ReMix:Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! "Cliffside Clamber" 5:57

SLEDGEHAMMER SHAKUHACHI! I wasn't really sure what to make of this arrangement from newcomer Ergosonic, aka Gilbert Orrantia, as it oscillates between straight world music, Latin jazz, and rock. It's kinda crazy, but after a few listens I'm really digging all the little touches, especially the fluent acoustic & electric guitars and the varied, detailed percussion. The artist writes:

"OK, so Wes recruited me to do this song, and I had never played DKC3 before, so I made him hang out with me and I finally got to play it! He wanted me to stylistically stay close to the source, and honestly, I think that's the best way I could have gone about doing this. I basically took the song and based my mix on how I felt a "modern" reinterpretation of the song might be, with my little spin on it, of course. I also have been listening to a lot of Latin music, hence it influencing my track. :)

The instrumentation is certainly multi-culti, and the arrangement makes it all work; excellent guitar performances certainly don't hurt, neither. Wes writes:

""Rockface Rumble" is the one track on the SNES soundtrack that everybody seemed to want to tackle when this project launched. Initially, the track was supposed to be a powerhouse collab between McVaffe and Sixto that, unfortunately, never panned out. I stumbled upon Dwelling of Duels artist Ergosonic in my search for a replacement. After a few emails, I learned that him, zylance, and I all had gone to the same high school and still lived in the same city. Small world!

After meeting up in person and playing DKC3 all the way through in one night, Ergosonic agreed to claim the track and seemed confident that he could meet the high expectations that had been set for the remix. It took a while, but he delivered in a BIG way. The remix shows a great deal of respect for the original composition and for the DKC series in general (the DKC1 cameo section in this mix is unreal!) while still demonstrating the artist's amazing instrumental talent with some extended solo sections and original writing. Of all the remixes on the album, I feel like this one does the best job of capturing the adventurous spirit found within the DKC trilogy, and would feel right at home in Donkey Kong Country Returns."

Wes may have been feeling this one a tad bit more than I, but it's definitely some excellent stuff - Gilbert's sense of rhythm & timing is amazing, with flute lines flying over syncopated chromatic percussion, segueing right into tom fills and a triumphant rock motif before pivoting to acoustic-guitar led Latin flava, with call-and-answer electric guitar stage left. It's deft transitioning that shouldn't really work, when it comes down to it, but somehow does... crazy, like I said. Impressive debut from Ergosonic that has a bit of everything, features some especially detailed percussive work, and shows off some amazing skills while having fun at the same time!