ReMix:SmartBall "Rainfall" 3:00

SmartBall.... Rainfall. I would have capitalized that "F" for symmetry, but seriously, how cool is it that OA has provided us with our first arrangement of this relatively esoteric SNES platformer that truly captured the magic of a gelatinous blue blob battling the forces of evil? 10 out of 10 cool, that's how cool... actually, as I think you'll appreciate yourselves, this game had some good tunes, and Andrew's done a phenomenal job arranging a mellow cityscape of jazz for us to enjoy:

"Trying to evoke a mental image of a city at night, the streets glistening with rain, it was a good excuse to play some sax, which I haven't in quite a while. A little different than my normal style in some ways, exactly the same in others. :-)"

Gratuitous, but: DAT SAX!! Between all the fitness stuffs, being an awesome dad, making happy-go-lucky pop/rock, playing some screaming guitar, and now rockin' some silky saxophone, how can one man be so smooth?? Only OA knows... this almost comes off as some long-lost dark/urban Yuzo Koshiro Revenge of Shinobi-era arrange track, which is high praise indeed, and at three minutes, you miss it the second it ends. Larry offers:

"Interesting take on what was originally an underwater theme and going for a much more mellow and somewhat dark soundscape. Things briefly got lighter at 1:29 with the drum changeup and the glassy lead, before going back to the piano at 1:51 followed by some sexy sax sample action. I dunno what exactly that string lead was at 2:35 going for the smoove close-out, but the vibe of it and the overall mood left me with the feelings that 1) OA has arranged VGM into sexy times music before and 2) I'm scared that he went about it with SmartBall."

So Andrew implied live sax in his comments, but then Larry said sampled... so I confronted OA on THE IRC to get the true story:

[23:24] <OA> lol it's live, larry is a grandpa
[23:24] <OA> and needs his ears checked
[23:24] <djp> nice
[23:25] <djp> that's goin' in the writeup

You heard it here, first. Mellow, sexy, enveloping stuff from OA; pretty different from his usual fare of more upbeat pop/rock arranging, and with a different overall aesthetic/instrumentation as well. Totally not complaining, though: I'd love to hear more where this came from, and anyone out there clamoring for a ReMix of SmartBall (or the somewhat problematic "Jerry Boy" in Japan) is starting off 2014 with a virtually orgasmic quantity of wish fulfillment on their hands. Hot, svelte stuff.

This concludes the first HALF of our ten-mix flood, but stay tuned for FIVE MORE MIXES on the first day of what's sure to be a completely badass year for OCR!!