ReMix:Donkey Kong Country 3 "Aquatic Transformations" 5:07

Donkey Chips™!! halc's crunchy chips blend with Stevo's creamy guits for the taste-flavor sensation that everybody's talkin' about!! If this mix were a children's breakfast cereal, I think the tagline would go SOMETHING like that. I'd buy some, too. This mellow, electro-acoustic collab from Double the Trouble! goes down easy with ambient pads, crispy & crushed percussion, undulating synths, and shimmering electric guitars. Drew was the primary arranger:

"I was never aware that the GBA version of DKC3 had a completely different soundtrack until Emunator linked me to some of the tracks. The Water World theme in particular (which is basically an arrangement of "Aquatic Ambiance" itself) caught my eye, as "AA" has always been one of my favorite DKC songs and one that I've wanted to remix. I took a very ambient-electronic approach to the arrangement and Emunator suggested that the lead might sound cool on guitar, to which I agreed. So he roped in Stevo, who whipped up some excellent guitar tracks (A+++ would collab again), and the whole thing just meshed. I took a lot of inspiration from Vig's "Beneath the Surface" and also Monkey Kong's "Dolphin Ride," hence the guitar parts, of course. ;) Another shout-out to Mattias's Ecco 2 mix as well. :3 I'm very proud of this mix, and I hope you all enjoy it!"

As well he should be; also, those are three mucho bueno mixes to draw inspiration from! Co-conspirator & fretted friend Mr. Bortz addz:

"Talk about a game of telephone: halc asked Emunator to find someone who might be able to give some guitar work for a chill, chippy take on the Water World theme. Emunator had heard of my stuff and sent me a message asking if I'd be willing to lend a hand. I ended up doing clean rhythms and a distorted lead for the melody line; a bit less high end than what I normally use, but it went well with the effects that halc put on them. Slow, drawn-out notes with lots of bends, I focused above all else on keeping the flow of the track with as precise of timing as I could muster. Really nice experience and I look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with halc again!"

Judges were unsurprisingly unanimous, given the superb blend of creative arrangement and crisp, deep production; Deia writes:

"halc is back with his traditional style, this time working with our friend Stevo for a pretty fun collab. You've taken the original and added a lot of ambiance to it, also slowed it down to get a nice effect. Guitars are really working well here, everything is incorporated together nicely, and the work between the two of you is pretty seamless."

Not much else to say; definitely one of the more chill, approachable tracks on Double the Trouble!, halc's signature sound benefits from the extra dimension that Stevo's guitars provide, and they pulled the whole thing off rather swimmingly. An excellent ReMix of a composer's rearrangement of his own source?!? A little meta, maybe, but magnificent, mellow, AND stays crispy in milk!