ReMix:Banjo-Kazooie "Big Room Gobi" 3:51

B-laze (Kenneth Nordsveen) debuted back in 2015 with a pretty dope psy-trance take on SMW, and now returns with more subgenre EDM action, this time throwing some big room house at Banjo-Kazooie:

"I wanted to make big room house. I do not listen or produce house at all, but big room is probably the only reason I sometimes lend an ear to house music. It's really not my domain and is my second take on the genre.

After thinking shortly of some games, I instantly figured out that "Gobi's Valley" from Banjo-Kazooie on Nintendo 64 was the right track to remix. It has the Eastern/Egyptian theme and would fit great into a big room house remix. I started trying out a lead for the main melody, and kept tweaking it until I had the preferred sound to match it with the Egyptian theme of "Gobi's Valley." Then I just kept on producing the track using lots of sound effects from the game.

I had lots of fun producing this. When it comes to mixing big room house, it shouldn't really be a big deal. Big room, yet so simple, but too much fun with Banjo-Kazooie in it combined with the in-game sound effects. I did, however, end up with lots of sounds for the breakdowns and less for the monotonic climax, and it did put some faults here and there, but I fixed them as well as I could with my current low-budget studio monitors. I do use a few commercial samples (snare), but most are produced in Massive (no preset) and Nexus (presets) in FL Studio 12.

I have yet to see some music of this genre on OC ReMix, so why not fill some more colors into the rainbow."

Well said! And yeah, while we have a heapin' helpin' of (awesome!) EDM on OCR, this does strike me as distinct; weirdly playful, relentless downbeat (but not grating like happy hardcore hits me), almost kinda minimal in the very clear separation of distinct rhythmic/melodic components, and the in-game FX make it tongue-in-cheek & fun, at the same time. Emunator writes:

"The production style might throw some off who are unfamiliar with the genre (other than Flexstyle's Yoshi's Island mix on Super Cartography Bros, I don't think OCR has ever seen a mix in this specific sub-genre before,) but by the genre's standards, this is pretty well done as far as I'm concerned. I cracked up when I first heard Kazooie's talon trot sfx layered with the melody at 1:18, that was hilariously tongue-in-cheek and so well implemented. Another highlight to me was the subtle pitch bending on the lead synths to keep with the source's eastern aesthetic. Great track that doesn't take itself too seriously at all."

NutS addS:

"The samples from the game are just plain fun and silly and they fit very well too. The production was good, for the genre this is pretty much what you would be looking for, and the different textures are interesting."

Chimpazilla very rightly did point out some copypasta/repetition in the mix; it might be common, for the genre, but I still think that within ANY genre, repeating extended passages verbatim can usually be avoided or compensated for with at least minor variation. OTHER than that criticism, which I share, I thought this was a really fun, bouncy, sassy, and somewhat goofy mix that still has booty-movin' beats & mojo. Another color in the rainbow, indeed, and a FUN one at that - props to B-laze for something different & enjoyable!