ReMix: Jet Set Radio 'Late Night Sneakin''

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I encourage everyone to read the judges' decision on this ReMix, linked at the bottom of the page - it gave us quite a headache trying to work through whether this met our definition of a "ReMix," which out of necessity is sometimes flexible but does have some clearer-cut aspects to it as well. Essentially, HappyBivouac has merged two songs from the heavily groove-oriented Jet Set Radio soundtrack into a new hybrid piece. He's done this using an extensive amount of sampling from the original, which is probably the single most obvious reason our eyebrows were raised - everyone was concerned the mix constituted too little arrangement and too much juxtaposition of material sampled directly from the source. We were also concerned about setting a precedent, as clearly we don't want an inundation of a million mixes incorporating a hidgepodge of samples and little else. However, in this specific case, after some judges changed their vote (twice) and Jesse came in with a tiebreaker, we decided that the merging of two themes and the original elements added, given the groove-oriented nature of the originals in the first place, was enough to be considered substantive arrangement, in a sense. To be sure, it was one of the more debated discussions to date. Vigilante writes:

"This mix borrows fairly heavily from the two original songs, but it arranges the borrowed elements in a cohesive and interesting way that is definately different from either of the originals. There is a large amount of creative overlap and original material. This mix falls in some very gray area. Both sides of the argument have valid points, and I've never seen such intense debate on IRC. A decision either way would be justifiable. I made my vote because the mix is not a straight rip by any means. It has been made clear that using in-game clips is acceptable, and this mixes the two themes in a creative way, and adds captivating bass and drum sections. It's a good listen, so I stand by my vote."

Some of the drum sections in particular are quite fun, and the mix overall is high-energy, irreverent, and full of that certain neo-urban charm that JSR and JSRF both nailed so well visually and aurally. Layering of slap bass and synth bass, tasteful use of orchestra hits, and a good feel for using samples - extensively - without things feeling arbitrary all contribute towards what could easily have been a track on the game's OST that just happened to be comprised predominantly of bits and pieces of two other tracks, "Let Mom Sleep" and "Sneakman," but constituted a unique entity unto itself. The ReMixer has done an admirable job of covering material that was very high quality to begin with, and has taken an interesting hybridization approach to combine two pieces with some original percussion work - while it stretches the definition of a ReMix a bit, we think it does enough to remain within the sphere of acceptability, and that you'll enjoy it quite a bit if you've any predilection for the JSR soundtracks or groove-based composition in general. Definitely challenging for the judges panel on a technical basis, and definitely funky.

― djpretzel