ReMix:Donkey Kong Country "Blazing Mines" 3:14

We're looking forward to the release of Chronopolis next week, but in the meantime newcomer NyxTheShield (Felipe Montero) debuts with a crisp, hard-hitting rock take on DKC's "Life in the Mines":

"I have always been a fan of DKC and David Wise, being one of my main inspirations to become a video game composer and producer. After some years, I finally reached a level of production good enough to be able to submit to this site, and what a better way to do so with an arrangement of the original DKC!!! This is a rock reimagination of the track "Life in the Mines." This is one of my favourite tracks ever and I finally decided to remix it!!! While being in the conservative side, I believe that the changes I made make the track shine in a different way, specially in the solo section. I put a lot of effort on this one. I hope you enjoy it!"

Shine it does; the effort comes through, Felipe has improved dramatically as a musician/artist, and this is a rock solid (pun always intended) way to introduce his work on OCR. Sir_NutS writes:

"This track starts out pretty conservative but it does evolve after a while, and the additions and changes fit extremely well."

This is a great example of a superb ReMix that's closer in spirit to a cover but which throws in enough personalization & original spin to make it past the judges panel - unanimously, at that. Some votes did mention minor production qualms, but nothing bothered me, and Chimpazilla felt the same:

"I'm not having any issues with the mixing, it sounds great to me."

And to me as well; there's good depth & separation to the elements, drums have punch, guitars cut through, and there's enough motion & energy that the repetition feels rather earned. I know Felipe has been frustrated with our evaluation times and standards in the past, and we'll do our best to make systemic changes this year, but in the meantime we're damn happy to be featuring his work, which I think MANY folks will enjoy!