ReMix: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island 'Crystalline Caverns'

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Beautiful, and an imaginative and thorough overhaul of the caverns theme from Yoshi's Island. As a fan of McVaffe, trip-hoppish downbeat, piano-driven pieces, and Yoshi's Island, this ReMix is obviously partial to me on several levels. I loved the theme in question back when I was playing YI, sometimes referred to SMW2 - minimal, but neverending and cavernous . . . as a cavern theme should be, no? McVaffe takes the essence of that and imbues it with a life and character all his own, layering fantastic, organic processed drums, subtle pads, atmospheric synths and some nice slice fx circa 2'20". But the anchor and meat of the melodic portion of the track is a very strong acoustic piano. This must have taken some restraint for McVaffe - at least it would have for me - as the piano never really belts out into a full-blown solo, but is instead consistently strong throughout, with variance and ornamentation to avoid straight repetition. I have to confess that I do consider this a missed opportunity for what could have been a bitchin' two-fisted piano solo, Billy Joel-style, forming a clear climax to the work. But I have my style and McVaffe has his, this is a very good thing, and I respect and admire the restraint. This is a shimmering work that creates a complete audio universe, and represents some of McVaffe's best beat work (esp. in the 'intriguing percussive textures' category) to date. It's also quite different in style and execution from most mixes of the Mario series at large, adding something new to the compendium of Kondo creations. Highly recommended.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
This track is more than phenomenal one of my favorite songs in the game! Awesome job to you Ms.McVaffe.

- 8-Beat on April 24, 2013
This is, simply put, one of McVaffe's best tracks; and considering his prolific contribution to OCR, that means something. Indeed, there is so much wonderful interpretation going on here. Not necessarily in the melodic sense, but the sound scape is incredible. A beautiful acoustic piano line holds the piece together while overlaid with subtle strings and some awesome experimental percussion. Love those chords at 2:15 and the subsequent synth and panning effects. At 3:30 we get the beginnings of the climax of the piece. Carefully programmed percussion helps to reinforce this section, and by 4:30 we get a nice cool down to finish off the mix.

- SubNormal J3 on March 20, 2011
This piece moves me to tears. Manly tears.

- WesternZypher on December 28, 2010
Pretty nice, if a bit unremarkable. It fills a solid role as thought provoking background music, but never really steps into the forefront. Part of the luxury afforded by doing so many ReMixes is that you can definitely try some new things, and as a whole, this track is good, but I definitely prefer more melody-centric works.
Great for doing homework or staring out the window on a rainy day though. :-)

- OA on August 16, 2010
letterONE;658637 wrote: And, now that I think about it, it kinda reminds me of Linkin Park. Like a mix of Yoshi's Island music and Linkin Park's "My December".


Huh. I listened to that after you said it, and it does kinda sound like it. Of course, McVaffe's is better anyway. I was not fond of the caverns theme at all in SMW2 when I first heard it, but this is a masterpiece. I'd expect nothing less from McVaffe

- Crulex on April 21, 2010
Man, reading through the comments made me nostalgic for CD's for some reason.
Either way this is a damn amazing mix. Basically, this mix takes my 3 of my favorite instruments, and then combines them all into one glorious mix of an already glorious source. Probably my favorite from McVaffe, but then again I don't think I've heard all his stuff yet. I'm over half way there, though.

- urdailywater on March 28, 2010
Hey, I'm sorta new here so I may be a little... bad at doing reviewing and whatnot. Anyways, I REALLY love this one. One of my favs on this site. Everything in it just fits so well together. And, now that I think about it, it kinda reminds me of Linkin Park. Like a mix of Yoshi's Island music and Linkin Park's "My December". Yup. Umm... nothing much else to say, so, umm... later?

- letterONE on March 23, 2010
I really like Yoshi's island a lot when it came out and I still do. Making this remix makes it an actual cavern board for the game.

Awesome. :D

- Yoshiboy on November 25, 2009
This is one of my favorites of McVaffe. Thankfully justice has been served.

- TheKrow on March 6, 2009
Ha, thats pretty funny. Btw the guy removed the song from newgrounds, he sent me a message saying he was gonna remove the part that wasn't his. Then he said he was just gonna get rid of the whole thing.

- elegantend on March 6, 2009
Well, thanks to that controversy, I got to hear this tune. :) Is good.
--Eino

- evktalo on March 6, 2009
What was a good song was ruined when he put that awkward synth over it. I didn't listen to more than a few seconds of it, but being a huge fan of McVaffe's stuff I knew what it was. Are you the one who also gave him a 0 on newgrounds?

- elegantend on March 6, 2009
elegantend;514967 wrote: Thought I'd let you know that some guy added a crappy Zelda tune overtop of this and is hosting it on Newgrounds claiming it to be his work. People are giving it 10's because of the great original track (yours), and he is replying acting like he did all the work. Really burnt my toast if you know what I mean. Here is the link http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/172297 Kick his ass seabass

I dunno what's worse, the fact that this guy did that, or the fact that people liked it...

- DCT on March 5, 2009
Thought I'd let you know that some guy added a crappy Zelda tune overtop of this and is hosting it on Newgrounds claiming it to be his work. People are giving it 10's because of the great original track (yours), and he is replying acting like he did all the work. Really burnt my toast if you know what I mean. Here is the link http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/172297 Kick his ass seabass

- elegantend on March 5, 2009
Very 'chill' remix...although I wish the melody was able to be felt a bit more. Sometimes it seems lost in the other instruments.

- Talgoran on July 5, 2008