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OCR01105 - Mega Man 2 "Tickle My Wily"


djpretzel
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I really like the way it alternates between the relative calm and the bass beats that come and go :) A wonderful take on the theme, constantly in a state of flux that really grabs and holds the listener's attention. Great job on this one :P

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Normally, I'm all for new interpretations on themes, but this one doesn't work for me. It sounds good and there's a decent amount of skill in the arrangement, but as a take on Wily's Theme it doesn't really hold my interest or appeal to me. There's just something wrong with it. I honestly don't see myself listening to this song too much in the future.

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I thought this was a great mix. Don'f forget to check out Star's latest Chrono Trigger piece as well, "Love in an Hourglass". I'm just posting my comments from my VGMix review of the track to offer my commentary again. Great job as usual, Star!

For the finale episode of VG Frequency, Star made sure to pester me early and often about playing his newest Mega Man 2 mix before he even named it. From the beginning, I knew this was gonna be a sincere attempt to kick my ass with music, and "Tickle My Wily" delivered. While I played the song in the studio, the bass levels started shaking the speakers and, by extension, the whole studio. My headphones are much more sedate, so there's hopefully gonna be less shaking.

The beginnning until 0:54 featured several layers of well-sequenced, natural-sounding instruments (e.g. piano, woodwinds, violin, etc). This was a high-quality orchestral package, and I was actually pretty surprised with the subtle inclusion of typically non-orchestral instruments, such as a saxophone-sounding synth, and how well those instruments worked. There are a few too many elements instrumentally for me to throroughly dissect, but the overall presentation here was very solid. Though some light woodwinds were present around 0:23, the music generally possessed a looming air of seriousness and a great deal of gravity starting at 0:36. The slower tempo compared to the source tune makes everything feel more deliberate in application.

The deep, rumbling tones starting at 0:57 literally shook the WMRE studio, and Star added several electrosynths that managed to work astonishingly well with the orchestral backing of this piece. I can't recall off the top of my head any remixes that have integrated orchestral piano, viloin and brass synths with electronic sounds so well. I also recognize one of the electrosynth choices (1:29) as a synth Star used for his Chrono Trigger mix "Temporal Distortion", which provided a little bit of comfortable familiarity for me musically. The claps used at this point were also well-reverbed, so they didn't sound fake or exposed, which is unfortunately hard to find in many remixes. Done properly, the claps here function very well, and the overall mastering is amazingly clean.

2:40 brought in even beefier action on the low-end with HUGE drum beats and kicks that established a more prominent beat base as compared to 0:57. While there was already a large amount of power evident in the mix before, the addition of the louder backing along with some absolutely beautiful violin-like swells at 2:57 & 3:06 brought the energy level significantly higher. Star slowed things down at 3:50 and focused on some gentle synths alongside the piano until 4:25 for the last steps toward the finish. Interesting new arpeggiated electrosynths came in at 4:29, 4:33 & 4:38 to add another brief, but fresh dimenstion to the track, and I'm impressed again with how Star has managed to keep things fresh and varied throughout the entire piece. The gradual dropping out of the layers of the track at 4:44 and 5:00 in order to achieve the piano solo finish worked out very well and didn't feel forced or rushed at all.

Without sounding as if I'm gushing fanboy-ish praise all over this mix, I believe "Tickle My Wily" is one of the most fantastic genre-bending tracks I've ever heard in my time checking out the video game music remixing scene. Starblast made sure to never retread his steps in the composition, constantly alternating between the real instruments and the electrosynths defining the foreground while implementing variations on every section. Given the length of the mix, it's very hard to highlight every single thing I enjoyed here. I'm also sure that, while I couldn't find anything particularly wrong admist this mix, a more discerning ear should be able to offer the constructive criticism that I can't. Looking briefly at the source tune, "Dr. Wily Stage 1" is a fast-paced, action/adventure piece which Star managed to slow down and fashion into a whole different piece of music through heavy rearrangement. This is a dynamic and intense hybrid piece that plays to the strengths of both orchestral instruments and electrosynths and you won't be disappointed by the mixture of styles. There are tons of elements in play that you could listen to the mix dozens of times in order to analyze, and the time spent doing that would be well worth it, in my opinion. Don't pass this one up at all.

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The song is great, very powerful heroic type feel going with it. At 3:15 I kind of disliked how the mix went, mainly because that section just jumps out - then is followed by the rather strong sound that comes out at 3:35 which has abit too much strength in its volume over other elements. Then at about 4:23 it picks up its flow once more where everything seems just right, and the ending which I felt was fitting tied the mix into full circle. Overall a beautiful. strong, and well paced mix deserving of some more thought by other people IMO.

Great job Salzman

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Well I guess I should start out by saying mine and star's differences are forgotten in this reply, this is just what I personally think about this mix. I really like this alot, I think it is one of the most imaginative remixes of this song (of all the thousands of remixes of it). The way he takes the melody and comes up with counter melodies that are even more catchy than the original, it shows true tallent. Very creative, nice job this really get's the job done for this song. Definatelly a must download, nice work star.

-PxFury

P.S. I like the drums as well, very smooth reminds me of something MazeDude would do with his drum work.

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