ReMix:Secret of Mana "No Cab, Fan Pride: Boku No Infinite Thotty Gaiden" 5:30

If Prince & Frank Zappa got together in the afterlife and decided to arrange Hiroki Kikuta, you might end up with something not altogether unlike UV Sir J's contribution to Secret of Mana: Resonance of the Pure Land - a supercalifragilistic funk-fusion-prog-jazz explosion of texture, tone, & flamboyance; album director Jorito writes:

"With a title just as inimitable as the man himself, Sir J returns after a long hiatus. Sir J is one of those artists who made their remix years ago, when the album project initially started, but he sure didn't lose his touch. He takes you on a funky prog journey that is just as exhilarating as it is mad, and does it without skipping a beat. If you feel "WTF" when you read the title, wait until you hear what the maestro cooked up! If there was a sound for "craziness in a good kind of way," this would be it."

Exactly so; co-director The Nikanoru adds:

"Sir J was quite elusive when we took on this project and it took us sometime to track him down, but it was well worth the wait. I wasn't sure about the title, but from the first spin, I thought the title was just as crazy as the track. So many sounds, so many effects -- it's like a lightning-fast tour through the world of Mana, where everyone gets a chance to say hi as you go by. Get ready for a wild ride!"

The man himself lays it out:

"I think the title should be enough of a love letter from me to the peeps. :) For once, there's no long-winded epic novel Sir J write-up for this since it's pretty self-explanatory (in my opinion).

Sometimes, I let a remix idea percolate in my head for a while or I overanalyze and tend to think a little too hard about approaching stuff, but this arrangement wrote itself naturally. Bahamut's SoMana project wasn't even on my radar, so I have to give a shout-out of thanks to Guifrog for hitting me up; Guifrog and I "met" on the BK project and when he told me "Yo, this SoMana album concept seems right up your alley," I couldn't refuse such an offer. Lastly, I have to give a second shout-out to Mr. Strader: sampling ain't no joke for me, bruh. >:D Thanks to Bahamut for being patient with me on such short notice (gave him a mostly-complete WIP and then disappeared for months before finishing it), and I hope you ladies and gents have fun rockin' out with yer cocks out to this. Or not."

Metaphorically? Without a doubt... however unlikely in a literal sense. This arrangement flies along with hairpin textural turns & plays filthy electric guitar against articulate turntablism, with flute, piano, sampleage aplenty, some vocalizing, a fabulous funk foundation, and a chewy nougat center thrown in for good measure. I conceptualize this mix as the audio equivalent of Willy Wonka's Three-Course Dinner Gum, in that you start inflating into a giant human blueberry towards the end, and Oompa Loompas roll you away after deriding you in song. Well... perhaps more just in the sense of a technicolor smorgasbord of sound being paraded before your cochlea. Chimpazilla concurs:

"Awesome tune! I'm amazed at how faithful you were to the source, despite your mix sounding so unique and varied. You sure are talented."

It's true. It's a sassy, brassy musical humdinger, to quote MST3K quoting Funny Lady, and it is imbued with all the many things that make a Sir J ReMix a special experience. Buckle your seatbelt & enjoy one of Pure Land's strangest trips - great stuff!