ReMix: Kirby's Adventure 'Cosmic Transformations'
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- Game: Kirby's Adventure (Nintendo, 1993, NES)
- ReMixer(s): Adhesive_Boy
- Composer(s): Hirokazu Ando, Jun Ishikawa
- Song(s):
- Posted: 2005-06-25, evaluated by djpretzel
Ladies and gentleman, Mr. Shariq Ansari and a group of talented ReMixers are pleased to bring you our latest site project, Rise of the Star: The Kirby's Adventure Remix Collaboration, the latest in a growing line of collaborative site projects, which most recently featured Sonic 2, the general idea being for a group of mixers to collectively cover a game's entire soundtrack. This time up Nintendo's fluffy, pink, transmogrifying alter-mascot Kirby takes the stage; DarkeSword elaborates:
"Rise of the Star is a collection of remixes from the classic platformer, Kirby's Adventure. With this project, we aimed to write character themes for each of the titles given to Kirby throughout the game. After nearly 10 months of work, the album has turned out to be quite a remarkable collection of remixes. We hope everyone enjoys our work."
You can check it out at kirby.ocremix.org or download the torrent sight unseen, but either way, you're in for some fluffy, pink nostalgia, with a good deal of stylistic variety to boot. The first mix in from the project posted here is Adhesive_Boy's Cosmic Transformations. The ReMixer writes:
"Kirby turns into some pretty awesome things. Remember how cool that UFO power up was, and how you could only get in like two levels? And then how you'd inevitably get hit and watch your star erratically bounce away and disappear, knowing you'd probably never get something that sweet again?
But then, a few seconds later, you'd transform into something almost as cool and realize that everything is good and has it's place in this little world of cosmic transformations. Because beneath the bouncy and saccharine world of Kirby there is a deep cosmic force waiting to wiggle its way out.
Enjoy the project."
I personally don't remember any of this, having never really gotten particularly into the Kirby universe; I think at the time I was hitting up Sonic CD and couldn't be bothered, but for a game released towards the very end of the NES's long and noble commercial lifespan, Kirby got a lot of (apparently deserved) attention. Mr. Ryerson's mix is an interesting landscape of texture, blending the happy-go-luckiness of the source material in with filtered drums, shimmering pads, some evocative, genuinely interesting chord progressions, brass, flute, angelic harp, playful xylophone, and an oompah synth bassline, all of which takes place in a shifting, uncertain universe of Jack's own creation, where effects and panning are just as likely to be modulated as filter cutoff and resonance, and myriad motifs weave their way through one another. If Kirby had a smidge too much tequila, crashed, and proceeded to have a dream that was mostly fantasy but laced with pieces of nightmare, it might go something like this. It's disorienting at times, but very unique in how AB's been able to transplant the original into a new environment, sorta like taking a freshwater fish and tossing it into the Atlantic ocean and somehow keeping it not only alive, but healthy + replenished. The end result is odd, as per Jack's usual, but also accessible and very transporting, and - albeit, speaking without much background - seems to fit the Kirby universe like a glove, given these two traits. Excellent, fresh stuff; be sure to check out the rest of the project for a consistently solid lineup of other tracks from KA, and a big congratulations to AB, Shariq, and the entire project team for pulling everything together and making our summers pink, adorable, and capable of inhaling sizable farm animals without breaking a sweat.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the This captures the universe of Kirby much better than the NES chip ever could. The music simply explodes with colour and character, bizarreness and sweetness. Fabulous use of transitions between styles; always unique and always true to the concept of the piece. It's crazy that with a mix this busy and constantly weaving in and out of phases, it still manges to have a flowing pace. Not to mention the amount of love and fun infused within every second of the mix. It's not hard to hear that Kirby MEANT something to Adhesive_Boy; it can't just be a simple melody he liked and decided to remix.
It's a definite classic for me.
- Marmiduke on May 24, 2009
Not really grabbing me and demanding my attention, but well put together.
- OA on March 25, 2009
- Mtlbro on December 10, 2008
- Pip is uh..... on July 22, 2005
I did write a brief comment upon the project's release, and now it's time I went full on here. Hope you don't mind?
