ReMix: Jackal 'Mounted-Machine Gun Funk'

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Rating high on the uniqueness scale, our first mix of NES/Konami classic Jackal comes in from Beatdrop, who's covered a good assortment of games thus far. Beginning with a nice squelchy analog bass, military snares set things off and running. Right away you'll notice one of the elements that's rather unusual; choice of kick and snare combination does vary throughout the track, but the combo that enters at 0'20" is peculiar in that it cuts through the mix and isn't quite as electronic as you'd expect for the genre. Come to think of it, it's difficult to genre-label this one - it's the type of music that can almost only come from mixing a game track, as some of those old NES tracks were spastic and jumped around quite a bit musically, as this theme does. They sort of existed outside the realm of musical genres - Konami tunes especially, Contra and similar titles. Some people have called into question whether some of the tracks on this site purporting to be "funk" actually are (my own included) but I can tell you ahead of time I would definitely hesitate to endorse that label for this track. It has more of a driving, military feel to it than a 'shake your groove thing' motif. The highlight for me was the rapid-fire lead synth sound, which has a sharp attack and is rolled and re-triggered with machine precision, resulting in some very dynamic arranging. Also like the section at 2'03" where BD throws in some nice ambient "war" sounds of guns, vehicles, etc. Some people have problems with fade-out endings - I ain't one of 'em, as long as it works with the track in question, and didn't mind it here. The schizo nature of changing kick/snare combos sometimes rubbed me the wrong way, but this is what I consider challening material and I like the way Beatdrop's handled it.

― djpretzel