OCR04882 - *YES* Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island "Like Stars in the Ceiling"

[Emunator ⚖️]

Artist Name: mo.oorgan

With this being my 5th solo entry, I'm kind of surprised I haven't submitted a song that leans more into this style, because this is honestly closer to the type of music I've been making over the last 9 years now. However, in a turn of events outside of what I would typically do, I opted for a less-is-more traditional style of drop that didn't try to get in your face with a snazzy drop, but rather something percussive-ly articulate, yet minimal and intricate.

This track came together really quickly when I was just experimenting with a particular drum beat that reminded me of this particularly niche remix from Four Tet of "Love Story" by Taylor Swift', specifically in regard to how much of a fan I was of the off-beat pulse that continually drives the song, and heavily coerces an almost 'bouncy' type of groove. I think from that point I opted to channel various progressive ambient moods from Kieran and his multiple side projects, but honestly, I think the final result ended up as something a bit closer to the retro-influenced lo-fi house styling of "Mall Grab" (my dearly beloved).

I wish I could say there was more to offer, thematically speaking, like with my previous entries, but the truth is this song was born from distracting myself from the chaos currently going on in my life, so I mean if there is any discernible meaning to take away from this track, then let it be that (I guess the track title actually does align with that sentiment, now that I think of it).

And on top of mastering the two Donkey Kong Country tracks Wes and I made, Chimpazilla also sank her teeth into this one all in the same day; it's never ceases to amaze me with how she's able to transform and balance these tracks, it's always such a pleasure to work with her.

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Games & Sources

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - "Underground"

 

[prophetik music ⚖️]

opens with a significant unpitched swoop that builds to an initial wash of colors and theme. the melodic material that comes in after 0:30 is nicely patient and doesn't rely on percussive elements to move forward, which is a nice change. the beat hits at 0:59 and is a nice vibe. the 808 conga sound that repeats at the end of every bar sticks out a bit to me, but i really like some of the other elements, like the wobbly vibes used for the melodic material here.

there's a fun choppy transition at 1:57, and the following section is pretty obfuscated. there's some melody in there but it's really hard to hear, might be actually too quiet. the transition at 2:26 is unexpected, but the feel after is really fun - the glidey trumpet lead here with the heavy kick is a really interesting combination. 

2:57 is a significant drop - there's like 30s of noodles here before it gets back to more than one thing in the texture. i'm surprised how much i didn't mind the dropoff, actually - i really expected to find it to be too long of nothing going on, but the patience again won me over. i would have minded if it was louder though, as the dynamic contrast is pretty huge. harmonizing the glider synth is a really clever idea to ramp it up a touch.

big build into 4:03, and we get another low-key driving beat here (now with chippy arps). the toms that come in around 4:32 were a little forward and out of the texture for me (and the hats that came after felt really loud). once everything came together and we had the actual full beat together at 5:02, it felt better, but i still felt the hats were a touch loud. there's some building elements through this until we get another shift that winds up being the last. i felt that the more unpitched ending - basically everything after 6:00 - to be a bit of a let-down after you'd successfully built so many other clever textures throughout that tied so well to the original. it didn't feel as connected to the rest of the piece as most of the other things you'd done throughout.

overall this is a really interesting ride. there's a ton of maturity in the textures you're building here, as expected, and the mix is super tight to help make it all pop. there's a few things i wish had gone differently, but as a whole i think this is superb.

 

 

YES

[Liontamer ⚖️]

When are we getting to the theme, I say to myself, with this extended ambient build. Excellent, there we are at :29, and some impressive sound design to boot. Beats fade in after :50 and this just goes into the weird shit category with some funky beats, belltones for the melody, and lots of SFX mockery. 3:26 gets back into the source tune's chorus section. Nice lil' pointillist approach to the theme at 4:03, and a simple but effective adding of some thump beats at 4:31. Theme drops out at 5:00 and it's original beats with some quiet inclusion of the melody and chorus layered in.

The track was 6:34-long, so I needed to identify source usage for at least 197 seconds to consider the source usage dominant in the arrangement.

:29.5-59.75, 1:05.5-1:08.25, 1:13.5-1:15.25, 1:20.5-1:24.5, 1:28.5-1:32.5, 1:35.75-1:39.25, 1:43.25-1:55.5, 2:01-2:02.75, 2:05.5-2:09.5, 2:12.5-2:19.75, 2:27.75-2:56.75, 3:26.25-3:54, 4:03.5-5:05, 5:08.5-5:12.5, 5:17-6:00

236.75 seconds or 60.08% overt source usage

I was just sanity-checking it for source usage since this has some longer gaps between the melodic notes in places, but just going off the feel, I wasn't expecting it would be a close call. Trust but verify.

Awash with creativity. A sound design delight and a dynamic piece of business. :-)

YES

[jnWake ⚖️]

mo.oorgan and 6 minutes, insert "Ah shit here we go again" meme but on a positive note.

Anyway, we begin with some pad/SFX with "cave vibes".  Actual track starts at 0:29 with a crystal-ish synth doing a slightly modified version of the source's melody. Electronic percussion sneaks in slowly and around 1:00 it turns into dnb/edm (not an expert on electronic genre names!). I'm not too sold on the lows, seems quite busy around 50-60 Hz and quite draining on the ears even. Source stays but on a minor role during this section, with some source melodies playing every few bars. We keep on a similar vibe until a cool "regular" percussion fill around 2:25 that moves us into the second source melody. I found it a bit odd that the "regular" percussion only did a fill to then disappear but I guess it's fine. Around 3:00 there's a very atmospheric break with a soft pad and a lead. 3:25 sees the return of source melodies while still keeping the same atmospheric vibe. There's an electronic percussion fill and around 4:00 we return to dnb/edm, clearly featuring the source once again. There's a prominent tom on the beat that I don't enjoy much, it sticks out a ton and plays on every single measure. We continue on the same vibe as the track progresses, with source melodies coming from a pretty piano around the 5 minute mark. At 6:00 there's a small break and then the track ends with a standard electronic fill.

On arrangement this is good, definitely a lot more subdued than what I expect from mo. It's a nice and chill electronic journey, keeping mostly the same vibe for the whole duration, but there's also enough breaks and variations to keep it fresh. I think it could have easily worked as a 3 minute track but I don't mind it being 6 minutes. It's a great track to have in the background. Larry timed the source usage above so we're clear on that but I didn't have any doubts about it being enough myself, as most sections clearly feature the source and the only ones that don't are the intro SFX, the 3:00 break and the ending.

Production is, as usual, stellar. I'm not a big fan of the 50-60 range on this mix but I got used to it while listening to the entire track and it's nowhere close to being a dealbreaker. Most of the samples used here sound excellent and there's a lot of cool sound design effects and transitions.

Overall, a nice chill jouirney with great production and enough variety to sustain the 6 and a half minutes.

YES

Edited June 30 by jnWake