ReMix: Donkey Kong Country 'Welcome Home, DK'
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- Game: Donkey Kong Country (Nintendo, 1994, SNES)
- ReMixer(s): Blue Magic
- Composer(s): David Wise, Eveline Novakovic, Robin Beanland
- Song(s): 'Fear Factory'
- Posted: 2010-04-06, evaluated by the judges
Before DKC2 there was, quite intuitively, the original Donkey Kong Country. With all the sequel love lately, it's time to remember the game that started it all. Before I go further, I'll mention Jimmy's announcement that "April is Support OCR month" has officially started - there's no goal this year, but if you love OCR as much as I do (which is a lot, since I run it and stuff), we appreciate any & all forms of support! Serious Monkey Business is just the beginning of what we've got in store for you in 2010, and your contributions make what we do possible. We haven't seen Blue Magic in these parts since 2008, since like me he was AWOL in terms of posted mixes in 2009. Well, it's time to fix all that - Damon writes:
"I don't really have too much to say about this mix, but it was really fun to make and I hope you all have fun listening to it."
That sentence almost seems like the equivalent of writing "have a great summer!!" in someone's year book, but thankfully the mix is a bit more interesting, and longer too. It's a fairly mellow, pop/electronica instrumental of the excellent 'Fear Factory' theme, with some hip-hop elements & some ethnic elements, i.e. difficult to pin down. You've got what sounds like a thumb piano paired up with a pan flute-esque wind lead & cello, backed by mixed ethnic percussion, then a more modern R&B drum kit comes along with ensemble strings and, later, a synth lead. It's a good, evolving blend of instrumentation that keeps the arrangement moving along. Judges may have been a bit harsher than I would have been, personally, although the comment about the mix lacking a solid bass part is certainly spot-on... Vinnie writes:
"I'm pretty ambivalent here. I love the textures and the set of instruments, very well chosen and blended. The first minute was too directionless, very little build-up or much happening. Eventually a pan flute came in and from there, it started to go somewhere, though it only really took off at 1:40, when the bass regions that Shariq noted as missing were filled by pads and kick."
When you so conspicuously leave out a bass part on a mix like this, you're definitely running some risks. I love iconoclastic arrangement decisions and I love experimenting and non-conformity, but I also think there are often reasons why traditional song structures and instrumentation tend to work well, and I ultimately think a good bass part here would have improved the mix. I don't mind the quantized feel that some judges took issue with, but I'll have to agree that things feel rather empty at times given the lack of lowend representation; it's not a ghost town, it's just that with the good timbral variety elsewhere, there's a wide swath of the frequency spectrum that does seem a little uninhabited. How much that bothers you will likely depend on how tolerant your ears & expectations are, but Damon's done a great job with everything else, and provided us with a unique take on a classic DKC theme, so there's a lot to love. Hopefully we'll be seeing some more Blue Magic in 2010!
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the - Crulex on December 29, 2010
- Mtlbro on May 2, 2010
Still, I enjoyed the remix overall.
- Martin Penwald on April 24, 2010
Arrangement's a devilish curveball. Here's a rough remix-source breakdown:
- The Jack-in-the-box synth and the piano+bell+guitar trio at 1:41 represent the fluffy, lonesome lead at 0:58 of Fear Factory (FF).
- The chimes (0:33, 1:24) play the role of FF's rising, rubbery lead at 0:43.
- The woodwinds at 1:08 and the stick-like percussion are a nod to the furtive 4-note echoes from the early stages (0:03/0:04) of FF.
Because the mix's order and structure are far removed from that of Fear Factory, it almost sounds like it's repeating key phrases in the hopes that the listener will stop and say "oh, now I recognize what that part is!" Many instruments add a little spin to their assigned roles, but it's the suave electronica synth at 2:30 that offers the most source-defying originality while giving the others a leader to look up to.
Looks like DK has nothing to fear from THIS factory. :nicework:
- Polo on April 11, 2010
- CC Ricers on April 11, 2010
- loomcore on April 7, 2010
- ChaosPlayer on April 7, 2010
- duskvstweak on April 7, 2010
OA;664044 wrote: I am not familiar with the original.
:-)
Boooooooooooooooooooooo.
(We have fired OA from the panel.)
- Liontamer on April 7, 2010
- OA on April 7, 2010
- Liontamer on April 7, 2010
