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Oh boy, I remember this! Sir Nuts linked me to the decision thread not long after I got added to the Judges and asked which way I'd vote on it. Here's what I thought: once the melody started at 0:21, the source clicked for me there and then. The harmonies and effects contributed actively towards subtractive arranging, which is heard as the main arrangement attraction. The horn performances and manipulations were spot on, added to that textural thickness and are all cleanly placed out in the mix. And do you know what else this track brought to mind? It reminds me of the Tortoise section of Camille Saint-Saens's Carnival of the Animals suite. Saint-Saens used the main melodic riff of Offenbach's "Galop Infernal" (otherwise known as the Can-Can) and slowed it down by 2.5x, while here the source is brought down to 4x its speed. This arrangement is a more extreme case, but at the end of the day, the BGM is dominant and has an interpretation approach seldom seen around the VGM scene, period. If I were on the panel at the time, I would've been in the Yes camp. Nevertheless, you did boldly, and I hold mad respect to the result that popped out. The original Super Mario Bros has tunes covered a vast number of times, but this is a sign that proves there's still room to make something unique out of it. Nice work!

hats off to you @Rexy god I love the piano here

Well, that only pertains to my arrangement of Meteo for the album. HOWEVER, in the original, the "da-ga-da, DA" accents happen on beat three of each measure (all 3/4 meter), which threw me off. It took me a couple listens to figure it out, so I decided to play on it, which gave birth to the current WIP that you have. In my WIP, which I can't really link here (very sorry), I keep the A sections in 4+3, with the final bars of it in 5. The B section is in 5+6 (so I actually compressed the melody by 1 beat). I have nearly decided that the C section will be in straight, easy 4/4. Soooo thats a rough metric breakdown of my WIP, I guess. Its both easier and harder to arrange source material that has static harmony throughout whole sections. I like playing with time and groove, but it takes a lot for me to inject more creativity on top of that, which unfortunately shows my hand in terms of arranging. In terms of key changes - I was INCORRECT in my last post What actually happens is, lets say the tune starts out in E minor. It modulates to EITHER Eb Major, OR Ab Lydian (those two have the same collection of pitches). If it goes to Eb Major, then the chord changes during the B section are ||: IV - V - IV - V :|| or "AbMajor - BbMajor" If it goes to Ab Lydian (has a raised 4th scale degree), then the chord changes are ||: I - II - I - II :|| or "AbMajor - BbMajor" In either case, the chords are completely diatonic which is pretty cool. And truth be told, I REALLY would like a second opinion on that analysis.