Posted 2012-12-03, evaluated by djpretzel


Ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls, silverbacks, bonobos, chimps, monkeys, & orangutans, we're proud to announce the release of OCR's 36th arrangement album, clocking in at five discs & 77-tracks of superb simian splendor, our biggest album yet & YOURS for the low, low price of FREE, it's Donkey Kong Country 3: Double the Trouble!

There've been some amazing trilogies in our times: Lord of the Rings, the original Star Wars films, Toy Story, Naked Gun, Back to the Future... but more recently, events have conspired to compromise the good name of the Platonic threesome and call into question our beloved affection for trifection confection. Pirates of the Carribean (okay there's a 4th, but still), the Star Wars prequels, and they even managed to UNTRILOGIZE Indiana Jones by making poor Harrison hobble around with a LaBeouf, chasing inexplicably douchey aliens. So a twinge of scepticism rightly electrifies the air with suspense - did Directors Wes McDonald (Emunator) & Cody Wedel follow up the brilliance of Kong in Concert & Serious Monkey Business with Jacksonian consistency, or did they pull a Verbinski or even (gasp) a Lucas? I think you aready know the answer...but let's hear from those responsible first - Director Emunator writes:

"The Donkey Kong Country series has always held a special place in my heart. Ever since I first picked up the controller at the age of 3, I found myself in love with everything about the games… the innovative level design, the gorgeous graphics, and especially the music. I would find myself pausing the game mid-level and listening to my favorite songs for hours on end. So, as you can imagine, when I first discovered OverClocked ReMix back in 2004, when Kong in Concert was first released, I was hooked.

Fast forward 6 years… as the release of Serious Monkey Business drew closer, I knew that a DKC3 album was inevitable, and I felt like I could make it happen. At the time, I was merely a lurker on the site, and had no musical talent of my own. Nevertheless, I had the vision and a limitless amount of free time at my disposal, so I took the plunge and started recruiting. After 3 years of tireless work, I couldn't be happier with that choice."

Co-Director Cody adds:

"I somehow stumbled upon the DKC3 project thread on the OC ReMix forums the night it was revealed. I read the intro post and saw that the album was tackling both the SNES *and* GBA soundtracks! I loved the SNES soundtrack, and DKC3 GBA was definitely my favorite game soundtrack ever, so you could only imagine how happy I was. Little did I know the album would have a predominant influence throughout the next 3 years of my life.

As co-director, I didn't directly talk to many of the remixers involved with the project. I instead focused mainly on the backend: that is, the tracklist, promotional media, and directional feedback. Wes would oftentimes integrate my feedback into his regarding the development of a particular track. In any case, I certainly got valuable insight on how the whole album process works, and seeing/helping the album come together over such a long length of time was simply a magical experience."

Mike Birch (Flexstyle) produced the album and collaborated w/ Wes a lot over some Fuddrucker's burgers (NOM) when the two discovered they lived relatively close-by:

"Wes was already a good six months into the project by the time we met, but the next couple years would see me take on another five songs on the project, plus two extra bonus songs, and also tackle the task of mastering and gapless-playback-ing the entire album. Not only that, but I ended up being one of the main quality control voices as well. Talk about a cool responsibility!"

A lot of work, but it really shows... Wes, Cody, Mike, and all the MANY artists who poured their hearts, souls, & bananas into this epic album should be VERY proud. We start things off with a SMOKY, SEXY LATIN JAZZ MEGA-COLLAB w/ DAVID WISE & ROBIN BEANLAND (can I get an "OMFG!"?) that also includes NINE REMIXERS!!!! Caps & repeated punctuation JUSTIFIED. This is David's baby and I'm gonna (wisely, one might say) let HIM do the talking:

"This turned out to be a HUGE mix by the time I eventually had put all the live parts in. It has taken far longer than I originally envisaged, mainly due to trying to find the time to squeeze in enough mixing sessions between writing music for upcoming projects. First of all, a BIG thank you to everyone who contributed so much to this track. Appreciated.

Having had a break from it now for several weeks, I'm listening back thinking how I'd change it if I were to mix it again today. At times, there are almost 50 live tracks running together, with many more contributing to the mix overall. When putting this mix together, I had been listening to a lot of Candy Dulfer, so this is where some of the inspiration comes from. Her drummer just has a great groove going on, so I analyzed this in Cubase, and applied the groove to my drum track. After that, it was a case of taking the "Jungle Jitter" melody, and adapting to suit.

