ReMix:Castlevania II: Simon's Quest "Castle of Tears" 7:37

By DigiE

electronic piano synth duration-long

Arranging the music of one song...

"Bloody Tears (Street-day time-Stage BGM)"

Primary Game: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Konami , 1988, NES), music by Kenichi Matsubara, Satoe Terashima

Posted 2008-09-12, evaluated by the judges panel

Start your weekend off right with the return of DigiE after more than a year of radio silence on OCR, with this epic ReMix from Castlevania II by Maurice & Sanjay. 'Bloody Tears' may be fairly popular territory, but the dynamic duo arrived at it through a creative process that took them a few other places first, before coming back to a revered classic:

"After a long break of deciding what to remix, we went through a bunch of songs but were never really sure of what we'd really like to do. We went through Street Fighter, Lost Odyssey, Double Dragon and even tried another One Must Fall track amongst others. We ended up back, once again, to one of our childhood favorites, Bloody Tears.

We've tried to remix this song countless of times, but were never really satisfied with the end result(s). We tried it again recently out of a whim, and sure enough it sounds better than all of our previous efforts on the track that ocurred before. We hope you agree on this. We've had a lot of fun working on this, and it's great that we finally got a reasonable result out of like, 6 tries. All in all, we hope you enjoy it! :D"

Having experienced ReMixer's block myself, starting 3 or 4 consecutive mixes of the same song just to throw out each after hours of work, I can relate to the process. I can also relate to the cathartic feeling of release upon finally stumbling upon an approach that WORKS, moving ahead with it, and finishing a mix. Sometimes the best mixes are borne out of a convoluted creative process that involves many such aborted arrangements and stylistic meandering, though, and this seems like one of them: DigiE have put together a great CV2 arrangement, and actually responded to several suggestions made by the panel with some quick modifications that made a good sub even better. Specifically, judges had some production issues, but also criticized the repetition that occurred in the original submission about four minutes in. The ReMixers responded:

"We've been more than happy to revise a few things for you guys as you had some awesome tips that really helped brought the piece forward even more!

For the revised version, these things have been changed and/or added:

* Intro has been overhauled.
* Compression has been toned down a lot.
* Cluttered instruments have either been completely removed or toned down significantly.
* Drums have been amplified.
* Certain sections have been completely overhauled.
* Clarity has been boosted.
* Large amount of additions made.

** On the comments of 4:44 and beyond hitting repetition; we completely agreed and tossed in a big surprise for you guys here after the 5:20 mark."

I'd just like to say... sweet! These fellas really responded to judge feedback on both a general AND specific level, improving an already solid mix and bumping it up into the realm of epic. The result is something that takes a familiar source and galvanizes it with electronic electricity, fixing most if not all judge complaints. Of the original sub, Jimmy wrote:

"This is a really great "I'm-gonna-throw-my-junk-up-in-your-face-and-you're-gonna-like-it" arrangement. Lots of energy, and even if at 6 1/2 minutes long it seemed to drag on just a hair, it never lost intensity, and I find that admirable."

That's only more admirable and accurate now, with the changes made. DigiE don't sub too often, but when they do, it's always high-grade electronica with a lot of ideas. From the opening, half-tempo groove with synth-guit lead against a Badalamenti-style pad progression to (my favorite) the fast breakdown bit at 3'52" that builds on that classic running eighth-note riff, there's a lot of junk being thrown up in my face... and I like it. Excellent to see Maurice & Sanjay back, and truly exceptional that they took a good sub and revised it into an accessible, energetic classic.

― djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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Bahamut
on 2010-12-07 21:56:48

I like this mix a lot, it manages to inject some life into an oft done song. Great job!

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nicholai_maelstrom
on 2010-06-22 12:30:10

Wow, I find it hard to say ANYTHING about this track. It's just... Amazing. Great work! I'm going to have to check out your other works. If they're on par with this one, I'm going to have a new favorite ReMixer.

