OCR00523 - Mega Man "Circuit Breaker"

[orkybash]

Mega Man 'Circuit Breaker'

To tell the truth, I'm not a huge fan of Injury's mostly-analogue style, but I enjoy a listen every once in a while. And I won't debate the fact that she's good at what she does. As far as this particular song goes, it's one of my favorites that she's done - the piano solo in the original really saves it for me. Maybe a bit repetitive for my tastes, but enough variation is added to keep it from getting downright annoying.

[Antonio Pizza]

(originally posted Feb 08, 2002 4:46 am)

So sit back; dig, while we do it to you in your eardrums.

-George Clinton from Parliament/Funkadelic's "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)"

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Circuit Breaker (Mega Man)

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by Injury. You may remember her for her duet with CotMM-68030 in Chrono Trigger's "Magus Decay of Hope" and from Super Mario Bros. 2's "Dream Hacker".

Once again, I have downloaded a ReMix from a game I've never played. I started to play it, but gave up. I did grab the .nsf however, as it's essential in the reviewing process. I talked to Injury in #OCREMIX before this was posted. She was apprehensive about her score, yet instrumental in making sure I didn't screw this review up (too much). Not to fear sweetheart. You join JAXX, Dale North, Mustin, and LousySpy in the Mile High Club. A perfect score; 10 slices. Here's why:

Circuit Breaker clocks in just under 6 minutes (5:59 to be exact) making it one of the longer mixes on the site. "Six minutes!" you must be saying, "that's absurd!" Trust me, you'll almost wish it was longer. Injury starts out the song with two of the track's eight layers; the beatdrop (or "uberbass") and the hihat (cymbal ticks for the musically illiterate). At 0:14, the hihat speeds up and is accompanied by the drum loop and the bassline. At 0:28 the harmony bar comes in. The song doesn't actually "start" until 0:57. Injury gives you nothing but intro to build up anticipation for almost a full minute. After the intro, she doesn't let you down. The main melody comes in along with a VERY faint 2ndary buzz. At first I thought it was part of the melody, but closer scrutinization revealed it to be a seperate entity. IMO, it only reinforces the melody. It does not hurt, it supports (of course, maybe there's nothing there at all and I'm hearing things again).

With a lead off from the drums, the section which I'll call the ".nsf closer" begins at 1:25. It's not some ultra technical term. It's just something I came up with to seperate part one of the main melody from part two of the main melody.

1:39 marks the introduction of Circuit Breaker's best friend, the piano. The main melody and it's friends fire up again, but this time with the piano tapping in 5 notes at strategic locations and then retreating to a barely audible backround location. At 2:08 the .nsf closer enters once more and the piano leaves, but not for long.

Transition is important folks. Without transition, you leave your audience dazed and confused as to how you got from point "A" to point "B." Circuit Breaker and Injury say to hell with transition. At 2:22 comes the most beautiful part of the song. I'm not just tossing that word out either. It's beautiful. It's so beautiful that I'm not even going to describe it. Sure I could, but I won't. You'll just have to hear it for yourself. Believe me, the first word out of your mouth will be "whoa!"

After a 43 second hiatus, the main melody comes back with it's techno friends at 3:05; relatively halfway through the track. This is when the song is at it's climax. You've got all eight layers. As told to me by Injury herself, you've got:

melody, harmony, piano dealy deal, bassline, uberbass, and harmony numbar 2... and drums

Layer eight could be obtained by counting the hihat seperately (I actually count nine now that I think about it!). I know, it's nit-picking. But when you're at climax, isn't more always better?

Injury shows her sympathetic side by allowing you to catch your breath at 3:33. Here you get the drums & hihat, the bassline, the beatdrop, and that buzzing 2ndary layer (see! you thought I was crazy, but it was there the WHOLE TIME!). The star of this portion is the ambience. Well, up until 3:47 when Injury adds what I call the piano teaser. It's so...damn. I'm gushing. It's a little 14 second improv on the ivory. It's subtle, but it's the centerpiece. Does that make sense?