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[i]Remix[/i]
From the moment the flute came in, I am familiarized greatly with the source material, so that can say it has managed to fit as a Kirby arrangement well enough. For most of its duration the execution is very strong and well planned out; got a similar grungy feel to Braving the Flames but I dig it. It can be argued that some of the backing synths at 0:50 seemed a bit on the dissonant side but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. There is a heck of a lot of variation on the theme, and that has been shown by changing the key on the second half of which as well as a good amount of playing around with the rhythms second time through. The structuring is also pretty interesting; while some may feel to be a bit sudden, I feel that they have incorporated the feel of the many "transformations" that Kirby has gone through within the game, so I can associate with much of the artistic visions as shown in this. In terms of standing alone, this has to be one of the strongest mixes within the project hands down, and it's for more than just the execution factor; a great amount of creativity and pure heart being placed upon the creation has easily aided to create a very interesting piece overall.
[i]Creativity[/i]
Much of the creativity - and in turn, most of the elements that have breathed life into the song - are shown on the technical emphasis behind most of the track sub-sections, and even here I appreciate much of the change of moods shown throughout as well as the change of progressions at 3:23; that added well enough to emphasize on a climatic feel at its right time in the mix. The segments link together fairly well here; some may argue that there could be too much going on to make them transition well, but myself I am fitting strongly on AB's artistic side being expressed just as much as its presentation. The variety of moods has also added to a lot of fresh pacing throughout, so it can be said that no two areas sound the same. That in turn has also affected much of the repetition factor; I can barely find any in this piece whatsoever, and so it has been able to focus well enough to entertain its audience. So given what has been shown in this side of the contribution, I loved a great deal of what managed to come through the adaptation, and can easily see it as fitting for the Lil' Traveller title.
[i]Production[/i]
Most of the samples are pretty impressive and fitting for what we come to see with his work; I can't say I was too down with the flute choice here, but there's still just as much interesting sounds to help it blend in just fine. Even here the range of EQs and processes are very brash and clear as well as aiding towards the different types of ambience as shown throughout the piece, so I can say it has stood well to make it fitting. Even the sound levels are well rounded for an AB mix, so I can't sense much wrong on that aspect. One thing that did rub me the wrong way though was the panning; while there's some strong positioning techniques going throughout the track, some of the techniques in the opening and closing stages seemed to feel a little bit uneasy. Going towards the opening I dig the pan shift techniques upon the psychedelic pad FX in the background, adding to that cosmic feel towards the arrangement, but it can be argued that either the panning range should be a bit smaller to fit with the sound balance or should be a bit faster to even it out. And as for the closure, the ending music box was a cool thing to use although I think it might have helped with some stereo ambience to better add towards the feel of its current situation. Nonetheless this is still mightily impressive stuff; not quite seen as his best tech approach but it's definitely interesting, and a great way to come back after his stellar contributions in Relics of the Chozo and Kong in Concert.
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The entire project has got some good stuff to listen to, and it's good to see we have some established mixers on the scene coming back to fill the spots out there. Choosing Jack's mix as the first single from is is a big step, and it works for creating a variative and interesting feel towards its audience, especially within the earlier half of the album. Any quirks some people point out may be preferences, although for me they work to create a very epic mix for the site to take in.
If there will be any more singles from the Kirby project, I'll be glad. If there will be more mixes from AB, I'll also be glad. Nonetheless, props to making this mix work out :D
- Rexy on July 16, 2005
- Master Spram on July 11, 2005
- Antipode on July 6, 2005
- RedleMas on June 29, 2005
- Sentiental on June 28, 2005
- BlueEnvy on June 28, 2005
- Dectilon on June 28, 2005
Also, I was thinking about this earlier, and I've decided to just go ahead and post the Reason rns file for this mix. Everything that's in the mix is there except it's unmastered and the drums unfortunately won't work unless you have this old "linkpage vol. 1" refill that I don't even remember where I got. I put it up on my server, which is not incredibly reliable but works most of the time:
EDIT: sorry, I don't have my server any longer so the link doesn't work :(
(If it tries to save the file as a zip, just change to save as all files and type in kirby.rns). Enjoy, and thanks again for the reviews!
- Adhesive_Boy on June 27, 2005
I don't know this for sure, but here's another example of the DigiGrunge used in a cutup I did of a Chrono Trigger song:
Soupy Sunrise
Back me up if you think it's the same. :D
- Less Ashamed Of Self on June 27, 2005
- Nobbynob Littlun on June 27, 2005
Epic and bouncy, to describe in a few words; this track convinced me of the necessity to burn the whole collection to CD.
Now to just get the rest of the family out of the house long enough to enjoy it with the sub up all the way. :D
- Pyrion on June 27, 2005
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