Mario Party 2 "In Space, No One Can Hear You Party" 5:24

ReMixers... in... SPAAAAACE!! With our first featured ReMix primarily representing the Mario Party franchise, it's Super Mario namesake minusword & friends bringing the Mario Party 2 U from DoD's Party Month compo!

• minusworld - arrangement, production, guitars, drum programming
• jnWake - piano, synths
• Roland N. Laracuente Martínez - bass
• Connor Engstrom - Technically, also provided ~4 bars of arrangement as well. XD This is relevant because Connor and I have wanted to do a Plini-inspired epic prog submission to DoD for a while. However, Connor had a month of intense commitments and insane curveballs that kept him from being as involved as he wanted.

minusworld's already embraced his proggy side several times with his OCR submissions, but seemingly according to the arranger himself, this embrace has gotta be the biggest musical bearhug yet:

"This was my entry to Dwelling of Duels' Party Month in September 2024 where it placed 2nd.

I was on the hunt each month as DoD themes were announced for a good tune to apply some whacky prog rhythms to, and I finally landed on "Space Land" from Mario Party 2. The source has an interesting rhythmic backbone with a strong pulse that makes it feel like a 4/4 march, but with subdivisions into triplets for the melodic lines and background arpeggios. Yes, technically this is 12/8, but keeping these dual rhythmic ideas separate made it easier to progify this arrangement. Harmonically, the source is in the Mixolydian mode, which makes it easy to (ab)use the VII-I transition, which sounds epic. :)

Once again, I used kishotenketsu to guide my arrangement, roughly dividing it into four sections: Theme (Intro, A, B, C), Theme Development (A', A'', Transition, B', Transition 2), Twist (Clean chords, Palm mutes, Alternating guitars), and Theme Reprise (A section reprise). I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I didn't intend for this track to sound like an epic space journey, but that's exactly how it sounded after all the parts fit together!

Here's a map of all the ideas I stole... I mean... paid homage to. :')

* Intro - "I'll Tell You Someday" intro
* A section - "The Glass Bead Game"
* B section - Lots of different Plini tunes
* C section - "Electric Sunrise"
* A' section - "Macchina" by Sungazer
* A'' section - "Salt + Charcoal"
* Transition - An attempt at copying "Somervilleans" by Poh Hock XD
* B' section - A piano re-harmonization idea from jnWake
* Transition 2 - Dream Theater influences... guess I can't escape it. :P jnWake comes in with an awesome spacey synth solo too!
* Clean chords - "Inhale"
* Palm mutes - "The Glass Bead Game"
* Alternating guitars - "The Glass Bead Game"
* A section reprise - just... make it epic"

With comments so extensive, normally I'd pare them down further, but minusworld's impressive prog influences all need to be on your radar, so we just HAVE to run 'em down. :-D minusworld's got so much more to say including well-deserved praise for Roland & jnWake in the MP3's full comments, but we've got to launch into the reactions of our impressed panelists, starting with Hemophiliac:

"So, I really think you nailed the Sungazer vibe, I think Adam Neely would appreciate what you've done. This is a very mature arrangement despite a short section of levity and silliness of the use of some SFX.

I really appreciate that the time was given to create bridges or little transitional sections to allow the listener to adjust to new time signatures and changes. Sometimes in complex music those can be unprepared and feel awkward or jarring. I have to say that was not the case here at all. You've covered all the fronts. The drumkit sounds great, especially the toms.

The arrangement is great, and the source is very clear to me. The 3:47-4:16 floaty space section was a great palette cleanser and a break from the rhythm. That break also helped make the final minute have an extra oomph of energy that really closed out the song strong. [...]

Well, this is great and I hope people enjoyed it as much as I did. Very sweet."

At 3:13, I see what you did there with my eagle... ears? You can't complexificate things and think you escaped! :-P minusworld & crew were serving up the Sungazer Spritzers, they were dishing out the Plini Bellinis, everything so progressive and stronk that they left judge Emunator at a loss for words yet with a wealth of praise:

"This has all the makings of a successful track - minusworld at the helm of the arrangement, a couple of clutch collaboration partners, and a banging source tune. Mario Party 2's soundtrack has always felt like it's begging for a triumphant rock opera upgrade.

I don't have the rhythmic vocabulary to describe what you're doing here, but the prog is felt on a visceral level nonetheless. The transitions are handled deftly, which is usually the primary pitfall that prog rock arrangements can fall into, but cohesiveness is not a concern here at all. There's always something exciting happening - for being a song about outer space, you left no dead air across the 5 and a half minute runtime. It makes moments like 3:45 all the more gratifying when you finally let off the thrusters for a moment and just let it coast, and although the voice clips aren't going to be everyone's cup of tea, it felt appropriately tongue-in-cheek for me!

Yeah, this is ridiculously satisfying, and did everything I could possibly want a prog rock arrangement of Space Land to do."

Boy, it's certainly something if a musical go-getter like Emunator doesn't quite know how to articulate something; meanwhile, I've never had the musical vocabulary to talk about anything, but I do my best! :-D You've absolutely 100% never heard Mario Party handled like this, so strap in for minusworld's proggy rocket ride to the stars! :-)