ReMix:The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past "We're the Fugawe Forest" 4:01

So freakin' cool; creative, genre-bending, to-hell-with-conventions ReMixes like this make running OCR a joy. Jack of all trades and master of far too many for my personal comfort, creative juggernaut XPRTNovice (Joe Zieja) put together a comic-cool blend of delicious jazz & old-school hip-hop, with retro guitar, warm EP, a suitcase full of live instruments, and some considerable flow, for Mirror Image: A Link to the Past ReMixed - he writes:

"Well, I guess I needed a debut rap track at some point. I didn't expect it to go there, but it did. I wanted to create this sort of atmospheric, funky thing, to give the feeling of getting lost in the forest, but at some point I think I ended up getting bored with it. And then I started rapping, and it all came together. Many thanks to Wiesty for his excellent live drum recording and augmented organs. Live instruments, other than that, include another organ played by me, 4 saxes, flute, trumpet, and dropping the mic."

Joe can make his voice basically do anything he wants, and he's also got a great sense of humor, so it's cool to see both of those dimensions at play here, along with the abundant musicality & chops. This intros with audio drama, transitions into a slick jazz take on a familiar favorite, then pivots into something not unlike nerdcore, so it might lose a few people along the way, but the intrepid listener with diverse tastes is rewarded by an arrangement that's fun, funny, chill, & utterly unique.

Also: Ganondork.

So there's that.

I like the slapback-y verb + delay on the electric guitar at 0'36", which kinda dates the aesthetic to a certain era when people said "daddy-o" all the time and TV doctors openly smoked while diagnosing their patients. Upright acoustic bass, when paired with overall presentation, reminds me of Soul Coughing a bit; good stuff. A creative, divergent, & unexpected addition to Mirror Image which I find myself coming back to often; excellent stuff!