ReMix: Donkey Kong Country 'Dolphin Ride'

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Donkey Kong Country

Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to announce that thanks to the hard work of José the Bronx Rican (who created our official YouTube video and uploaded most of the tracks) and Larry Oji (who coordinated the whole thing and uploaded some himself), we now have streaming previews available for every mix on the site.

Just click "Play Preview" right underneath the "Download MP3" for some instant gratification! Paper towels!

Yes, it requires Flash, and if your workplace blocks YouTube, it gonna be broken, but other than that, you're good to go. We won't always have a preview available yet for the very latest-and-greatest, just-posted mixes, but we'll eventually catch up. In the meantime, get crackin' - I personally had a blast coding and implementing this feature on the site, as I kept getting "delayed" listening to fantastic tracks I hadn't heard in months. This was a METRIC TON of work; I gotta throw some mad props and platonic man-love to Oji and Felix for realizing this dream. Some of you may recall that we used to have previews via Last.fm, until they disabled their embedded track player without warning anyone and then pretended like it never existed, which was rather uncool. It's good to have this functionality back, and hopefully it'll encourage all of you to check out (and comment on) more tracks!

In other news, shirts & hoodies are back in stock at eStarland! Furthermore, up until 9/30, you can purchase 2 preowned games at eStarland and receive another preowned game free! Be sure to use the promo code "AUTUMN"!

So yeah, those are our two big announcements, but we've also got some great new music for you, as always. "Monkey Kong" are a group out of Sweden that... well, they rock. Check out their MySpace for more; this DKC arrangement took me by surprise and offers a fresh approach to oft-mixed Dave Wise classic 'Aquatic Ambience' - bassist and bandleader Daniel Rosenqvist writes:

"When Monkey Kong first was formed, we kinda just ripped the songs off as they were, but I felt that just playing covers straight from the game wouldnt be so much fun or much of a challenge. So I was really nagging the others in the band about us doing more rearrangements and spending more time with each tune. We found our inspiration when we found the Dolphin pad you hear in the intro. We turned off the lights and jammed the whole form of the track in complete darkness! (except for the lights from the keyboards)

I was really happy when the track was done, (I think it was in September 2008) because it was our frist "rearranged" track and I just felt proud of the whole band. ^^ We named the track beacause of the flow of the song. I've felt we have learned a lot and we are always improving and learning new things. The track was recorded in November 2008 and mixed in February 2009."

Nothing wrong with playin' some straight-up covers, but I'm glad MK went more interpretive with this track, as the end result is pretty awesome. Judges had a bunch to say, with some production crits (esp. w/ regards to EQ), but it was mixed in with more props than otherwise, ala this comment from OA:

"After a nice and interpretive intro, it got overly locked into the source, but just when i thought it was straight up cover time, it started to deviate a bit near the end into your own. Once it gets heavy I was really feeling it, but the rhythm guitar sound is taking up a lot of the same room as the lead, making it a little harder to hear. Nice lead guitar harmonies in here, and holding out some of the notes really played with expectations. Classy stuff, and good soloing as well..."

The switch to the full-on heavy section was pretty classic, and caught me by surprise; good stuff. Monkey Kong have performed at VGL, Play!, and DreamHack (check out some Halo) in Sweden, which is clearly a pretty rockin' country to live in. Check out our YT previews, check out our shirts & hoodies, check out this DKC mix, then check out the rest of MK's stuff. It sounds like a lot of effort on your part, with all the checking out, but it'll be worth it, I promise.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
A good ReMix. Nice piano work towards the end.

- Pachi Risu on November 12, 2009
Beautiful
Another 'Aquatic Ambience' remix sucessful, and that saying a lot with that awesome track[URL="http://en.bab.la/dictionary/english-french/that%27s+saying+a+lot.html"][/URL]

- Trouble on November 11, 2009
awesome remix. perfectly captures the feeling of peace and serenity the game makers wanted to convey for the underwater levels. major props!

- Nateconq on November 6, 2009
3:18ish, there's this.. really weird sound... followed by a segment with long-running notes on some kind of organ. Something about these two almost incidental sounds really completes the ensemble.
I often feel it's the small things like that which turn a song from good to great (examples that come to mind is the "dong" at 1:41 in McVaffe's Tempest Mix, or the guitar at 0:59 in Diggi Dis's Who Stole My Stars, or the rapidly rising strings at 1:25 in about:blank's Acrophobia)

- Nobbynob Littlun on October 23, 2009
Very amazing work guys. I always love to have mixes that are relaxing and calm.
Great work!

- yosefu on October 21, 2009
The intro is very interesting to listen to if you're using headphones, but if the song is just playing in the background, it seems to be a tad too long.
The guitar in the climax is quite nice, but what really made that part of the song for me is the organ. It sounds absolutely awesome and adds a certain prog-rock flavour to the mix.

- Martin Penwald on October 13, 2009
fun to hear years after years new remixer target this excellent song of Donkey Kong country... as i also try in 2004.
Great Work ;)

- cyb0rgjeff on September 29, 2009
Okay, I've been a OCRemix fan for a long time, I just never registered to get in with the community. I decided to change that after hearing this track.
I agree with everyone that this is an AMAZING track. The guitar work is definitely blows me away. I only have one complaint with the whole song: I believe the bass drum line on the back end is overpowering. The constant beat tends to draw attention more than the guitars, which should have complete focus in my opinion.
Otherwise, this is an excellent revision to one of my favorite games' best tunes. Keep up the great work, Monkey!

- AgntOrange on September 28, 2009
AMAZING!! This mix is a great take on the original theme. I think it captures the essence of the theme, but manages to to have it's own identity at the same time. I was loving whatever instrument you used in the beginning (and throughout the mix) it gave the mix a really awesome feeling to it.
Fantastic work guys!

- jintoreedwine on September 28, 2009
This is the life i want. This truly makes me so relaxed and calm.

- metalsnakejuice on September 28, 2009
Vigilante's "Beneath the Surface" set an extremely high bar for this classic tune in my opinion. It's one of my favorite remixes and certainty one of OCR's finest works. Nonetheless, you guys manage to reach that bar with this remix of yours. Some truly excellent work here. Love the mixture of styles despite being a rock-centric band. Electronic background noises sound extremely haunting and manages to capture the spirit of the original track quite well. The rhythm and lead guitars are played well and compliment each other nicely. Nice keyboard playing as well.
The overall progression of the track is also pretty cool. Very grunge rock in a sense that it starts off very moody and calm...the hits that climax mark at the third minute, which is epic!! Guitars around there are a bit drowned out, but I really appreciate the keyboards in that section. Love how the keyboards started out as classic piano, went all "organ" in the climax, then went back to classical toward the end.
Keep it up, Monkey Kong. Keeping an eye on your work. :)

- SwordBreaker on September 27, 2009
Finally took the time to hear this track. Quite epic indeed. It was much more then I expected.

- JaDE ARaN HaRuNo on September 24, 2009
I was just listening, kind of chilling out to this song. I was thinking this was just another nice remix of the song, but then 3:23 hits and I was blown away. It was such a cool switch. The whole mix is amazing and such a cool take on a classic Donkey Kong song. I want to hear more of these guys!
Thanks for the mix!

- duskvstweak on September 23, 2009
The note at 3:45 gives me chills every time.
This is a great track. :-)

- OA on September 23, 2009
Wooow this music is even worth closing your eyes while driving even though anything happens you'll still be dreaming :D

- Giga Bowser on September 23, 2009

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