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a_d
on 2010-05-27 23:47:16
8O this rocks my socks!!!!!!! Aaaiiiggghhheeeee!!!!
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Dhsu
on 2009-03-30 18:33:17

Dunno how many Bloody Tears arrangements I've listened to, but this one still managed to catch my ear right from the get-go and held my attention all the way to the end. Not an easy accomplishment, great stuff!

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Hollidayrain
on 2008-10-28 13:40:05

This is an absolute epic. The whole piece is great, but I especially loved the Oceanlab-style trance section starting at 5:18. If someone had told me that Above Beyond produced that portion of the song, I would have completely believed it. Great work DigiE!

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Martin Penwald
on 2008-10-05 15:51:01

No matter how many remixes of this track I listen to, it never becomes boring. And despite this being about 6 minutes long, it never gets repetitve. Good work, guys.

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Liontamer
on 2008-10-01 01:59:54
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Paladin - Steve
on 2008-09-30 06:19:18

Nice and listenable.

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OzymandiasVolt
on 2008-09-28 18:14:58

Quite good, and pleasantly different from most other remixes of this track (and that's a LOT of mixes).

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Isaac
on 2008-09-27 07:26:11

Heya, thought i'd sign up just to say great job to you and Nemesis on composing the remix. You two did a great job. And thanks for clearing up the whole bit about who made what. I wasn't sure if you were the same person or just another song thief. Good job

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Weretiger_Rei
on 2008-09-23 08:32:26

Any possibility of getting an extended mix of the melancholy piano/bass mix at the end there?

That part was my favorite, and I'd love to have maybe just a loop or something... I dunno how many others are in agreement, but honestly, that part was so damn jam-worthy and it's only the last bit...

Mind you the rest of the song is also epic.

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OA
on 2008-09-15 17:40:09

I think a little less reverb on this one, as well as a bit more part separation would have made it cleaner, but this is definitely something I can rock out to, mud or no. The beats are crisp at least.

I am a massive fan (and potential abuser) of gated synths, and you really brought it on this one. Great breakdowns, some very nice additional partwriting, and good sound choices. I'm way down with the leads, and I loved how you saved the original pedal point section until the halfway point. I was waiting for it the whole time, and when it finally hit I was all :nicework:.

I liked the whole thing, except the end was a bit weak, but overall great stuff. Well played, comrades.

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Canidrianic
on 2008-09-14 11:08:33
Hey!

I thought I'd respond to this post since it needs some clearing up. She's indeed part of the whole DigiE/Infinity Entertainment/Symphonic Storms (it's a long running--) 'thing' and we pretty much share our work on that NG page and here respectively. The thing is we only submit, what we think, is the best of our work since OCR deserves no less. So there's a lot more stuff on NG, and not that much on OCR (yet).

About the timeframe, there's no comparing the OCR qeue to the "press a button to submit" from NG, so the time it takes for it to pop in on OCR takes a while longer, if "YESsed". :)

Also it's great to see you guys like it. I know for a fact Sanjay (Genesis) loves to read reviews, and is easily excitable about feedback. ;)

Ah, thank you for clearing that up. In that case, awesome job! This would have to be one of my favorite songs. Sure, I may have several favorites, but it goes in that group none the less. There is quite a lot of emotion in this song, which in my opinion is partially what makes it stand out over others. Keep up the good work!

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ListerineStrips
on 2008-09-14 05:12:12

I agree, I can't stop listening to this remix, it's really awesome. I was also a huge fan of breaking the ice but Ice Capped Zone was some of my favorite music from any Sonic so I'm definitely bias on that one. I would love to hear more remixes in the near future.

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Chernabogue
on 2008-09-14 04:22:13

Really great ReMix ! :nicework:

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Konami , 1988, NES)
Music by Kenichi Matsubara,Satoe Terashima
Songs:
"Bloody Tears (Street-day time-Stage BGM)"

Tags (4)


Genre:
Mood:
Instrumentation:
Electronic,Piano,Synth
Additional:
Time > Duration: Long

File Information


Name:
Castlevania_2_Castle_of_Tears_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
6,485,330 bytes
MD5:
2b9e17229c754010880e81be8f035938
Bitrate:
112Kbps
Duration:
7:37

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