ReMix: Kirby's Dream Land 2 'Puffball Promenade'

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Kirby's Dream Land 2

Belated bday wishes to DrumUltimA (TwentyOneUltimA! DrinkUltimA!!), several other folks, and OA, who gives us this alliteratively titled Kirby 2 ReMix, our second from the pink one's Dream Land sequel. Andrew writes:

"The original GB version is mixed really crappily, with the counterpoint cranked, and the melody buried. Even so, it's still one of the best songs from the Kirby series. :O"

It's true: he provided a link to a YouTube vid of the game's ending, where the tune is from, and the melody's pretty overpowered. Could be the emulator in question, but either way, it's a good source tune that no one's covered yet. Watching said video I also learned a lot of minor character names from the game: "Blipper," "Shotzo," "Rocky," "Flamer," and "Floaty the Drifter" are among my favorites, although they all do sound like thinly veiled homophobic slurs. But I digress; OA puts almost everyone to shame in terms of offering feedback through our reviews forum (come on people, get interactive!), and it's been cool to see his own work progress as well. His previous mix took us on a tea-and-biscuits journey into propriety and the company of Snapple's mom; this is similarly upbeat but more aggressive, with nice electric guit elements adding some edge & grit. Gameboy arrangements are always fun because the source tends to be more minimal than even older NES and C64 tracks, so there's usually a lot of room for interpretation and augmentation, both of which OA provides. This is easily his best drum work to date, with some awesome rolls and fills towards the end, nice changeups and syncopation throughout, and intelligent dynamics. The gated guitar and shreddier stuff juxtaposes against the softer, more intimate bits quite well, adding the occassional oasis of epic in a pool of pleasant instrumentalism.

All told, it's a big step forward for Andrew, whose previous mixes had strong arrangement ideas but production that wasn't as consistent at times. Shariq's probably the judge closest to all things Kirby, given that he also directed Rise of the Star, and I think he put it best:

"Wow man, huge improvement over your other stuff. I'm totally impressed here. Very cohesive, rockin' arrangement. The texture and blend of sounds perfectly captures the essence of Kirby; he's a plinky-piano cute creampuff, but he's also a axe-rockin' badass hero. Very nice."

Even after skimming through judge comments, after repeated listens this track really exceeded my expectations, and does the source material (especially if the YouTube emulation is accurate) all sorts of justice, capturing the Kirby vibe perfectly and taking OA's game to the next level.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 13 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
While I prefer tracks that stick to one or two things and doesn't mesh every genre together into the same track, this is a sweet combination that's hard to not like. Beautiful piano, great drums, nice soft synth backings, cool harder synths and guitar leads... Is that a flanger on an acoustic guitar in the bg?
The music has a sense of credits roll or ending theme to it, probably a combination of the major key and 6/4, tho the sound choices certainly add to it as well.

- Rozovian on December 14, 2009
Now this is just fun! That's OA for ya, though :-) I'm always impressed with how skillfully you can mix different types of guitars, piano and other orchestral elements, and synth together to form such a cohesive musical package. The acoustic guitar (I'm pretty sure that's what I'm hearing, anyway) sounded really fake, even though I'd venture a guess that it was performed live, since this is a DoD track. That's kind of weird, but it's such a minor element in the overall picture that it's hardly worth mentioning.

- Emunator on October 4, 2009
OK, now THIS is just about my favorite type of mix. Totally unexpected. I download a song called 'Puffball Promenade' and I expect an orchestral mix or something. Instead it sounds lots and LOTS like a Darangen mix, which is not a bad thing at all. Great mix of acoustic, electric, and EP all throughout the mix, and awesome development of the theme. It's fun, somewhat inspirational, and mostly just unpretentious kickass. One of my favorite mixes in quite some time. Great stuff!

- Shadow Wolf on November 3, 2008
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- OA on October 16, 2008
Very uplifting work. Nice mix, can hear everything clearly. My one gripe is that there's almost "too" much empty space. Otherwise I really enjoyed it.

- Sole Signal on September 9, 2008
Very nice mix. I like the sound of the piano in this one, and it suits with the rock theme. Great Job! :razz:

- VerSus22 on September 8, 2008
solid work OA!
you nail this light-hearted stuff so well.
I love the gated guitar stuff, and the piano stuff is the best with its catchy hooks. Its very well played and arranged in the tune.
I did wish I could hear those pizz strings a little more. There were some cool things going on there. I also thought you lose some excitement when you fade out those guitars so the piano can come in and I kinda figure your doing that for clarity's sake but still its a just a tad abrupt.
My ears tell me that the acoustic is really an electric with an effect. But its an interesting tone and works here for contrast.

- audio fidelity on September 6, 2008
Loved on DoD yet :)

- Dunther on September 6, 2008
Jaybell;448119 wrote: [URL="http://www.ocremix.org/forums/../remix/OCR01564/"]it ain't the first![/URL]
But it is nonetheless very very rockin'. Nicely done!

Good call, fixed the writeup. Sometimes I intentionally make mistakes like these to remind everyone that I'm human and to test reader attentiveness and what not :wink:

- djpretzel on September 5, 2008
[URL="http://www.ocremix.org/forums/../remix/OCR01564/"]it ain't the first![/URL]
But it is nonetheless very very rockin'. Nicely done!

- Jaybell on September 5, 2008
I've gotten to hear a lot of OA's WIP's lately, and I have to say I'm hearing a huge improvement since I first heard his Radical Dreamers works. Very nice piece that brings a nice melody along with some powerful guitar work. Production's pretty good, from what my amatuer ears can tell. Definately some nice work, and worth more than a few listens.

- DragonAvenger on September 5, 2008
Very nice rendition.
The mixture of fast and slow makes it a good song to play on Audiosurf. :P

- Barnsalot on September 5, 2008
What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

- djpretzel on September 5, 2008