ReMix: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest 'Trapped in the Minds'
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- Game: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (Nintendo, 1995, SNES)
- ReMixer(s): Geoffrey Taucer, Hale-Bopp, José the Bronx Rican
- Composer(s): David Wise
- Song(s): 'Kannon's Klaim (Mining Melancholy)'
- Posted: 2010-03-16, evaluated by djpretzel
- Album: Featured on Donkey Kong Country 2: Serious Monkey Business
Taucer, Bronx Rican, AND Hale-Bopp collab? Sign me up!
Due to the number of (imo excellent) vocal mixes on Serious Monkey Business, there's been the usual, predictable cross-section of listeners who just can't get into any game mixes with singing, rapping, etc. in them. This one happens to have both, so I guess it's a double-whammy. I can't really relate to dismissing anything with vocals, nor do I fully understand it, but I can certainly respect individual preferences. It's also interesting to note that instrumentals are by far the norm on OCR, which is a huge inversion of the ratio in mainstream music. Also, vocals are honestly just damn hard to execute - lyrics are tricky, singing is hard (for me at least), and recording and mixing vocals is a challenging art form unto itself. This perfect storm of obstacles to immaculate vocal mixes also makes it an uphill battle even attempting them, so it's all the more frustrating as an artist when you "go there" and get ignored by some listeners, no matter how good a job you do. However, that's how the world works, and while we try to evangelize open-mindedness and diversity, expecting a full conversion to such faiths by all would be naive.
Sermon concluded; on to the music! Jeremy of course is co-director and creator of the album, so along with Wes he gets the overall credit for getting this whole baby going and seeing it through to the end. He was also the main force behind this mix, but he definitely had help - the breakdown for who-did-what is as follows:
- Geoffrey Taucer - Direction, guitars (recorded live, mixed seperately)
- Bronx Rican - Programming (including bass), lyrics, rap vocals, additional mixing & mastering
- Hale-Bopp - Chorus arrangement, recording, performance & mixing
Providing some background on the origins of the arrangement, Taucer writes:
"I've wanted to remix this track since before I knew what remixing was. The original is utterly captivating. It was minimalistic but still absolutely beautiful. I've thrown around a number of ideas for this track over the years, but the main thing that remained constant was I wanted the chorus to rock the hell out on guitars. At some point I had the idea of doing a Linkin Park-style mix of it, and that's what I ultimately ended up going with."
Mission accomplished! Bronx Rican adds:
"My ideas in addition to Jeremy's concept for this tune, in keeping with always trying to give the listener hollabacks to the source track, included the "junk" percussion for a semi-authentic impression of mine work, as well as the pizzicato sounds and, of course, verses dripping with primate references. Thanks to Jeremy for the additional set of ears during the whole process."
Love the rhymes - snakebit / take it / face hit / ape shit? Hell yeah. Co-director Wes adds that, relative to the preview version first played at DoD/M7 in 2009:
"...re-recorded guitars, rapping, and the addition of Hale-Bopp's backing vocals really make this track much stronger and far more accessible. The title is aptly chosen, as there is talk about Diddy & Dixie going apeshit, with the song winding down into a spiral of craziness. In all, I feel the song does a great job with the source and takes it in an unexpected direction."
I really only have one salient critique, and that's the mixing of the rapping & vocals - it feels a bit monophonic to me. The rest of the instrumentation fills out the stereo spectrum, but I feel like both rapping and singing seem to sit dead center, making them feel pasted in at times. It's certainly not a showstopper, and as I mentioned, recording and mixing the human voice is wildly difficult, but it's worth mentioning. Now, check out the cool "mining percussion" they employed, the excellent counter-melodies, Bronx Rican's eloquent cadences, and the stick-in-your-head catchy vocal hooks. Also note the nice wah guitar and general variety of guitars and processing throughout. You're probably gonna wanna pump this one up a bit since it's mastered relatively low, but there's just a lot of raw melodic power in the those choral vocal hooks, and Bronx Rican's rapping serves as a dense, vocabulary-filled forest of rhymes between them.
This arrangement thinks big and aims high, and while I don't think the mixing & mastering is completely perfect, the overall package delivers on Jeremy's vision and really takes the source from an instrumental to a fully-realized, multifaceted, dynamic rock/pop song that brings the talents of everyone involved to the table and serves up a very satisfying meal.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the The rapping style takes a little getting used to, but once I locked in on the flow, I realised just how well crafted the verses are. "I'm a bad boy like Diddy", haha, that wasn't a line I expected and it was pretty neat! I would have liked the rapping brought out a little more to make it easier to listen to but it ain't a major complaint.