After that, the ivory does it's rendition of the main melody. That and the ambience and the piano teaser. It's simply amazing. From 3:33-4:30 is definitely my favorite part of the song.

The piano, the ambience, and the hihat stick around to perform the .nsf closer (@ 4:30) in conjunction with the beatdrop and a set of strings.

4:58 signals the beginning of the end for Circuit Breaker as it's final piece is laid to work. Call it the sequel to 2:22. That being said, I will not tell you what it is, only that I think it sounds better than it's predecessor. That's saying alot.

At 5:27, the song begins to fade out, ends at 5:55, and leaves with 4 seconds of silence to try and digest what you just heard, rounding out at 5 minutes and 59 seconds.

So sit back; dig, while we do it to you in your eardrums.

She certainly does. The penetration of Injury's sounds into your ears, stimulating your tympanic membranes with a rising action and resolution of near equal length coupled with an almost minute long climax and a four second silent afterglow...how can you not beg for more?

This is a beautiful piece, but beyond that, it's an OC Classic. This is one of the pieces you hound someone to download upon their first visit to Overclocked Remix. It's 10 slices and deserves every single one of them. Special thanks to Tacoriffic for creating the title.

Circuit Breaker.

This is one of those tracks you always wished would be remixed, but only in capable hands, lest it be screwed up. Injury takes a 40 second song and stretches it almost 9 times it's length. It doesn't suffer from length at all. It ends at the right time. You kinda wish it was longer, but you know it'd be screwed up if it was. Fandamntastic, unbelievable, unnotlistentoable. An OC classic. Period.

Folks, these opinions are just that. I ain't a remixer. I'm a listener. But if you've been a regular visitor to the message boards since July 10th of 2001, you already know that. Please, listen to this track more than once before you make your own opinions. Listen to it through decent speakers. And keep comin' back.

Kudos to Injury.

Well done m'lady. Well done.

P.S. On a personal note: Starla, the fade starting at 5:27? YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW SIGNIFICANT THAT IS TO ME! The only other person here who would have the slightest clue how important/big that number is to me would be "ahmyleg." Still I had to mention it cuz I almost flipped out when I noticed. Thank you x 1,000,000. That is SO FUCKING COOL!

[Deryck Khusial]

me fanboy, you Starla <3 <3 <3

but seriously, this mix holds personal significance for me. Starla, were you aware of a song -- Journey’s Faithfully -- when you made this? Circuit Breaker has the exact same lead as that song. it’s uncanny hearing it used in two distinct genres, and yet they Both evoke a feeling of haunt. you have my applause

[Zandar The Weeble]

After seeing harshrealm bump this one up, and reading Antonio's glowing words, I popped this in, for I *DID NOT GET THIS BACK IN FEBRUARY*.

I missed it. Didn't bother. laziness, I suppose.

There's nothing I can say that Antonio hasn't already said, frankly, other than the old line from 3rd Bass' "Pop Goes The Weasel"

Complex structure like a pyramid.

And like a pyramid, this one will still be around long after I'm dust. There's a couple things I'd change, but I wouldn't dare to commit the act of changing anything.

Again, . Really, I'm just right now at the towering beauty of this one. sick, toxic, insanely mad skillz.

You never know what's gonna get bumped round the Clock. Bad me for missing this the first time.

9.5/10.

[videogame_fab]

I'm a big fan of the megaman series and when i first heard this song, it was awesome, someone should make more remixes of the first megaman, nice job

[Broken Enigma]

although i've never played the orignal Megaman(which isn't cool)i think this would suffice for the music i need!becuz its something new to me and i think its kinda catchy!