I made a very basic track, and Wes asked several of the OC ReMix community to contribute. There are some very talented musicians and remixers who contribute, and it was great to hear the results as they came in. There was some incredible playing, and whilst I'd have ideally liked to use all of the parts, I had to choose the ones that best suited where I wanted to go. This mix could easily have gone on for a few more minutes.

So let me introduce the band:

  • We start with the incredibly talented Robin Beanland who played his flumpet for the "middle 80's section," of which I borrowed some of this also for the intro too. He also did the great flumpet ad-libs @ 2.30.
  • Level 99 (Stevo Bortz): Guitar @ 0.16 - The steel guitar gives the track a very Spanish/Latin feel from the off, and sets up a far more laid-back mix than I had originally anticipated. His rhythm work also works well for the other solo instruments to sit above. Stevo's tracks were some of the first to reach me, and I think this influenced the final outcome somewhat.
  • bustatunez (Wilbert Roget, II): Flute @ 0.51 - When I first heard this, my initial reaction was "WOW" – I wasn't expecting that! He also contributed the accordion here too – for something a little different. It just works.
  • JJT (Jon T.): Trumpet - The trumpet that interjects @ 1.10 is played by Jon. He also adds a brass line to the mix within the main brass section riff too.
  • The OC Players: Brass Section
    • prophetik (Bradley Burr): Alto Sax @ 1.29, multiple takes
    • prophetik: Tenor Sax @ 1.29, multiple takes
    • prophetik: Fake Baritone Sax
    • OA (Andrew Luers): Alto Sax Parts @ 1.29
    • Robin Beanland: Flumpet @ 1.29
  • Bradley's sax was just great. Take after take of usable "section material." Whilst Andrew had also contributed alto sax parts, Bradley was up for adding a few more layers. The combined effect makes for a very fluid sound. Bradley even played the baritone parts on his tenor sax, whilst I used the VariAudio in Cubase to make a very convincing fake part to fill out the lower part of the section. Obviously, Robin has extensive experience recording, not only providing the solo in the middle section of the piece, here providing take after take of great flumpet brass section material.
  • Harmony (Brandon Bush): Percussion - Brandon provided multiple percussion takes. Whilst I never made a feature of the percussion, you instantly notice it's no longer there when muting it in the mix. It really adds something to the groove, whilst not taking over at the same time.
  • And not forgetting the bass: Daniel Rosenqvist (the bassist from the band Monkey Kong) puts in a very solid performance.
  • Also @ 2.20 is zykO (Waleed Hawatky) playing guitar. Waleed sent through an absolutely rocking track, which to be fair, warranted a separate remix on it's own. Great tone, great style, cool phrasing. tight timing – fantastic attitude – but there were too many overtones coming from his set-up. Sadly, for me, the sound just wouldn't fit with the rest of the track. Apologies. It would have required a whole different approach. However, the guitar takes I did use from Waleed really add punch to the track.
  • 80's Section
    • For some random reason, I decided to have an 80's inspired section in the middle. Robin kindly lent his flumpet talents here for the main solo, a very laid back and subtle treatment, which builds strongly before heading back to the main theme.
    • prophetik: Sax Solo @ 4.36 - This just falls nicely into place, as though it had somehow always belonged there, long before he'd ever even recorded his solo.
  • Diggi Dis (Frank van 't Ende): Piano @ 4.58 - And to finish with, a great piano solo to round off the mix."

Ginormous quote is ginormous, but seriously, how cool to have Mr. Wise himself incorporate the contributed efforts of so many artists from the community into so coherent and svelte an arrangement? And with Robin Beanland chipping in? The comments Wise provides really show how involved he was in making this concept work - assimilating that much recorded material from so many diverse sources and mixing it into something cogent is a minor miracle, but this mix not only works, it sounds fantastic. Will, Daniel, Frank, Brandon, Jon, Stevo, Andrew, Brad, Waleed - y'all collaborated with David Wise & Robin Beanland!! Just let that sink in for a bit - I know I for one am jealous.

There's much more to be said, heard, and posted, but for now head on over to http://dkc3.ocremix.org or just grab the full torrent and start enjoying! As always, any word-of-mouth, from likes to tweets to full-on blog posts/reviews are appreciated!

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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Black_Doom
on 2015-02-15 03:21:12

This was the first mix I had heard from this album. Even now it blows my mind whenever I listen to it. It's so energetic, so juicy, so sunny, so upbeat! I love vivid brass, and this mix satisfies my love 3 So awesome.

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TillyFun
on 2014-01-26 15:10:12

O_O

Wow! :D

Just... wow ^__^

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Liontamer
on 2013-08-05 11:28:43
Eleven artists on one song!? *Pulls lever* Jesus!

