ReMix: The Legend of the Mystical Ninja 'Oedo Hop'

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YES. Thank you, Palpable. I might be the original's biggest fan in the whole wide world - what can I say, I like happy, chipper, pentatonic melodies - and I'm glad I'm now not its sole representation on the site. Furthermore, Palpable's coverage of the Oedo Town theme from Konami's Legend of the Mystical Ninja is decidedly different from my own coverage of yore, circa 2001 - it's funkier. I went for more saccahrine synth-pop, whereas here the flavor is as the title suggests - hoppin', syncopated, and generally funky, albeit still synth. The swing-time precision here makes it utterly danceable and catchy. I think that's the strongest point - things are timed so well, rhythms locked down, attacks and decays synchronized, fx and interjection cues dead-on, and breaks and brief interludes so tight that the whole thing runs on tracks and has seriously contagious booty shakin' going on. One envisions Goemon dancing. Then one quickly clears one's mind of such thoughts. There's a great attention to processing here, with many elements totally clean, but some of the more traditional acoustic bits heavily reverbed, the bass is uber-funk, intentionally synthetic electric, and pulls some nice slides. There's some vocal percussion work around 1'16" that you're either gonna like or dislike. I could have done without it, but the feel/vibe is that of synthetic, tightly-wound hop/funk, and I can see where contextually it fits in. The ending is a bit abrupt, with three kick/bass hits concluding things, but so many other elements are in perfect harmony elsewhere (for instance, the fade-in drone at 0'22" that helps intro the piece - fantastic detail) that no one nitpick can tarnish the groove. I love syncopation decisions like the pick-up at 0'47", which go a long way in transforming the context of the melody, which is used with less alteration than my mix, into a whole new ballgame. Life is good - midterms are over, Yanks are up 2-0, and Palpable's given us a great mix of one of my favorite SNES themes. I might be more partial to the source than others, but I'm highly suspecting most of you will enjoy this mix quite a bit. Different style, creative, percussively a blast, and overall solid, intelligent, and fun. Great work.

― djpretzel