ReMix:Mega Man 3 "Magnet Missiles" 3:35

We'll definitely be seeing more of Summoning of Spirits in these parts - with four discs of music plus bonus tracks, there's a lot of great stuff - but it's time to deviate with a little MM3 action from JJT, his brother, and zyko, on a monster 'Magnet Man' collab that brings down the house. Disco Dan's mix of same has definitely stood the test of time, but this takes the original in a whole new direction. Mr. T wrote a tome, but it's good stuff so here's all of it:

"One of my vivid memories from childhood is watching my older brother and his friends play through Mega Man 3 (an experience I'm sure many in this community can relate to). Before I had even started contributing to OC ReMix, I wanted to arrange the Magnet Man stage music. It's my favorite song off what I believe is one of the strongest soundtracks in the history of the medium.

Another thing I had really wanted to do with an OC ReMix submission was collaborate with my older brother, Pete. Yes, this is the same older brother mentioned earlier. If any of you have enjoyed my pseudo-jazz arrangements over the years, then you should know that he was the one who sat me down at a piano when I was a kid, and showed me the basics of pop, rock, and jazz. Like me, he also plays a brass instrument. Unlike me, however, he can actually utilize the full range of said instrument, and bend it to his will. He is a fantastic trombone player.

As for the ReMix itself, a sad little demo was recorded in the fall 2003, featuring myself on guitar and trumpet. On a whim, I got in touch with a dude who called himself zyko. All I knew about him at the time was that he had done guitar for Relics of the Chozo, and that we once had a pleasant conversation about the Beatles in #ocremix. I asked him to take a shot at recording some guitar tracks. He quickly emailed me a mixdown of roughly 7 guitar parts that left me amazed and somewhat baffled . The final product still remains my favorite zyko performance to date, though I'll admit I'm a little (see: heavily) biased.

I've written too much already, so I'll try to move this along. I sucked at recording and mixing in 2003*. Once everything was tracked, there was too much going on for me to create a good mixdown. I gave up on it sometime around 2005. I approached four different people about mixing it for me, but none were able to follow through. History became legend. Legend became myth. In 2009, Danimal Cannon offered to master an old mix of the project, after seeing me gab about in #ocremix. 10 minutes later I had a finished product. Go figure.

Anyway, this is a ReMix that should have been submitted 5 years ago. If nothing else, I hope you enjoy the lost JJT/zyko collab, and a chance to hear my big bro shred. In case you're curious: JigginJonT - producer/arranger, drum/bass sequencing, keyboard, trumpet; ptitteri - trombone; zyko - guitars.

*I still suck at recording and mixing."

Ah, Jon, you self-deprecating multi-instrumentalist, you! Mad props to Danimal for helping rescue this bad boy out of what may have been infinite undiscovery. Saying someone's a "fantastic trombone player" almost sounds like a euphemism, but in this case it's literally & thankfully true - this mix features some of the hottest solo brass performances you'll find on OCR, and as an ex-euphonium player (which actually is a euphemism for "high school band geek"), I'm lovin' it. For the first few seconds, you're thinking it sounds pretty metal, then organ comes in so you're thinking more rock/jazz, but at 0'15" the brass enters and the awesomeness factor is multiplied by pi. I don't know why, but real brass always has an awesome multiplier of pi; it's a well-known fact.

At this tempo, with brass, you can't avoid sounding a little ska, but the offbeat chords seal the deal on the verses, channeling (for me, at least) Bosstones, Less Than Jake, and others... in the best of ways. I'll be completely forthcoming and reveal that, back in its glory days, the frat-friendly uber-popularity and often empty lyrics of "ska-core" DID start to grate on my nerves, but the bands could always PLAY, more brass in mainstream music is always a good thing, and there were more than a few songs I legitimately loved. THIS... is downright epic. zyko's sleazy, wicked guitar solos punctuate brother-to-brother ensemble brass passages as well as brilliant solos like 1'01" perfectly. You also get some mad organ @ ~2 min. in, and the processing, separation, and in-your-faceness of all the elements gives them both definition and style; not sure what Danimal did in 10 minutes that couldn't be done in the preceding years this mix gestated in musical purgatory, but it worked. At 3'35", it seems short on paper, but the faster tempo means the actual amount of music & variety vacuum-packed in (for freshness) is formidable. Killer growl ending, too. So let's just lay it all out: This is an absolutely fantastic Mega Man 3 mix, we need more like it, and everyone involved should be proud as hell. Classic.