*NO* Super Mario 64 'Jolly Bowser's Road'

[Palpable]

Howdy. This is Hunter "Rubix" Short, better known on the internet as nintendude794. I know my past submissions were not up to snuff, and am deeply sorry y'all had to listen to that garbage. lol

I'm confident y'all will like this piano remix of two themes from Super Mario 64 (on the Nintendo 64, of course), "Bowser's Road" and "Jolly Roger Bay/Dire, Dire Docks". I call it "Jolly Bowser's Road", and this is version 1.0. As for the inspiration behind it... Well, Jolly Roger Bay is ultimately one of my favorite video game themes to play on the piano. So recently I've began tinkering with it, changing the pace, chords, melodies, all that. Even a famous Japanese-sounding riff, I put on perfect fourths in Jolly Roger Bay's key and tried laying it over the theme. It sounded amazing, the way it fit. So instead of the original's "dingggg" with that D/G chord, it moves around with a somewhat oriental flair, creating a new theme in the piece's motif; although you'll notice that sometimes I included segments with just that one chord to be nice to the original theme. In the weeks that followed, I began tinkering with Bowser's Road, complicating the underlying bass chords with patterns and variating the rhythmic style of the melody. When I was tinkering with it, and got to it's fourth chord in the progression as the melody was about to shift into the next verse, I realized I'd just ended on Jolly Roger's opening chord. So I started my Bowser's Road variant over again and led the part that I'd discovered this into Jolly Roger. "WOAH. That sounds great." So I've been developing this remix for weeks, and I'm actually capable of tying in several other popular themes into this remix - Legend of Zelda's Main Theme, from the second verse of Jolly Roger; Halo 2's Unforgotten, via a variation of Jolly Roger's chord structure; one of Halo 3: ODST's piano riffs, via a concert F at the end of Unforgotten; even The Pink Panther's theme from a chord in that ODST snippet - however for the sake of time, clarity, and the remix's focus, this version I send to you has only two themes from Super Mario 64; it's funny that every time I sit down at a piano and play this piece, it comes out a little differently - I essentially improv my remix with my known variations every time. I was supposed to perform this - or something like it, hahaha - in my high school's talent show last night, but I've been getting sick over the past week and have missed the past three days of school, therefore I was unable to perform my act; essentially, the teachers responsible for the show were gonna cut me off once I'd been playing for three minutes, so my goal was to improv a good closing. I'm somewhat glad I didn't have to worry about it, being sick and all.

This recording was produced in Apple's GarageBand: I sat down and threw together this remix I've been developing for weeks. Therefore, naturally, this version is also somewhat improvisation, so there might be a few kinda odd moments - hopefully you might view them as enjoyable quirks, some natural imperfections. I hope you like it and look forward to your response.

nintendude794

P.S.: If y'all like what I've done to the piece but don't like this particular improvisation, feel free to tell me so, specifically what elements screwed up this version. Then, I might try again with another piano version or possibly a techno version... I suppose I await your judging comments. Thanks.

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[DarkeSword]

The dynamic range is very very broad in this piece, which is something you don't really hear a lot. It's a good thing, although I had to fiddle with the volume to hear some parts over ambient noise here in my room.

The composition in this piece is very weird. You start off with this excellent treatment of Bowser's Theme, which segues nicely into Dire Dire Docks. The combination of these themes is nice, especially at 1:13.

The problem is the rest of the piece. Here we move into an extended treatment of Dire Dire Docks, which is quite slow and doesn't do much to really interpret the theme in a new way. A lot of it a straight arrangement, with some improvisation later on.

I feel while the performance and improvisation is good, this piece is kind of aimless. The entire first minute-and-a-half could be developed into its own song, and the rest of the piece could stand on it's own as well. It's just that when you tack them together like this, the piece doesn't feel cohesive.

Good ideas, good performance, good production, but kind of a slapshod arrangement.

NO, resub

[DragonAvenger]

I had to think this one over for a couple of days. You have great style when you're playing, and your dynamic range is excellent, which is pretty vital to making a successful solo piano arrangement.

Because it's played so well, it's easy to get lost in the latter half of the piece, which, ultimately, is the thing that is making me so iffy about it. You segue into Dire Dire Docks really well, and from then on you're floating into an improv arrangement from then on out. It sounds nice, but the lack of direction, as well as how often you play that same riff over and over in that section makes the piece lose purpose. In a way, it's a good and a bad thing, because the melody lends itself to being very airy and floaty without direction and it also gives the track it's own unique feel, but it gets to the point where it's almost dragging on.

I think, in the end, that this is a pass, although I hope you work out some arrangements in the future with more direction and purpose. Keep playing and arranging!

YES (borderline)

[Vig]

The playing is just way too harmonically dumbed down. The left hand generally sticks to Root, fifth, Root arpeggiation in the first section. The underwater section is for most of its duration, not really arranged at all. The playing isn't bad at all, but there's not that much in the way of reinterpretation, and considering that, it's way too long.

NO

[zircon]

The production here is solid though a little more reverb overall would have been nice (then again, maybe not what you were going for.) So, that leaves the arrangement and interpretation. I can definitely appreciate a simplistic piano arrangement, as sometimes, sparse harmonies can be very emotional or peaceful (in this case, the latter.) The source tunes are not used verbatim, and there are some creative changes to the melodies, so it's certainly not a cover.

That being said, I think this follows the chord structure and rhythm of the original too closely, which perhaps would not be a problem if the arrangement were more complex, which it is not. If you are going to take a more simplistic approach, reducing the amount of notes and voices, you should in turn step up your interpretation of the source tune, adding more unusual harmonies, improvised melodies and new rhythms. For a lot of the underwater section you're staying pretty close to the core riff of the original without adding much.

This is a tough call because the remix is definitely enjoyable, and very relaxing to listen to. Nonetheless I'm going to have to go with a:

NO, resubmit

[OceansAndrew]

I really enjoyed this one, but it's in some definite need of some editing to give it more direction. It started out really strong, but just lost direction in the second half, and ended up too long by a few minutes. The journey was really pleasant, but the focus you had the first half evaporated. The mix needs to keep that focus.

Production was really nice, and the playing was excellent, you just need to trim the fat.

No, please resubmit