The chorus is my favourite part of the song, and props to Hale-Bopp for the singing. His voice hooks you in from the moment you hear him. Besides the Rap-Rock elements that brings Linkin Park to mind, I truly believe the singing here is what really sells me the LP feel.
Maybe I was predisposed to liking this track the moment I read it's in the vein of LP, but kudos to Geoffrey Taucer for an awesome arrangement! The percussive intro is very cool (and I'd like to try something similar one day) and transitions well into the main body of the song. There's small things within each verse to keep you interested as the track progresses, which is really cool! I do wish the track was a touch louder for it feels as though there's a great deal of energy being held back that could have been released.
Like I said, I'm not too familiar with the source so I can't comment on many of the arrangement aspects, but because of this track, I'm gonna check out the rest of the DKC 2 album and the source material!!
I guess the best way to end this review is by saying, I love this bloody song! Great work!!
- Wina A. Kamlongera on October 20, 2010
May the Force be with you.
- Sarad_Thamia on August 18, 2010
- A-RoN on August 12, 2010
May the Force be with you8-)
- Sarad_Thamia on August 11, 2010
Seems like we need a "vocal remix alliance" support group (;
Agreed. lol.
I like it. Not a big fan of rap - okay, the only rap I ever choose to listen to is either by Weird Al or from OCR - but nonetheless, this song is awesome.
That being said, compared to Hale-bopp's vocals on "Summertime," this is not exactly his best.
That being said: moar vocal remixes!
- DragnBreth on August 9, 2010
Having said that, any chance of an instrumental? Not even an instrumental, the rap is fine... just... without the chorus vocals?
I'm trying to think of a respectful way to phrase "I hate the way your voice sounds" and it's not coming to me, but I don't want to be unkind :\
- hmp22 on July 13, 2010
- Mtlbro on May 2, 2010
If this version of this song was actually in the game, I'd return the game.
- animatedjay on April 27, 2010
- duskvstweak on April 19, 2010
8bitinsect;665500 wrote: Please keep your filthy hands off of classic video game music. Wow, thanks for ruining my favorite song in the game, I could have gone my whole life without hearing rap lyrics over the crappiest beat I have ever heard. The chorus sounds like you are trying to make yourself sound gay. It doesn't sound remotely like the original track. Save crap like this for the mainstream.
Thanks for your opinion.
- Geoffrey Taucer on April 18, 2010
8bitinsect;665500 wrote: Please keep your filthy hands off of classic video game music. Wow, thanks for ruining my favorite song in the game, I could have gone my whole life without hearing rap lyrics over the crappiest beat I have ever heard. The chorus sounds like you are trying to make yourself sound gay. It doesn't sound remotely like the original track. Save crap like this for the mainstream.
You know, I think we try to be as fair as possible to respective opinions on stuff around here. I don't believe we fall into that stigma of the "circle jerk" that some people associate with what we do. But if there ever is a time where we might come off as such, it's in response to comments like this. I don't mind people not liking songs, but I do mind when people assert that we shouldn't do something we enjoy doing that you aren't being forced to listen to or pay for.
You could have said "This isn't my cup of tea. In terms of music, this DKC2 rap doesn't appeal to me." Saying you don't like something because of personal preferences or song quality is fine. Telling someone to keep their filthy hands off, however, is not.
Thanks for the feedback! Glad the song is ruined for you. :nicework:
- Level 99 on April 12, 2010
8bitinsect;665500 wrote: Please keep your filthy hands off of classic video game music. Wow, thanks for ruining my favorite song in the game, I could have gone my whole life without hearing rap lyrics over the crappiest beat I have ever heard. The chorus sounds like you are trying to make yourself sound gay. It doesn't sound remotely like the original track. Save crap like this for the mainstream.
Please keep your filthy mouth off of video game music remix review threads. Wow, thanks for ruining a good review thread on the site, I could have gone my whole life without reading crap comments in the crappiest block of text I have ever seen. The vocabulary sounds like you are trying to make yourself sound mainstream. It doesn't sound remotely like an original opinion. Save crap like that for the mainstream.
- Rozovian on April 12, 2010
Why the hell are you on a video game remix forum when you hate remixes? GTFO. You don't be disrespecting people like that.
- Irish on April 12, 2010
