ReMix: The Guardian Legend 'Starflake Jazz'

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For some reason, I kept reading this title as 'Cornflake Jazz'... I think I need to eat more. Firstly, I'd like to congratulate judge GrayLightning , who will be embarking on his third year as an OCR judge starting tomorrow, for two rock-solid years of servitude and manual labor - he's made the site a better, grayer place, for which we offer thanks and pudding snacks. Sam writes:

"The first ReMix I ever wrote, "Red Spiders", was from Guardian Legend.... so I guess this is like a return to my roots. I have a strong personal attachment to this GAME where as with all of my other remixes, my attachment was primarily to the composers. Miyamo Shant [or Michael as I like to call him since his name phonetically in spanish means "my call"..... actually I'm pretty shocked that this isn't already his official nickname] is a decent composer, but I wouldn't study his stuff in the same way I do my other favorite composers. Guaridan Legend is a game that I absolutely adored as a child, so this source tune was chosen out of nostalgia since corridors 5, 6, 15, and 16 were my favorites corridors [and area 10 was my favorite area {red spiders}]. When I wrote this I had been listening to The Elastic Band's new album "momentum" and so everything I wrote came out sounding like this.... I couldn't help it, as a result I have my first real "Jazz" remix...."

Personally, I hear a bit of Joe Zawinul/Weather Report in there, too. Straight out from the acoustic drums drippin' with feel, you know this is gonna be a little different from Sam's avant-garde or classical avenues. And, you know it's gonna be good. The bass, which stays panned pretty hard left most of the mix, has a very effective filter on it that lets the picking articulation come through selectively. Similarly, you've got electric piano and organ stabs with wah, so the whole thing is one filtered, wah'd jam, with all elements in complete synergy. I think I liked this a bit better than the rest of the panel; percussively, at least, it's my favorite Shnabubula mix, and I think some of the individual parts here contain passages that count amongst the brighter gems in the artist's arsenal of impressive phrasedom. There's some transitions, like 3'45", that don't really work for me, and in general I'd have preferred the overall tempo/swing remain consistent and the numerous themes that Sam's working with been mutated to match, not vice versa. But the whole EP solo from 2'16" to 3'18" represents what I think is some of his best extended soloing, with the accompaniment underneath not sitting complacently, but grooving on its own complimentary riff quite often. The Wingless, who seemed intent on referring to Shnabubula as 'Shane' for a reason only he could know, offers:

"Though my TGL bias will shine through irregardless, this is an extremely well done piece. A perfect example of clean complexity. Density that does not suffer from clutter because of its meticulous planning. The source material is only like, what, 8 measures long? But each movement of this piece has it's own... environment. A texture, sound, cadence, timbre, feel. Whathaveyous."

Like Chock Full'o Nuts, it's vacuum-packed to keep flavor in, and true to form, there's a dizzying number of notes and leitmotifs, but the funkier passages should appeal even to those with an aversion to the sometimes more academic qualities of Sam's work. Plus, if you like filtering and wah... you gonna get some.

― djpretzel