ReMix:Castlevania: Dracula X "The Bloodline Bounce" 4:21

It does (or at least can) mean a thing, because it does have that swing... Gario (Greg Nourse) gives us an upbeat, bouncy EDM/hip-hop blend of Castlevanian themes:

"I feel like I need to abuse my privilege for a bit, so suffer listening to my arrangement from the Castlevania compo at the beginning of this year. It's an arrangement of "Beginning" from CV3 (the Castlevania X version of "Beginning" is the version I pulled most from, because it's just a better version...) and some plant area... thing from Castlevania 2 for the Game Boy. I put in some "Bloody Tears" (Castlevania 2, NES) for good measure, as well.

The original ReMix had issues having a very dull sound (no highs, lacking lows), and the organ tended to sound like a square wave, so I beefed the high end and gave the organ more space in the arrangement, and it sounds pretty awesome now. It's pretty bouncy, by the way."

Gotta beef that high end... and give the organ more space. Sounds like a euphemism... but for what?!? Let's not stick around to find out; our preceding Gario ReMix sounded like it COULD have been a Castlevania arrangement, but this one (rather unmistakably) *is*, with a not-dissimilar blend of organ & chip, paired with an ALMOST motown-philly (but not quite) bouncy (swung) drum beat that slaps you in the face with early 90's verve. Quoth the Oji:

"Cool to hear this theme done in a such a bouncy style. Good use of the CV 2 GB and NES themes as the introductions to the Dracula X version of "Beginning." The textures were a bit busy for me personally, but the mixing was solid and the elements all sounded sharp. Won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I drink transformative tea."

Judges were unanimous on approval, but all agreed on the busyness critique; DragonAvenger writes:

"Creative use of synths to really make this track bounce and pop. I enjoyed listening through, and while I did feel like it got a little busy at times, I found it to not be too much of an issue on headphones. Melodies remain clear and forefront, which is always a good thing. Nice work, good sir!"

Gario often embraces a maximalist aesthetic, and at times I think he could apply some subtractive edits to his arrangements; we talk a lot about dynamic contrast, but "complexity contrast" can sometimes be a thing. Not a huge issue here and not remotely a dealbreaker, just something worth pointing out, as the judges did. It's a little disconcerting to hear Castlevania melodies, which I think of as gothic & often precisely quantized spirals, being set to a beat with this much swing on it, but I like that juxtaposition; strikes me as unique. I might have gone full Boyz II Vampirez and worked in some orchestra hits or turntablism while slowing the tempo a few BPM & bumping the drums up a bit, but either way it's a fun, fresh, & funky take on CV; enjoy!