possibly think to offer: 1) In the 1:10-1:30ish section, I really missed the bass. By itself, piano get growl-ey when you pound in the low register, and Ben POUNDS. I worked as a sound tech at one of Ben's stops on his summer tour and the piano technician didn't stop grumbling about how much he banged on the instrument. That rough feeling I'm talking about really comes through in his playing, especially with the amount of bass we pumped through the hall. I don't know whether it was Ben himself or a sound tech, but they made sure we didn't skimp on the bass. (As an afterthought, I tried listening to it with everything below 250 on the EQ pumped as high as WMP takes it and, minus the distortion, it sounds much better and way more like I remember from this summer.) 2) The scrapey things really didn't do anything for me... I suspect it was just the way they turned out that I'm not crazy about. Certainly didn't take anything away though, I still love the mix. =)

Shameless adoration: Fan-farkin-tastic! Definitely on /my/ top-10 list, if I had to make one! The arranging is superb. The use of instruments was masterful and the innumerable subtle touches made it FEEL like a reach orchestral arrangement. It never gets too much of that cheesy film score feel either. The use of the harpsichord was brilliant. Not too much and always in the right context.I love the section around 1:40 where there's a soft interplay between the instrumental sections with snare on the offbeats. Great technique. And the rhythms of 2:33-3:10 made me want to jump around with happiness. The use of interesting rhythms is /everywhere/ in this thing. Constructive criticisms: Using the windchime thing twice in the same piece was just too much. I mean, generally I have a hard time stomaching its cliche-ness even once. The patches were a bit on the artifical side for my liking. The brass patches weren't so bad for me. The exposed sections at 2:50 5:30 were really very good. They captured very well that brass "blend" thing, the way brass instruments are supposed to blend in chords the way only brass can. The strings patches were what irked me. I remember the first minute or so blended a little awkwardly because of them and that 10 second exposed section at 3:32 was downright out-of-tune. But you have to take those with a grain of salt, I've had a lot of firsthand orchestral experience, especially with brass and strings. =P

Great mix. Brings the funk and the soul and the feel of the orginal. Good instruments. My biggest peeve was the echo. It was downright distracting at points, especially during that anonymous-woodwind solo. Speaking of that solo, the anonymity and articificiality of the instrument proved to be distracting to me as well. But as I listen to it, I just imagine it in my head as a really good jazz flute and it sounds perfect, 100% in-context too.

In the words of the teen girl squad, "Sooo good..." 5 stars. My only gripe is that there isn't enough! The piano /sound/ itself is excellent to begin with. I can't count the number of mixes that have been ruinied for me by poor patches. And the sequencing, which is so often rigid and unmusical in remixes. This, I go, "what, it's not live?" If you had sequencing like this more often, I daresay there would be an increase in the number of respectable jazz arrangements that don't use live instruments. The mood of this is great. So introspective. Especially in the first part of the mix, the influences of melancholy Russian composers just scream out to me. I loved the groove the original in the game had; it was done so well that a lot of remixes that try to keep in that same vein can't really outdo it. Thusly, I'm glad MC went in an entirely other direction with this... especially since 99% of the mixes that go in this piano direction make me feel all juicy... mmm...

Nice concept... Right. The underlying groove just stays the same. It's okay to begin with, but it gets stale by the end. I don't think you CAN synthesize jazz. It just has too much spirit built in that needs to be there. Good jazz is... alive. The music itself is almost alive.

Groovalicious. I'm generally NOT a fan of hip-hop, rap and R&B music, but when people make hip-hop remixes on this site, I'm pretty much always pleased with the result. No exception! Awesome stuff. A great compliment for a hip-hop beat, and I agree wholeheartedly. Yeah! And it goes so well, it seems like the original should have had more of this "Link chillin' wit da brothaz in tha hood" feel.

Otherwise good track, but... that "sax" patch? *shudder* Maybe it's because I went to a jazz concert tonight, but... Awful... it almost ruined the whole thing for me. The guitar was very well done. I also found it very nice to hear this song in a different meter than what's in my head. But I personally didn't find everything else as strong as the other comments suggest. Overall good, yes! But not /that/ remarkable...

Without question one of the best remixes on the site. We be JAZZ! That sax is SEXY. Consummate musicianship. Brilliant improvisation. As djpretzel points out, once machines can do THAT, we musicians are really out of place. The live renditions are almost /always/ my favorites and this one's awesomeness is... super great. Leah brings up a good idea... I started imagining this as bop instead of something cool and smooth as done here. I think that interpretation has even more promise than this one! (Maybe it's because I just got done watching Cowboy Bebop? You tell me. )

Beautifully done. Could have been longer, yes. Could have been 4 or 5 minutes long easily and still not lost anything. But neither does it lose anything by being short! 3 minutes still allows plenty of time for the remix to do wonderful things. Especially given the short attention span of our generation...

