ReMix: Double Dragon II: The Revenge 'Mean Streak on Main Street'
Protricity, aka Ari Asulin, has been submitting (excellent, often downright amazing) ReMixes to the site for a long while, and has also served as a member of the judges panel for quite some time, going beyond the "call of duty" and handling resubmissions, standards issues, and other aspects of the submission process besides voting on mixes. Let there be no doubt he has made a significant, positive impact in doing so. However, some recurring personality conflicts between him and other members of the judges panel, as well as myself, have finally resulted in his being removed from the panel. We tried repeatedly to work things out but in the end I think this was a preferable path that will be less stressful for all involved. I'm writing about this openly, even though it represents internal discussions amongst the panel, for two reasons. One, I think Ari's contributions and presence have been significant and consistent enough that some explanation of his recent removal from the panel should be provided, and secondly, to emphasize that though I think this action was necessary, it doesn't begin to dent the beneficial influence he's had over myriad aspects of OCR for, as I've said, quite some time.
Moving on to greener pastures, let's talk about his latest mix, from Double Dragon 2. Ari's got a thing about samples; he prides himself on not necessarily choosing the best and the brightest samples in the world, but making sure his sequencing - which would sound good with almost any soundset - fully capitalizes on those sounds he does use. This mix is no exception, with a slap bass that's Seinfeldian in its believability and a lead guitar that's signature Prot - flamboyantly sequenced, with slides, trills, the works, but not something you could envision being actually played by a guitarist. Quite a bit of soloing here; more than many other Protricity mixes. Also some nice mechanically precise acoustic drumming... with the all-important COWBELL factor, so you know it's good. Most of the mix has an upbeat, unabashed jammin' 80's feel (dig the happy organ) - carefully sequenced and refined, but at no point do you forget that it's synthetic, across the board. This feel is something you're either gonna dig or not, and of Ari's mixes this piece most demonstrably illustrates that style. For my money, in this particular instance, his more-than-competent sequencing could have been paired with a wider, more refined soundset and the result would have been a better ReMix, but as always there's a LOT of music packed in, even at six minutes. The appendix at the end makes it sort of a medley, although really this segment is transitioned at 4'14' with some guitar strums like more of an extended outro. Not as keen on this bit, but the bass here is pretty monster, and doubled up with a lower synth, on a minor key motif that almost sounds more Castlevania than Double Dragon. Doesn't have too much to do thematically with the sheer jamfunk of the first four minutes, but I'd still rather it be there than not at all. Great stuff, overall; perhaps not as classic as the bulk of Ari's more recent subs, but still comparable, funky, and tightly programmed.
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