ReMix:Super Mario 64 "Dire on the Rocks" 4:19

I guess it's Celtic week here on OCR, because by sheer chance we're following up Brad & Merrigan's amazing Witcher 2 piece with another collab, this time a folk instrumental jam arranging "Dire, Dire Docks" and featuring acoustic guitar, winds, piano, and some later-breaking synth & glitching from partners-in-crime Geoffrey Taucer (Jeremy Waters) and FFmusic Dj (Haroon Piracha). Taucer writes:

"I've wanted for a while to do an acoustic arrangement of "Dire, Dire Docks" in the style of Andy McKee or Justin King, using lots of slapping and tapping and as little as possible traditional picking or fingering. True McKee style would have been to do the percussion, the lead, and the rhythm simultaneously. I, however, am not quite that accomplished on guitar, so I recorded lead, rhythm, percussion, and the lower melody as four separate parts. All four, however, are done on acoustic guitar -- there are no sampled or synthesized instruments in the first half. (Though the entire track is pitch-shifted up slightly in post-production to give it a livelier feel.) The nonstop badassery of the second half is pretty much all Haroon."

Indeed, what jumps out about this ReMix is how bifurcated the soundscape is - it's not jarring NOR does it come off as forced, but the first half definitely has a more traditional, old-world feel, while the second half incorporates brief glitching, some subtle synths, and piano, for a more modern evolution. Haroon writes:

"This was mostly Jeremy's vision. I loved every bit of it and wanted to help him engineer the soundscape for the song. The glitch part was just the result of me messing around with what Jeremy had done. I just want to thank Jeremy for actually playing all the instruments, none of this would feel and sound as good as it does without Jeremy's whistle parts and his guitar playing. The guitar parts were recorded with the mic positioned upside down. The recordings came out way better than I expected. In terms of genre, I have never done anything like this, I was just trying to have fun harmonically and wanted to help Jeremy along the way. I'm incredibly pleased with the results."

Always on-point with his comments, Palpable breaks it down:

"I have a feeling this will catch people off guard if they don't read the artist comments first. The song starts pretty innocently, a mellow acoustic guitar and whistle jam. Then the song glitches out and adds some chippy sounds and woodpecker percussion and manages to do it all in a tasteful way. I enjoyed the strange, pleasant ride and I love that these two talented dudes have struck a fruitful relationship that has resulted in more music for us!"

Simon & Garfunkel, Hall & Oates, Belle & Sebastian, Garfunkel & Oates, and now WATERS & PIRACHA - I for one can get behind that name, based on the results of their collaborations thus far. This particular source is pretty durn familiar, and a wholly traditional folk arrangement, while it would still have been beautiful & evocative, isn't quite as distinct as something that gets a bit more playful and crosses some boundaries. This does that, giving the organic & heartfelt performances Jeremy brings to the table a nice twist that's subtle & tasteful enough in execution to be additive/complementary rather than distracting. Great spin on a true classic that blends old & new and plays to both artists' strengths!