[Tiberiansam]

The first I'd want to say is WOW! I wish I'd have has much knowledge with music as a lot of people who post on this site! At least, I have some and a pretty good hear! With what I've got, let me say again... WOW! Not only it is the best remix of that song I've ever heard, but mixing techno music style with piano solo, you gotta do it! So good it's making me cry! *Sniff*

[prophetik music]

I love Starla - lol. I can honestly say that with Dune-Arrakis Wormsign, this song is my favorite. I love trance and analogue stuff, and this fits the bill nicely - did i mention that I love Starla? lol. Anyways - I love her selection of instruments for this - the Synth lead and the sound of the piano are perfect for this style of music. I love it !

[-RK-]

It's good to see that even a song heavy on the synth can have a softer side. One of Injury's best.

[Slime Master]

someone should make more remixes of the first megaman

I agree wholeheartedly with this sentance. Although Megaman 2 has an excellent soundtrack people really should do somemore remixes of the first Megaman game heck I'd like to see some remixes from Megaman 4 as well. Anyways back to my thoughts on this song. The Piano solo around the half way mark of the song is an excellent touch to a song that is basicly techno. All in all this mix is on my list of favorite songs to listen to.

[Royal Sovereign]

This is the only remix on this entire board to have actually succeeded in making me cry.

The whole tune is so sweet, earnest, and innocent, I could not help but think back to my own childhood, and the days I used to go to elementary school humming this very tune, dreaming of a real city where the circuit-ridden spires of Elec Man's tower were real...

Elec Man's theme has always been one of my favorite tunes from the entire Mega Man series -- a series which has my childhood inscribed in every note of its music, every pixel of its sprites...

This remix took me to places I haven't been in over a decade...thank you, Injury.

[NeOmega]

I gotta add my thanks to Injury for taking the time to make this icon of simple perfection. I never played the game, but I understand the above poster's sentiment. There is something very innocent about it, such a simple little tune, but the quick piano rolls give it a magical spark. I'll never stop loving this re-mix.

[SixthFlyingMan]

Well.... It wasn't as "Battle-robot gonna kick some Wily ass" as I expected, but it definitely brought up the image of, say, Megaman and Roll relaxing on a grassy hill staring at the stars after Wily's defeat.

Yes, I am aware that that sounds "romantic" and that Megaman and Roll are brother and sister, but come on...

[Bummer]

One of the best Megaman remixes there is.

5/5.

[meccaneer]

I friggin' love MegaMan. And I love listening to old game tunes. But, seriously, the oldskool synths were overused. I don't even think they were programmed well. The piano in the middle was vastly redeeming. But, the synth stuff on either end was just too much.

[DJ_SiLVeR]

By Far, the best Nintendo OC REmix I have ever heard. This song moves me. It brings back the days during childhood when all I knew was a nintedno NES console gaming system. It brings nostalgic feelings of younger dats that makes you listen and contemplate. It has great underlying beats and powerful synth notes. As well as complementing piano addition that adds to the overall feeling. So... I don't know where any of the complaints about this song are coming from. This is a masterpiece! You guys just need to try and understand what she was trying to emulate.

Well done Injury. A "10" in my book.

DJ SiLVeR

(Sorry for not writing this when I first heard and loved it 2 years ago)

[Flashdance]

I just want to thank injury for the remix. This is by far the most electrifying remix I've heard! I think it would be awesome if the song was the end theme to a Mega Man series game!

In Sincerety, Flashdance (AKA KitsuneMan)

[OceansAndrew]

Pretty nice.

I love analogue synths, and these are pretty well used here. The hihat was distractingly loud, but everything else seemed to fit in well enough.

Arrangement was pretty basic, but had some nice piano fills and counterpoint near the end to progress it a bit.

Overall it's a good mix if a bit generic; I don't quite agree with Antonio Tolstoy's 1200 word essay of pure praise, but it's very enjoyable and repeatable, and plays the nostalgia card well.

[Dafydd]

This randomly came up on my winamp. I used to listen to this a lot when I first came to OCR, and the intro is just as good as I remembered it to be. I wish Injury would start remixing again.

[bobby1983]

people dont like mega man 1 because it's hard. But mega man one is the best mega man game of all. This is a solid track.