Botchamania reference! :lol:

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RiverSound
on 2013-02-22 16:29:59

We need to have more of this sht!! If Black Wing Metamorphosis was the Expendables of remixes, this is the Expendables 2 of remixes!!!

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Transmogrificational Tune
on 2012-12-09 17:44:54

Yay for collaborations! All I can say is More Please.

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WillRock
on 2012-12-08 19:50:40

Its not every day you see a song of this calibre on OCRemix. 11 artists, DAVID WISE, and yeah... this is epic epic shit. Great performances from everyone, fantastic arrangement, great production, great everything basically. Download it. Not that you didn't already ;)

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Crulex
on 2012-12-05 11:20:19

Eleven artists on one song!? *Pulls lever* Jesus! I'm not sure, but this may be the most star-studded ReMix on OCR, both in sheer number of ReMixers and how they are all basically OCR mainers. As for the ReMix itself, holy shit what a way to start off the DKC 3 flood. Everything sounds amazing and melted together cohesively, which must have been tough. The Sax, trumpet, Spanish guitar work, the 80's sounding section, everything, I just love it! I think the only way I can sum this all up is that my mind is blown. Excellent work everyone!

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Drakken
on 2012-12-04 14:18:01

Wow... that was sick. Seriously, props to everyone who worked on this. All the live elements were blended seamlessly to create a great-sounding mix. So awesome David Robin helped put this together as well.

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avaris
on 2012-12-03 19:40:31

Holy poop this sounds awesome...and cohesive! :)

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DaMonz
on 2012-12-03 19:26:00

This is probably one of the best things that ever happened to OC ReMix yet! :-D Amazing!

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Damashii!!
on 2012-12-03 18:21:38

It's going to probably take me a few months to recollect my thoughts and post a full (or at least, lengthier) response/review, but I'm just stopping by to commend you all for kickin butt with this. Hard.

It was well worth the wait (not like I'm surprised, I knew the entire album would be boss), but you all killed it with this track.

also, dat write up.

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Kuolema
on 2012-12-03 16:29:26

Wow. Hard to believe how well this was pulled off!

11 artists!! What!?

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Argle
on 2012-12-03 16:09:21

:shock:

:shock:

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Mazedude
on 2012-12-03 16:08:23

Hot damn this is awesome. Chill inducing. And LONG, without feeling like it ever drags. To David, and everyone else involved, I send you a virtual high five. This mix rocks, and I can totally respect the insane amount of work that clearly went into making it so epic.

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Emunator
on 2012-12-03 15:18:20

Just want to point out that, since it wasn't mentioned in the writeup, that this track features more credited artists than any ReMix to date. Pretty incredible that Dave Wise of all people was willing to be the one to raise that bar. It really was a pleasure working with everybody involved here.

Absolutely incredible remix, here were my director comments that ended up not being used in the writeup:

When I contacted David and asked him to reprise his role as a remixer on this album, I had no idea just how much coordination would be necessary, or just how legendary the end result would turn out. After Skyping with David a few times and discussing his track, we tossed around the idea of having members of the OC ReMix community contribute their instrumental talents to the remix. By the time the arrangement was wrapped up, 10 performers who had participated in this album or past DKC remix albums left their mark on the remix. The end result is pretty liberal, even by OCR's standards, but it stands as one of the most purely enjoyable remixes I've ever heard.

This whole experience has been monumental. When I first started the album, I never thought that I would have the chance to even speak to my all-time favorite composer, let alone be personally involved in the development process for one of his mixes. As the video game music arrangement scene grows, it excites me to see more and more instances of fans being able to connect with their favorite composers, and glad that I could help facilitate that in some small way!

Sources Arranged (2 Songs, 2 Games)


Primary Game:
Donkey Kong Country 3 (Nintendo , 2005, GBA)
Music by David Wise
Songs:
"Jungle Jitter"
Additional Game:
Donkey Kong Country (Nintendo , 1994, SNES)
Music by David Wise,Eveline Novakovic,Robin Beanland
Songs:
"Aquatic Ambiance"

Tags (10)


Genre:
Jazz
Mood:
Funky
Instrumentation:
Acoustic Guitar,Brass,Electric Guitar,Piano,Saxophone,Synth
Additional:
Origin > Collaboration
Production > Live Recording

File Information


Name:
Donkey_Kong_Country_3_Spanish_Jitters_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
10,167,865 bytes
MD5:
d733b63be5195bc0defed1425f83e510
Bitrate:
235Kbps
Duration:
5:42

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