ReMix: Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade 'Space Drifter'

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Yes, you read that right: Linus Spacehead. Slightly less famous than a certain Finnish OS developer by the same first name, Mr. Spacehead didn't really make huge waves or encroach on the well-staked territory of Mario, Luigi, or about a zillion other better-known platformer heroes, when he made his debut. Perhaps it was because of his spacehead, the size of which reportedly frightened young children and made bashful ladies avert their eyes. But enough of that - regardless of its goofy title or relative obscurity, Linus did have a half-decent soundtrack, which resident OCR Judge DarkeSword has taken and ReMixed into a catchy sort of high-tech light-jazz affair. Now, I sorta had to agree with a couple of the judges, who did cite Mr. Ansari for overusing a certain saxophone patch, the ubiquity of which isn't necessarily a problem save that there are better, more deserving lead patches out there that could spice up Shariq's musical curry. You'll have to forget I ever used that metaphor or you'll hate me for life. At any rate, GrayLightning was the most positive voice evaluating the mix, and what GrayLightning thinks is:

"Kenny Darkesword G is back with another sax mix? Very fitting with the title you've given it. I think this may be my favorite of yours so far. Only slight complaint is the sax sounds slightly mechanical at times, but sax is one of the hardest to sequence. I love the vibe of this whole piece. Groovy bass line. I always like hearing unique mixes, and this is no exception. This also reminds me of gradius music. Very chill and completely capable work darkesword. "

Personally, I didn't feel this was quite up to the standard of Shariq's other pieces on the site. Jesse puts it well, as some of my beef may in fact be with the original:

"this is strong work, and a solid arrangement of a less than breathtaking piece."

It's enjoyable, pleasant, but it's not very risky outside of covering esoteric source material, and an alternate lead timbre would have helped with variety as, even if you allow for the sax if evaluating the piece in a vacuum, it still became overused even within the same song. Regardless, it's a testament to the high level of proficiency and creativity that Shariq's attained that a mix that isn't necessarily up to his own standards is still quite a worthwhile endeavour and still represents some good tunage.

― djpretzel