ReMix: Sonic the Hedgehog 'Marble Dash'

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6,083,192 bytes, 6:20, 128kbps

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There's nothing like finding out you're wrong about something you really *wanted* to be wrong about to begin with. Recently I finally sat down and watched Aquarion, after initially visiting the website and dismissing it as another Voltron/Evangelion rip, but it turns out it's fairly unique and has an amazing soundtrack to boot. In a similar vein, the Pistons have now handily tied things at 2-2, proving that it'll at least be a series. In the case of Mr. Joshua Morse's latest submission, hot on the heels of his DD3 mix, however, I had high expectations to begin with - which were met and exceeded. I'm close to the source material, Sonic's Marble Zone theme, because it yielded one of my own mixes that I am most satisfied with. Morse has provided his own version with some similarities - funky, electric piano-driven, with a lot of emphasis on the bassline - but many differences. The genre I suppose would be house, but there's clearly disco and funk being fed intravenously in dangerously groovy quantities, as well. Actually, it's worth mentioning that this piece reminds me largely of Neostorm's material from 2002 and 2003, which was similarly watertight and rifftastic. Right off the bat, funky electric piano comping enters with an upbeat groove and acoustic piano, but when the so-70's-it-hurts bassline comes in at 0'14", the deal is almost virtually sealed. Yes, already at the fifteen second marker, things are slick and funky enough that you just KNOW everything's gonna click comfortably. I'm a sucker for a good bassline - so often, it's an afterthought, or gratuitous, but when done right - just interesting enough to warrant focus, and just reserved enough to not be consistently distracting - well: awesomes. And like Jean Luc Picard instructs, Morse has made it so here. Let's see, there's more to cover - bells, old-school short-release dry string stabs, some interesting percussive fx, slick piano soloing throughout (3'10", for example), and a plentiful amount of original melody and harmony towards the end of the fourth minute. Joshua keeps it going for 6'20", which works largely due to the Herculean strength of the underlying groove, which is good enough to anchor the extended duration. Nitpicks? Just two - with so funky a bass patch (which like in Love Hurts has some wah applied to it) I would have given the bassline a solo in the fifth minute rather than dropping it out to highlight what's on top. That could just be "bassline bias" on my part, though. More importantly, the "chorus" at 1'13" feels a little off, if only because the rest of the mix feels so dead-on - might have used a different instrument here, and the percussive sample that fades in at 1'21" sounds out of place. Honestly, especially because this particular passage is never referred back to, it sounds like the ReMixer felt obligated to throw it in, rather than motivated to. I'd say Joshua was may more into the verse than the chorus, if you can divide the piece up that way, and should have just axed the latter in favor of the former, which he handles so damn well here. Essentially, he does that, with the exception of maybe twenty seconds, roughly 5% of the mix, so it's no biggie. The strength of the foundation, multiplied exponentially by the solidity of the soloing on top, results in a product that's ultimately extremely head-bobbable, toe-tappable, and other-body-part-movable in all ways. Morse's best to date; an excellent, interpretive, ubertight sonic mix that's funky enough to be in one of them fancypants iPod adds with all the silhouettes and bright colors.

― djpretzel