ReMix: Castlevania 'Vampire Spanker'

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Castlevania

I've heard of spanking monkeys before, but... vampires? To each their own. This was actually supposed to be posted as OCR01605, before XMark's mix, but the file was severely truncated. Funny thing is, the judges seemed to have passed the truncated version conditionally, so even without the extra bits, newcomers Danneman and Silverknekt (Daniel Öman and Emil Englund) had some nice stuff on their hands. Truth be told, I was a little weary that there was enough substantive arrangement before hearing the full version, which includes more interpretive passages towards the conclusion. Essentially, while you've heard Castlevania on guitars many times before, they were probably electric, whereas this arrangement takes an unplugged approach. The ReMixers write:

"Name of the original tune is Vampire Killer, from Castlevania of course. We're calling our remix Vampire Spanker 'cause (insert some deep and meaningful reasons), but really for lack of imagination and low humour. It's purely an acoustical version (except for the bass though which is an electric bass) of the classic tune with some extra stuff thrown in. Silverknekt on the nylon guitar and bass, and Danneman on the steel guitar. We like it and hope you do as well. Enjoy!"

"Nylon and Steel" actually would have made a half-decent mix title, imo, but the appeal of low humor is undeniable. BGC writes:

"Yeah, my first impulse was "hmm, crud. Gonna be a cover..." Not so! This is really awesome to listen to! Very enjoyable! I'm an acoustic guitar man, and you've put this one together very nicely."

While Larry waxed philosophical on his judging ideology:

"Short and sweet. The duel guitars are performed well and mixed well. For my personal view towards judging, live performance arrangements always get more "leniency" on interpretation in lieu of personalization and the need to actually learn the parts in order to perform them. A live performance arrangement has more room to border on the cover side, but the style needs to be different, there have to be meaningful modifications in the structure, and original part writing and melodic phrases help any submission seal the deal. This has all of that in spades. Nice work, bros; I hope we hear more from you."

As I said before, without the ending I personally would have been on the fence, but the soloing and bluesier melodic touches towards the end help solidify the arrangement factor, in addition to the overall instrumentation/performance factors. Recording isn't absolutely crystal clear - there's some hiss here and there, perhaps artifacting as the result of running some noise reduction algorithms - but it's definitely good enough to not get in the way of Daniel and Emil's playing, which is superb. Good stuff; it's the type of music the Esteban infomercials make you THINK you'll be able to play after three easy installments of $29.95 and a couple weeks of practice, but which in reality is sadly more difficult and requires talent, patience, and creativity, all of which Danneman and Silverknekt possess.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
Now I just wanna play the dang game.
Thanks for the mix!

- duskvstweak on September 5, 2009
Ugh. I was listening to this again today at work.
So good.
Dx

- DarkeSword on April 3, 2009
Via the title, I was expecting something more tongue in cheek, but what's here is good, too. :-)
It's not to flashy or extravagant, nor does anything particularly sticks out to me, but I do like it.
It's uncomplicated and has a vague Spanish flair going on.
If you're an acoustic guitar enthusiast, check this out. Even if you're not, it's still worth checking out. :<

- 42 on March 20, 2009
The title is somewhat deceptive here, as I was expecting something a bit more upbeat and dancey, but I really like how this one turned out. I remember it being in the WIP thread and the artists expressing concern about it being a bit too similar to the original, Though it does start out very similar, there are some nice original flourishes and voicings, and the final 3rd of the track is pretty inspired expansion.
The recording hiss is a bit much and should have been toned down slightly, and the ending is a bit anticlimactic, but overall this is a pretty solid mix. I'd have liked it to be slightly longer, with maybe one more rendition of the head, possibly with some improv on top, but i'll take it as is, easily.

- OA on April 10, 2008
I really like this remix. Really mellow and lovely. A lot of Castlevania remixes go the hard rock route, and who can blame them? What's more hard rock than killing undead creatures with a chain whip? But something like this has to come along and give us a "hero rides off into the sunset" look at Castlevania. Awesome.

- quoda on November 21, 2007
Nice one. This particular song has been remixed rather often, but this version takes a new approach, and does so pretty well. I really like it.
Btw, I also like the name of the remixers. Kinda reminds me of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern.

- Martin Penwald on August 29, 2007
I love this ReMix. So beautiful. Excellent work, guys. :)

- SwordBreaker on August 18, 2007
Excellent; well balanced and beautiful; a deceptively simple new take on an old standard.

- Shael Riley on August 17, 2007
Very impressive quality guitar work. Definitely near the top of all accoustic vg cover work I've heard to date. Excellent effort. It paid off.

- Less Ashamed Of Self on August 13, 2007
Wow. This is absolutely scrumtrelescent. It's powerful and heavy in that it has a somewhat slow tempo, but each note hits really hard because of how real the recording is. It doesn't have that warm and fuzzy quality that digital music gives off. Most inspiring.

- Jazzmaster on August 13, 2007
A lovely piece of work. Nice job guys.

- DarkeSword on August 12, 2007
Good going. I always enjoy hearing a nice VGRemix on Acoustic, it's great!! More emotion goes into something played on an acoustic.

- EvilBassM on August 12, 2007
Theres nothing I can say about the quality that hasn't been said already.
Though one thing actually struck me as particularly impressive. The song loops so seamlessly I didn't know it had ended till the third playthrough when I had paid attention to Winamp.

- Dark Vagabond on August 12, 2007
I hit up a YouTube video of the song in question, and while it does have some similarities, I'd hardly say it's the exact same thing; the ending of the remix is just a natural extension of the rest of the song. I believe this is just another case of some listener finding something in a song that isn't there; like how they find Ice Cap Zone in like every single one of my goddamn remixes.
Jerks.
If someone wants to check an actual MP3 of something off the E.P. go right ahead, but I don't think you're going to find anything.

- DarkeSword on August 12, 2007
B-E-A-utiful!!!

- tweek on August 12, 2007

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