ReMix:Mega Man X "End of the Beginning" 3:15

And now we come to the end of our long journey; Maverick Rising is a huge album that also manages to be great, like ARMed and DANGerous before it, and you'll still be seeing deserving mixes from both albums popping up in the future, but our flood ends with this peculiar, appropriately conclusive, beautiful collaboration from:

• Cyril the Wolf - Arrangement
• Harmony - Vocals
• audio fidelity - Strings
• Martin Villanueva - Strings

Cyril writes:

"Yea, I know, a vocal arrangement, but, hey, at least Brandon (Harmony) was awesome enough to add them. Oh, yea, Jay (audio fidelity) and Martin added COMPLETELY LIVE strings. Sorry, but you cannot beat the awesomeness of live bowed strings. At the end, all I did was produce it and play acoustic guitar. To me this is what projects are all about, great musicians coming together to make amazing tributes. Lyrics may be cheesy, but you know what, so is Mega Man. Think about it."

Ah, the melodrama - Connor apologetically sums things up, but really he's underselling the end result, as Brandon's vocals and Jay & Martin's real, live, TOTALLY nude (not really) strings sell the complete package very effectively, and the sense of closure & finality is pretty dern perfect for finishing out our Maverick mixflood. Wes writes:

"Connor does an amazing job putting together this coverish take on the classic Mega Man X ending that enhances it in a tasteful fashion. The acoustic guitar & violins do a great job at creating a sad environment, and Brandon’s vocals adds an emotive element to X. The arrangement has a classy feel to it due to how the violins were used, giving a contemporary feel to the piece."

This was something unique & salient on the album, a track that embraces the game context with an emotive lyric which, while perhaps a little cheesy, is executed effectively enough for you not to notice/care. A far cry from the super-energetic, all-out rock/metal overtones of a good chunk of MR, this is a brief but memorable foray into more pensive, emotive territory, so kudos to all four artists for making it happen.

And, last but certainly not least, MAJOR props to the entire team... or should I say WORKFORCE... that made Maverick Rising possible. For such a huge undertaking, with so many tracks, the level of consistency, creativity, and diversity is legitimately mindboggling, and special props to Wesley Cho for steering the behemoth to completion with minimal turbulence. A fantastic tribute to the music & composers of the Mega Man X series, Maverick Rising is a ginormous collection of awesome, free music, and I'm as psyched that it's finally out as I am proud of what our community has again been able to accomplish!