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OCR03232 - *YES* Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES) 'My Monkey Drives a Maserati'


Chimpazilla
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Remixer name: Marshall Art

Email: 

Website: http://marshallart.bandcamp.com/

members: jmr (Jeffrey Roberts), streifig (Mikhail Ivanov)

Song title: My Monkey Drives A Maserati

Source: Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES) - Hot Pursuit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnICVFQrTWA

MP3: 

WAV: 

*THIS SONG IS FOR A NON-OCR TRIBUTE PROJECT DUE TO BE RELEASED IN NOVEMBER 2014. DO NOT POST THIS SONG UNTIL AFTER THE ALBUM HAS BEEN RELEASED*

Hey OCR. jmr here. It's been a while. 

For the past few years I've been working with my friend Mikhail (alias streifig) on a project by the name of Marshall Art. I write all my parts using Famitracker (a freeware hardware-compatible NES tracker) for the 2A03 and VRC6 sound chips, and streifig records layer upon layer of mindblowing post-rock-esque guitar. We live 7000km apart, so using the magic of Dropbox we exchange our parts and sandwich them together into an intense chiptune / prog / post rock hybrid.

 

This song was put together over the course of January - September 2014 for a DKC tribute project. We were inspired by the band Maserati (hence the song title) although I think the song turned out a bit heavier than their usual style. We experimented with a few new things for this song, most notably the raucous guitar parts played with a violin bow.  

 

We're working on some other VGM covers as well as material for an original album, plus we play live shows whenever we can (together when possible, and apart on our respectivecontinents), so this won't be the last you hear from us.

 

-Jeff

 

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Hhhm, this is tricky.  The source is essentially BGM, and so is the remix.  This is one of those themes that I can see being laid down AS background, for some epic original leadwork and/or soloing, but there's none here.  The delayed guitar does sound very good, as does the background grunge, but the only proper leadwork I ever hear in this track is that same arp/melody from the source, and it only really sounds like a proper lead from 2:44-3:30 when it is being played by a lead guitar.  I hate to say it, but the "lead melody" from the source is really boring AS lead writing, it's more of a background arp than a lead melody.  Because of this, the track feels quite directionless to me.  I'm going to hold my voting until I see what others think of this.

 

?

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  • 2 weeks later...

The intro was arguably a bit too buzzy, but it's not a big deal. When the track truly kicked off at :29, something about the mixing was pretty indistinct. It felt like there was a lot of mud in the background, perhaps caused by the chippy buzzing. From 4:00-4:15, the source melody was pushed WAY back and might as well not have been there. It was still pretty low after that, but loud enough to be heard more plainly, so no big deal.

 

I get Chimpa's crit about there not being much of a driving melodic aspect to this, but it doesn't matter to me. The source wasn't made like that, and we don't require that of arrangements. This had good dynamic contrast throughout and managed to keep the basic loop of the source fairly interesting, which was a pleasant surprise.

 

I thought the mixing and production was a bigger issue; perhaps some folks may NO on that level. IMO, the production's rough around the edges, but the part-writing was distinct ENOUGH that I'll live, even though it could gain some clarity while still maintaining most of the atmosphere they're going for.

 

In any case, I'm on board. Solid fusion of geetar and chiptune by Mikhail and Jeff!

 

YES

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This is one of those tracks that I knew I'd like as soon as I heard the intro.  Gotta love that.

 

Arrangement is pretty straightforward, but solid in the adaptation to the half-time, atmospheric electro fusion guitar chip whatever genre this is.  

 

The speed up transition at 2:45 felt awkward to me.  I see what you're going for with fooling the listener with hearing where the downbeat timing is, but since the guitar isn't 1000% on point on the rhythm, it doesn't quite work IMO.  Minor point, nonetheless.

 

Would've liked to hear my clarity on the percussion, especially the snare.  I really felt like the drums in general could use more umph behind them, specifically during the downtempo portions.  I agree with Larry that mixing is probably the biggest issue here, but it alone isn't enough to be a dealbreaker for me.  The strength of the composition in general definitely helps as well.

 

YES

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  • 3 weeks later...

Great adaptation of this source, and a pretty interesting hybrid style that I haven't heard before. No focus on leads, but it wasn't needed - the change-ups in instrumentation held my attention solidly. I wish the mixing was better, because I felt like the guitar really wasn't coming through at times, and what it plays is awesome. You've got it doing some lead lines, chugs, and then some flat-out drones at points. There was too much distance from the guitar, and the lo-fi instruments stepped on them too, so overall, not enough clarity. I tend to side with the YESes that this isn't a dealbreaker in this case. There's a lot of creativity stewing in this strange pot.

 

YES

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