ReMix: Mega Man 'Electrolytic Man'

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It's amazing, the little musical coincidences you come across - it seems that, when slowed down and played on solo piano, as it is in this collab ReMix from respective newcomers MaJIN_SaN, ambient, and tomatsu, the Elecman theme from the original Mega Man bears a striking resemblance to Journey's Faithfully - at least for a few bars. The similarity was substantial enough for me to initially think that Steve Perry had been intentionally paired up with Yuukichan's Papa, to produce a genetically frightening offspring, but upon comparison with the source material everything checked out. There are (far) worse bands and songs to (temporarily) resemble, to be sure, and the intro here does a great job of "80's piano balladizing" the source material, pairing ivory up with appropriate backing pads. The beat filter-fades in beginning at 0'42" with a sustained resolving chord, which drops out as bass drops in. Piano thankfully comes back in - it's not just an intro tactic, which might have made the arrangement feel a bit disjointed, but plays a role up to the two-minute mark, where there's a percusssive break and a stuttering saw synth lead comes in for some solo action and is then doubled up for some harmony. There've been some very negative reactions to previous submissions being rejected, which the panel endures, shrugs off, and moves on about their duties after reading, but this piece was definitely the real deal and received fairly unliateral appreciation from the justices. Perhaps the most positive, Andy writes:

"REALLY nice stuff here. This is a keeper. Overall production values are extremely strong, with crisp mastering and dynamics - rhythm section is tight and varied, levels are balanced well against each other, lots of variation in the instruments and synthwork so nothing gets stale. The real instruments like the piano and strings fit in very well with all the electronic elements, which is often a tough feat to pull off. Finally, effects processing and automation is done tastefully as well."

I'm honestly always going to hear Journey when I listen to this ReMix - but I *will* listen to it, it won't just be some half-decent techno Mega Man piece that somewhat resembled another song that I only vaguely recall. It's memorable, tightly constructed and produced, and takes a bubbly, robotic original and makes it a more mature, but still groovetastic, experience.

― djpretzel