ReMix: Street Fighter Alpha 2 'Dan's Ice Cream Truck'

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Dan, dan, dan. You have to love the entire concept of Dan - simultaneously a cheap shot at SNK from the true kings of 2D at Capcom and a way to demean your opponent like never before, by beating him silly with the unending taunts of a man in pink whose fireball has Freudian connotations I think we can all detect - sometimes a cigar is, in fact, just a cigar, but not so hadokens/gadokens. Some of my fondest gaming memories date back to playing Alpha 2 in the arcades and roughing young rapscallions up with mean dankuukyakus. Of course, some of my most painful gaming memories involve brief matchups with Mr. Esquivel over Kaillera, where yes, sadly, my saucy self was schooled in the ways of the true warrior. Yin and yang, dark and light - Dan works both sides and comes out on top in the end, embracing good and evil and transcending both. One can only sit and reflectively ponder in continuously smaller, concentric circles of thought why Capcom haven't given him his own franchise. But enough about Dan, let's talk about mix: former partners in crime Joshua Morse and po! team up yet again, JM the Andy Bogard to po's Terry (or vice versa), to provide listeners with our second SFA2 mix and our first lovin' for Dan the Man. Commenting on Mr. Yan's Sheng Long-quality violin solo while pointing out some minor issues, Brandon writes:

"Nice. I’m a becoming a huge Regina Carter fan but sadly her work and that of other jazz violinists often goes underappreciated, even in the jazz community. It’s always a rare pleasure to hear a good jazz violin performance. Great work po!.

The rest of the instruments are nice as well. Very thick bass, great piano sample, and groovetastic Rhodes. The percussion leaves something to be desired though. For a hi-hat that is as repetitive as this, I’d like to hear much more interesting samples and processing. What’s here gives off a slight metronome vibe that is especially apparent when exposed at sections like 2:24-2:40. Still, I think the other elements overcome the shortcomings of the percussion."

Let's not forget the mix title either - when your piece is called "Dan's Ice Cream Truck", you get special bonus points right off the bat. Not that they're needed - everything's tight as can be, with a funky syncopated groove, disco string stabs to accompany a nice moving bassline, EP and AP comping/soloing, monoglide sine lead, and last but far from least po's fiddlin' around. The addition of the sweet-sweet solo violin pushes things over the top in a Sylvester Stallone, arm-wrasslin' sort of way, and is really better than Dan could ask for, hope, or expect. I love this treatment of the melody; this is right where I think it needed to go, and I think the dynamic duo of Morse/Yan were just the fellas to take it there. If you savored the watermelon, you'll love the ice cream, as the ReMixers continue to serve up a culinary jazz/funk/rnb/lounge smorgasbord. As Steven Tyler once said: "Pink - it´s not even a question."

― djpretzel