ReMix:Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin "Dance of Maddness" 4:01

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

We're proud to announce the release of our ninth album in the OCRI independent catalog line: Candy Corn, a spooky, phantasmagorical 6-track EDM EP from YoshiBlade, with Castlevania, Chrono Trigger, and POKEMANZ!!

Grab it now & queue it up for tonight!

Halloween is all about surprises, and we've got a great one for you: SIX modern EDM game arrangements from YoshiBlade, in the form of a short-but-sweet treat of an EP called, simply, "Candy Corn" - and you didn't even have to knock on our door! Director & ReMixer YB writes:

"Boo!..... OK, now that that's out of the way.

After seeing there was no plan for a Halloween project, I sent Gario an email on Oct. 1st and basically said "I have these spooky remixes, can we do this in less than 30 days?" and we did. I want to give a huge public thank you to Gario for being my point man here, I'm fairly certain this project would not have happened without his feedback, encouragement, and networking. Thank you, Gario.

So this project is the progeny of those anthology style movies and TV shows, a la Tales from the Crypt, Creepshow, Tales from the Darkside. In that vein, every track I consider a story leading into the next one, with the radio-style dramas serving as the reset button, the point of mental collection, then starting a new section.

I will say that I am very, very proud of the teamwork that took place. I have several scripts/skits that I dream up daily and it really felt incredible to hear them come to life with the help of the voice actors! I want to thank my voice actors Joe Zieja, Stephen and Bryan of the OverClocked PodCast, Abigail Endsley, and VinnyMac for their roles as The YoshiBlade Players (now accepting applications).

That's about it! I really hope you enjoy the project, and thank you for taking the time to listen to it and to read my notes!"

I was really surprised how quickly this came together, and just how strong the concept ended up coming through in the shorter EP format. The audio drama work is great and adds a really interesting, retro angle to what are otherwise very modern EDM arrangements, employing an awesome variety of synth textures and hypnotizing, modulated patterns. The artist only has two previous featured mixes on the site, both of which are beyond solid, but this still managed to impress me - some very creative use of aliasing effects, extensive & aggressive sidechaining, and a really sweet blend of spooky melodies coupled with mesmerizing accompaniment and assertive, terrorizing bass. It's good, and it keeps things explicitly spooky enough to maintain the album concept and not make this seem like a bunch of unrelated EDM game arrangements. That was my main concern before I started listening - that the ReMixes would be good, but not have the feel of a unified, Halloween-themed album. I was convinced pretty quickly, and with each mix I really started appreciating this EP more; it's cogent, it's focused, it's creative, it's well-produced while very explicitly embracing modern production styles, and it's also good, spooky fun.

I watched Tales from the Crypt back in the day, I've seen Creepshow several times, and from such first-hand experience I can only say that I think this was a great concept, executed with excellence. We open with a breakbeat-laden, FM bell tone, spooky-yet-energetic DnB arrangement of Portrait of Ruin; YoshiBlade again writes:

"Hello, horror creeps! Your old pal the Riftkeeper has got quite a ReMix for you. This mix was a huge undertaking, because it's so important that I set the proper atmos-fear.

Originally, this started out as duo with my ghoul-friend, but she didn't like that I opted to use loops. She said using loops was "lazy" 'cause I didn't make them, so I had to give her the ax and show her who the real hack job was.

I ran into some trouble when I blew out my fright speaker, so I had to use my deadphones, but I think I got the levels just right using proper execution of scare-allel chain compression. I opted to put a die-pass filter to even out the higher frequencies.

I know some of you ghosted ReMixers aren't huge fans of DnB, but to me, the fast-paced energetic feeling is far better than your standard gore-on-the-floor patterns.

(2 "D"s bedlam for sure, but the quivering synths in the track were utilized with these decorations in mind. No part of me is joking, I love these things.)"

Punderful :) That's some pretty righteous Cryptkeeper-style wordplay cheese, right there... gotta love it. I dig the FM bell plucks with deep, dark reverb trails, the aliasing FX employed are slick, and the arrangement does a great job keeping things fast & energetic while still managing to be spooky & suspenseful. Liontamer concurs:

"...the beats are beefy, so you're gonna like the intensity there, but in particular I thought YoshiBlade did a nice job making the source melody sound so ethereal in this more energetic treatment. This is also a rarer example where the source melody isn't placed at the very front of the soundscape, so you have an interesting balance of the source tune a bit behind, with the beats and the additive supporting writing more in the foreground. Not something that sounds like it should work in theory, but was handled nicely in practice! Creative "maddness" deserving of the two D's. :-)"

As a side note, the whole EP begins with a brief little exchange that reminded me of the intro to Twilight Zone: The Movie, also an anthology - wanna see something REALLY scary? I love this mix, all by itself, but it also sits perfectly on the album and is a good jumping off point & representative of the tricks & treats to come. Many sinister, depraved, and blood-curdling kudos to YoshiBlade for bringing this to our door & letting us provide you with what WE think is a very worthy EDM ode to spook, camp, horror, Halloween, and raging, twisted oscillators!