ReMix:Super Mario Bros. 3 "IsseLand" 3:16

Rockos, my boy, what are you doing here again?!? Roch Côté returns right after we just heard him distort the forest. Now he's tearing up the tundra with another experiment, this time for a hefty DnB-flavored scoop of Super Mario Bros. 3's Ice Land! Rockos was so pumped to get productive for the Mario Month event, we couldn't hold him back:

"I did as quick and fast as I could to pump a remix from an actual Mario game for the Mario movie month. Rough on the edge, as I had to work fast, but very fun mix.

Sad tho that I just read the comment for the DKC 2 mix I sent earlier. I could use more of those comments. Thanks again for taking the time to judge our stuff.

Hope you enjoy this fast drum & bass with guitars. Some FX added for the ear to chew on the candies. :-P"

Besides potentially toning down some shrill moments and varying the beats more, it's nothing but smooth sailing on the ice here. That said, we'll mail out judges decisions to artists before some ReMixes go up, in cases where there could be improvements made with the feedback before the arrangement gets posted. That said, it's never a problem to have a speedy workflow when you've got the raw talent to get quality things done quickly, which is exactly what's on display here, right from the spacious opening notes. It's also quite the challenge to take a brief source tune -- only seven seconds long in the case of "Ice Land" -- and iterate on it enough to substantially develop an arrangement, but it can be done. ;-) As part of our unanimous panel vote, DarkSim verified that Rockos indeed did a lot with little:

"The source is a very short loop of 2 arpeggiated chords, which has been expanded on here to create some thick textures and a heavy-hitting sound. It does enough to stay interesting throughout, with plenty of different synths and effects keeping things fresh. There's some tasteful filtering and a break in the middle, even the odd transitional chord at the end of a sequence to prevent things getting too predictable."

With SMB3 being my childhood favorite Mario game, I definitely recognized the subtle buildup of the chord progression of the World 5 Sky/Clouds theme at 1:50 & 2:01 before the theme explicitly cameoed from 2:13-2:23; a very nice touch there. The DnB elements were solid, and it'll be difficult for you listeners to freeze when you're so busy dancing, head-banging, or otherwise jumping around! In my opinion, the overall presentation's helped by the source tune being so limited. Roch really had to go through lots of permutations to keep it fresh, and that helped the overall track stay fluid; even when the beats were coasting, the textures would change around. This piece is a strong example of having subtle dynamic contrast within some high-octane energy levels.

Thanks to Rockos for pulling double duty for our special Mario initiative; while his DKC submission was excellent, it would have been criminal of us to not also have all 3 core Mario NES games represented!