ReMix: Dr. Mario 'Burning Up'

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Dr. Mario

That's not an organ solo... THAT's an organ solo. The doctor is in the house, as OCR celebrates Australia Day with music from not one but two men from the land down under, where beer does flow and men chunder. True story. Now, where was I... oh yes, Australia! Honestly, it's great that OCR has always been and remains an international community, and we thought this was a bonzer way of celebrating that status. First off, Mr. Carr brings us an awesome Dr. Mario mix, with some truly inspired organ soloing. This mix really shows off the versatility that I suspected Ashley possessed; his previous mixes have been great, but this represents a pretty significant stylistic shift, which he pulls off admirably. Redlight writes:

"Its been a while since i've submitted anything, and this one has been rotting away in the far reaches my hd for quite some time. Its been lost, found, rewritten, lost, deleted and rewritten again. Its an old game that I had a love hate relationship with, most probably because i sucked at it. But I think the music for its time was fantastic. Its a remix of the Chill theme from Dr Mario on the NES."

Things intro with in-game FX over a deep bass, then the beat drops and builds, with filtered synth aplenty. It's the organ that saunters in at 0'45" that makes the mix, with syncopation and funkily abbreviated attacks, riffin' all over the places like nobody's business. There's sync'd bass synth solo, some groovy string work, chromatic synth lead playfulness in the third minute, and a neat lil ending to boot. The variety of synth leads and the tradeoffs between them are classic and classy, but it's the rhythmically tight, spot-on groove that'll have you a-waltzing Matilda while your billy boils.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
This one had me tapping my toes and nodding my head from start to finish!

- MechaFone on December 12, 2010
Man, you just beat organs when they're done right and thrown into a funky little ReMix like this one. It's just one of those songs that brings a smile to my face.

- Crulex on July 9, 2010
It's fun, it's funky. It's lacking some complexity in it's design, but at the same time it maintains and preserves the spirit of it's oft-overlooked original. I dig it.

- meccaneer on August 4, 2009
This is so awesome. The organ is fantastic and I like the use of the game sound effects at the beginning. Really smooth, groovy, and fun!

- quoda on January 6, 2008
This is pure win. Organs are brilliant.

- Geoffrey Taucer on June 26, 2007
This is one of those MiXes that makes me say, "If you don't like it, then either one of your speakers is out or you have no taste."

- DJ Skratch 'n' Sniff on May 30, 2007
Definitely one of my favourites, can't get enough of this song!
I especially loved how the game's sound effects support the melody. Keep up the great work!
[b]Yhoko[/b]

- Yhoko on May 29, 2007
This OC ReMix has instantly become one of my favorites. Everytime I listen to it, I get this music video in my head. I picture all the Mario characters inside a church, having a good ol' time dancing to the music while the little scientist, Elvin Gadd plays the organ like crazy!:smile: I know, it's sort of weird but... wouldn't that be awsome for the song? Also, as an after thought, since it's the remix of the freezer theme from Dr. Mario, as the song progresses, the atmosphere inside the church gets colder and ice developes on the walls; and it also begins to snow. Cool... right?:???:

-Serenade

- Serenade on April 30, 2007
This reminds me all too well of that old game. Very well done.
If any remake of the game were to be done, I'd hope this remix would find it's way in. I'd enjoy such a classic game with new music, even if the graphics were the same. But that's what I think of almost all the songs here on OCR.

- GrrDraxin on April 30, 2007
Very creative, very cool. I like how it isn't too linear, stays interesting from start to finish.
Great work.

- Flare4War on February 21, 2007
Very good, upbeat mix which has a chip-tune-ish feel to it (considering the source, this is not very surprising). Like many posters already mentioned, the synths and the organ kick large amounts of rear.
My favourite parts are the ones starting at 2:18 and 3:08, where the insanity takes over with some solos. Great work.

- Martin Penwald on February 13, 2007
Mazedude digs. Mazedude's wife also digs.
Excellent blending of preserving both the original material and bringing in new improvised sweetness. Killer work with a classic theme that doesn't get enough attention.
- Mazedude

- Mazedude on February 3, 2007
This mix certainly got my attention... and the synths running around doing their thang every 2 seconds kept it :). Very tight performance. The mad skat of the synths certainly do match the franticness that the game exhibits. Keep it up!

- xtp183 on February 1, 2007
This mix makes me want to go bulldoze something-probably because the organ makes it seem so Blast Corpsian (anyone else get that feeling?). This is one of the best mixes I've heard in quite some time. Nice use of the "game over" music at the end. I'd like to hear an extended version of this sometime.

- yoshi1001 on January 31, 2007
Thanks for the great reviews guys.
As far as samples go, the b3 sample set came from the awesome (and free) electromechanical refill from www.propellerhead.se, which i think sounds great. The refill includes a whole bunch of multilayered sample sets of classic electric pianos and organs (b3, whirley, rhodes). The other samples i used were some recordings of the original Doctor Mario sfx from my NES, which i was stunned to find it still actually worked, and that "is there a doctor in the house?" thing, which was me! :P i recorded and vocoded myself using reason's vocoder.
Everything else was synthesized using reason's synths, malstrom and subtractor.. (mostly subtractor, <3 subtractor). I program all of my synth sounds from scratch and its a major part of what inspires me musically. Using samples and loops doesnt really give me that same satisfaction, So i pretty much stick to single hit percussive samples, multilayered musical instruments and anything i record live.
And as for things rotting on my hd, i'm shocking like that. I have a 'my shit' folder with years worth of half finished ideas, 10 minute mess abouts and absolute rubbish i produce just for a laugh including songs about canned pears and midgets.
Thanks again for the comments everyone :)
Ashley

- djredlight on January 31, 2007