ReMix: Kabuki Quantum Fighter 'Take the Red Pill'

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The Japanese sure do love their kabuki. After all, if they don't, the odds aren't extremely high that anyone else will. They've been secretly pushing their kabuki agenda through the thinly-disguised use of kabuki characters in video games for some time. Kabuki Quantum Fighter is perhaps the most salient example, but I for one remember the final boss to Revenge of Shinobi, who attacked with his monstrous hair and made exaggerated facial expressions with the best of them. Kabuki of course also lives on in the often-exaggerated expressions of anime characters, accompanied by minimal percussion and some dude going "yoooooo". AND in this kickin' techno ReMix from ArseAssassin, as well. While it's probably closer in spirit to the inspiration for its mix title, the 33.3% amazing Matrix trilogy, I can nevertheless picture grown men with large wigs shouting a lot, in Japanese, when I listen to it. But maybe that's just me. In real life mild-mannered Tuomas Kanerva gives us a solid electronica tune from the obscure NES sleeper, introing with a filtered synth riff that starts off thin and gains some body, then dropping the kick, claps, some hats, more synths, and a hyper bass. This is basically an extended pattern-based arrangement, and the main riff continues ad infinitum throughout the whole thing, but it does mix things up between a cool sputtering synth lead and smoother lead towards the end, dropping the hats here and there, and adding some nice rolls and transitions. Mr. Ansari writes:

"Anyway, this is pretty neat, albeit simple. Like Prot said, drums are weak, but the other sounds make up for it. Nice synth stuff going on. A bit buzzy for my tastes, but not bad."

I'd say this is the sort of mix where if any one element was a little off, it really wouldn't work, because no single element would stand out enough to compensate, but given that the synth programming's here, there's attention to variance in the percussion, it's repetitive but still changes enough up to remain in motion, and that the vibe is generally electric, the sum of the parts is an enjoyable if not groundbreaking track. Solid electronica for gettin' your kabuki on.

― djpretzel