For musicians, good music hits the pleasure centers of the brain like sex does... http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/16/science/16MUSI.html?pagewanted=1 In that vein, this arrangement is a full-blown orgasm. Gave me those little chills and prickled the back of my neck.

Wow... there are some things you just don't expect, like techno banjo, but it's done fabulously. I love it when people come up with make-you-want-to-dance beats and manage to put fresh, fun things in that aren't the same old techno routine. The violin sounds funky (and intrusively fake), but that's probably because of the aforemeantioned headphone-induced EQ issues (and might be because I used to /play/ the violin). The banjo is flawless though, and everything else is beyond any negative criticism that I can think of. 5 stars!

I /really/ dig the "dark" groove djpretzel mentioned... at 0:33 I was afraid for a second that it was going to turn into just another generic techno mix with all the usual tricks and patches, but Sadorf didn't succumb to the temptation, pumped a fresh feel into this and the world is a better place for it!

Bus! GROOVY! Earthbound was one of my favorite games back in the day... Shadow did this tune justice here. I was thinking the EXACT same thing as I listened to it. Everyone's saying it's true to the original... and I think all those comments are dead-on! Keep in mind that this song wasn't meant to be a standalone work of epic proportions when they put it in the game. While someone like Russell Cox might have turned it into one and made it sound damn good, this is one instance in which I'd go with shadow's call and just leave it as the novelty tune that keeps you occupied from Onett to Fourside. =) As for the controversial bass... I thought it was just a little overpowering. Maybe it's just my huge freakin' subwoofer, but at 0:12 when it enters, it gives the song a much heavier feel that disrupts the initial impression that it's going to be primarily light and bouncy. Oh, it was perky and bouncy, but if the rest of the song had kept just the /light/ peppiness of those first 12 seconds... it would have been different, for sure. The guitar is jammin' though... and I appreciated the good quality of all the instrument sounds too. I drooled over that snare when it's nice and exposed at the beginning. The guitar is live? I thought it was just a really good sample, as others apparently did too! Nothing wrong with that though. Bravo!

5 stars! Very good mix! 15 seconds into this thing I was dancing around my room. Stylistically flawless as far as I can hear... it doesn't try to do too much, just feels the beat, throws the melody out there, and twirls a little on the side. I especially like the effect near the end with the ring-collection sound! =P Djpretzel says it's just long enough... nah, I don't think so. I'd like to hear a longer version of this track where it REALLY gets into a trance groove. I find that no matter how good the track is, it still takes a while to pull you all the way in.

Thoroughly impressive. Mood and musicality are spot-on, and I didn't hear any major flaws with anything else. I noticed the spots djpretzel called "peculiar intonations." It only pops up two or three times though... not a big deal. It happens in this style of music just owing to the nature of things.

4/5 Like most mixes, I heard good and bad. Definitely good overall though! The jazzy piano right off the bat was excellent. It jumps out, then slowly settles back into a mellow groove to set up the following sections. I have a beef with the vinyl noise sample, though. It sounds more like a train than real vinyl noise that I've heard. My ears were expecting the static to be a little more constant throughout the sample instead of so lopsided. The click that sounds like damage to the virtual album is one thing, I'm talking about the actual static noise. The first time I listened to 0:35 (when the electronics start fading in ever so slightly) I thought someone on a floor below me had their speakers turned up to test the sound output. The distant sound had me completely fooled! For about 10 seconds it sounded like the sound actually wasn't coming from my speakers. I dont know how they did it, but the way it sounds like the source of the sound is slowly coming from the basement up to your speakers is one of the coolest things I've heard! When the thumping bass comes in at 1:15, it sounds kind of empty. Until the higher percussion comes in at 1:26 it just sort of ambles along. Granted, it's only about 10 seconds, but for those 10 seconds it sounds a little dead. The ending was definitely too sudden. I felt like I should have been wearing a seat belt after it happened.

9/10 I love the way AE works with the rhythms on this one. That thing at 1:20-1:21 just blows me away. I found it easy to get into and easy to feel.

8/10 This is one of those crazy mixes where you can't help just chuckle and nod your head when you hear it. The first 0:35 or so is the voice samples over the beat thing, and it's done well. After that it launches into the more musical part and doesn't look back. It develops its style well.

Groovin'. Throughout the entire thing I almost couldn't help but move with the rhythm and drum on my lap. I can't pinpoint what it is about the mix... it's just groovin'.

Let's call this one 7/10. At first, I found this mix uneventful and unremarkable. My opinion hasn't changed that much since then, but I like it now. This one uses the length to its advantage and slowly moves across the entire 4:21... it just takes a while to get into its groove. Once it does hit that groove though, it's a mighty good one. The especially MIDI-ish sounds at the beginning were a big turn-off for me, but the rest of it's a good listen.