ReMix:Mega Man 3 "Envenomation" 5:36

Our other featured selection from Candy Corn III: Direct to Video is a hot EDM take on "Snake Man" from MM3, complete with intro rattles & accelerando, classic house offbeat bass, and some really neat modulated bitcrush/reverb automation that adds movement & texture; YoshiBlade writes:

"Snakes... snakes... I love that word. It's one of few words that could double down as hieroglyphs for their meaning, it begins and ends with the serpentine figure of SnakeS. Boas, cobras, vipers, thin as needles or weighing more than a human, they can rear up and look you in the eyes, twist around squeezing the life out of you or deliver a potent cocktail of chemicals that can dissolve you from within... One of the bigger mysteries for me was why snakes needed a robot master, but, the more I think about it, if I had to pick any suborder of vertebrates, snakes would be it... the bass is a thick anaconda, the stinging lead a venomous black mamba, the snare strikes like a coiled diamondback."

Can't not think of Kill Bill Volume 2 :) Intense sidechaining during the intro is employed as more of a liftoff/riser, and gets dialed back to sane levels when the beat drops. I love how the black mamba (ahem, synth lead) darts around with increasing frenzy as the piece builds, and in general the mojo here is infectious & more explicitly EDM than its funkier Mario Kart DS predecessor. Snakes can certainly be deadly, and plenty of folks are terrified by them, so this mix conceptually *does* have some thematic resonance with the spookier side of Halloween, but it's also a fun, energetic, & playful arrangement which is primarily concerned with laying down a good groove. Mission accomplished, in that regard, and it's impressive that while there are plenty of arrangements out there of this specific source, many of which are in EDM sub-genres, this track manages to carve out its own identity.

As for this track, so too for the Candy Corn EP trilogy, which has embraced concept & personality and carved out its own identity by digging into the cultural innards of Halloween & horror more generally, pulling out some choice entrails, and then weaving immersive, enjoyable EDM mixes around the results. Big thanks to YoshiBlade & the artists he's collaborated with to make these three EPs a highlight of the season and giving us someting to look forward to in late October. Trilogy status is a tidy stopping point, if that's what's in the cards, but either way major kudos to YB & co. for turning in a third & potentially final entry in a series that's leveraged a potent combination of horror nostalgia and gaming nostalgia, to wonderful, unexpected, & infectious effect! Have a happy Halloween, and enjoy Candy Corn III: Direct to Video!!