ReMix: Streets of Rage 'Sensual Ippon'

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News flash: mv is good. Damn good. Varied styles, consistently high quality, creative arrangements. There's not much left for me to do but simply describe his mixes and highly advise them to listeners, which is a good thing. This go 'round he covers Yuzo's Streets of Rage soundtrack with a funky trip-hop rendition of the level 4 bridge theme, throwing in the intro as a brief cameo at the very end. He reveals a surprisingly short development period and some insight into the track's origins and name:

"this mix was started and finished one day in a few hours, while i had other projects on hold. i had always wanted to remix some yuzo koshiro music since i find him to be one of the very best musicians in the game music industry. i had always been fascinated by the round 4 visuals and music, and actually found the track to sound moody and relaxing rather than catchy and agressive; so here's a trip-hop/lounge version of that tune, with a general mood that would be a hybrid of "cammy by night" and "time chill". the end of the mix actually uses the main SOR theme for nostalgia. The title is a humorous word association with "Sensual" describing the mood and the character Blaze; and "Ippon" being the japanese word for winning point moves that can be achieved in karate, martial art which Blaze masters in Streets of Rage."

Regardless of what it means, it certainly sounds cool. Mellow rhodes, very warm, sits in a comfortable puddle of 70's-infused trip-hop, with wah guitar stage left doin' its thing while ambient "bridge" effects (traffic and the like, very atmospheric and tasteful) fly by, and an unobstrusive bass anchors the beat, while a flute lead covers large portions of what you could call the chorus, with interspersed sax. The cameo intro at the end is just a LITTLE cheesy and conspicuous to those intimately familiar with the material, but it works, and reminds me of something I might do, so from that biased perspective I certainly dig it. Yuzo was the master of 16-bit funkdom, combining mad electrofunk skills with usually ninja-related contexts for further amplified mojo, and mv keeps the faith with his interpretation. Great stuff; furthermore I can now enjoy it in the comfort of my fully air-conditioned home... albeit $2700 lighter. The joys [sarcasm] of home ownership are at least partially alleviated with tunage like this. Smooth.

― djpretzel