ReMix: Metroid 'Sugar, Water, Purple'

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Ahh, man. Wow. This easily jumps to the top of my lists of Metroid mixes, solo piano mixes, and Shnabubula mixes in one fell swoop. I spoke with Sam recently; cool guy, easy to talk to, and you can tell his mind is constantly working from his speech as readily as you can from his music. I unfortunately won't be able to make it to the Dec. 28 NYC meetup this year, as I simply haven't worked up enough leave at my new job, but hopefully he'll make it down for Magfest somehow and we can hang then. This is a primal, intellectual, and emotional piano arrangement; Jesse mentioned Keith Jarrett, and honestly, I don't think the comparison is the slightest bit outrageous. The artist writes:

"I think the Norfair theme from Metroid I is pretty awesome. I missed out on this game as a kid, I was too busy playing guardian legend and zelda to get to play as a spacefaring chick that can turn herself into a chrono trigger style roly poly to fit through cracks. When I did play the game, it was via emulator, and when I got to Norfair hahahah I certainly noticed the music. Immediately I had to stop playing and f!@# around on my keyboard. When you hear something exciting, it's an itch that must be scratched to take it to the piano. Anyhow... I had lots of fun with this one."

He also notes that the piece is entirely improvised, which means it crosses the line from impressive to downright frightening. Regardless of the extraordinary circumstances surrounding its creation (i.e. something that sounds incredibly crafted and arranged is somehow ad-hoc), the mix stands on its own either way as an interpretation that oscillates between more identifiable arrangement of Norfair and more of what the Killers would call "Sam's Town" - portions where Mr. Ascher-Weiss is going off on a tangent that's far more him than Hip Tanaka. I think Larry somewhat correctly suggests that the portions that more obviously speak to the source material are stronger, but there's nothing that feels disconnected or quarantined, so I feel like the original contributions do have significant synergy and compatibility with their surroundings. If you gave the theme to Yoko Kanno or Hiromi, my expectations wouldn't really be higher, or that different. Some might describe Shna as a ReMixer whose work you either love or hate; honestly, I'd be the exception to that rule, because whereas I like everything he's submitted, there are certain pieces that speak to me far more than others, and this is one such creation. My brain isn't large or fast enough to be able to multi-task and listen to this composition while doing any other involved task, but it's great to just sit and experience with one's full attentive faculty. It's the type of mix you can stare into not with release or escape or fire or love, but with intensity and focus, and while that type of music may only work in certain contexts, when it works, it works profoundly.

― djpretzel