ReMix: Donkey Kong Country 'A Hint of Blue'
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- Game: Donkey Kong Country (Nintendo, 1994, SNES)
- ReMixer(s): Gibs, Mordi
- Composer(s): David Wise, Eveline Novakovic, Robin Beanland
- Song(s): 'Aquatic Ambiance'
- Posted: 2012-08-31, evaluated by djpretzel
The label "instant classic" is sometimes tossed around carelessly, without full consideration of all the myriad criteria that can & should be considered when making such a claim. For me, this 'Aquatic Ambience' ReMix from newcomer Martin Lande (Mordi), with a sweet electric guitar assist from Michael Gibs, qualifies. From the silky-smooth Blade Runner brass leads to the brief vocal attack FX and subtle, swimming pads, every aspect of the texture here is perfect. What starts off as a pretty conservative arrangement grows wings and incorporates original melodic and harmonic elements that work perfectly; definitely one of the strongest OCR debuts I've had the pleasure of listening to, and something I'm going to come back to often.
So yeah, in case you couldn't be bothered to read all that: CHILL. Very, very chill. Mordi writes:
"I have been wanting to submit a track to OC for quite some time, having been rejected for a submission a few years ago (rightfully so, I guess - it was terrible). I've made many C64 and Amiga-related remixes in the past, but those that are from games just happen to be longer than the 8-minute limit. Hopefully this SNES-remix will be accepted and posted. French guitarist (and remixer) 'gibs' provided with guitar, which is the highlight of this track in my opinion. The rest was handled by myself."
If you're reading this, Martin, you should know that we changed our standards to allow longer mixes & higher-quality encodings, a decision made in February of this year that I think has turned out really well. We also LOVE getting C64 & Amiga stuff, for what it's worth - even though there are dedicated sites/communities focused specifically on those platforms, our doors are always open to amazing VGM arrangements from any platform. If you've been wanting to submit for some time, all I can say is that you waited for the RIGHT time - and the right track - to do so. This is definitely a source that's been covered brilliantly by other notable artists, such that no one mix to me can be definitive simply because there've been so many excellent & worthy visions. Having said that, to me this mix can stand among Jesse & Jordan & Dan & others with its head held high. The running, descending, cross-panned line that comes in at 1'36" is sexy as all hell, I like the pulse synth that gets exposed towards the end (reminded me of Yoko Kanno's 'Pulse' from the Macross Plus OST), and the general cohesion and blend of every last component is sublime - this mix feels completely natural to me, but also far from obvious. Memorable, classy, completely enveloping debut from Mordi, and Gibs' guitar adds a crucial, more organic & aggressive element. Highly recommended.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the ...Get it? xD
Fantastic, sounds like something I would do. :)
- timaeus222 on April 5, 2013
- GTAHater836 on September 6, 2012
Yeeah!:-D
One of my favorite tracks and very well done!
Love the mood at 1:40. From there is the differential.
Hope to listen more of your mixes soon!
- -Dan on September 4, 2012
- Emunator on September 3, 2012
- Mikeaudio on September 2, 2012
- pu_freak on September 2, 2012
- Krakozhia on September 1, 2012
- Dubanubiel on August 31, 2012
- Ian Schmidt on August 31, 2012
- Dafydd on August 31, 2012
