Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island "Like Stars in the Ceiling" 6:34

After coverage of other Nintendo titles like Pikmin and Mario 64, we have another tasty treat from mo.oorgan, who's got our first ReMix of the underground theme from Yoshi's Island in more than two decades! The ReMixer explains how he approached this wanting to add more bounce to the ounce:

"With this being my 5th solo entry, I'm kind of surprised I haven't submitted a song that leans more into this style, because this is honestly closer to the type of music I've been making over the last 9 years now. However, in a turn of events outside of what I would typically do, I opted for a less-is-more traditional style of drop that didn't try to get in your face with a snazzy drop, but rather something percussive-ly articulate, yet minimal and intricate.

This track came together really quickly when I was just experimenting with a particular drum beat that reminded me of this particularly niche remix from Four Tet of "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, specifically in regard to how much of a fan I was of the off-beat pulse that continually drives the song, and heavily coerces an almost "bouncy" type of groove. I think from that point I opted to channel various progressive ambient moods from Kieran and his multiple side projects, but, honestly, I think the final result ended up as something a bit closer to the retro-influenced lo-fi house styling of "Mall Grab" (my dearly beloved).

I wish I could say there was more to offer, thematically speaking, like with my previous entries, but the truth is this song was born from distracting myself from the chaos currently going on in my life, so I mean if there is any discernible meaning to take away from this track, then let it be that (I guess the track title actually does align with that sentiment, now that I think of it).

And on top of mastering the two Donkey Kong Country tracks Wes and I made, Chimpazilla also sank her teeth into this one all in the same day; it never ceases to amaze me with how she's able to transform and balance these tracks, it's always such a pleasure to work with her."

As this is only our ReMixer's third mixpost despite having more submissions, we've definitely got more mo.oorgan in the hopper, y'all just wait! Digging the ReMix's title of course, a fun reference to the gleaming rocks in Super Mario World 2's underground areas. Now... when are we getting to the theme, I say to myself, with this extended ambient build. Excellent, there we are at :29, and some impressive sound design to boot. Phew, scared me for a sec, but I shouldn't have even second-guessed it with so much runway here to build an arrangement around. Beats fade in after :50 and this just goes into the (good) weird shit category with some funky beats, belltones for the melody, and lots of SFX muckery. Judge prophetik music plentifully cited many strong writing and production moments that managed to catch him off guard in good ways:

"opens with a significant unpitched swoop that builds to an initial wash of colors and theme. the melodic material that comes in after 0:30 is nicely patient and doesn't rely on percussive elements to move forward, which is a nice change. the beat hits at 0:59 and is a nice vibe. [...] i really like some of the other elements, like the wobbly vibes used for the melodic material here.

there's a fun choppy transition at 1:57 [...] the transition at 2:26 is unexpected, but the feel after is really fun - the glidey trumpet lead here with the heavy kick is a really interesting combination.

2:57 is a significant drop - there's like 30s of noodles here before it gets back to more than one thing in the texture. i'm surprised how much i didn't mind the dropoff, actually - i really expected to find it to be too long of nothing going on, but the patience again won me over. [...] harmonizing the glider synth is a really clever idea to ramp it up a touch.

big build into 4:03, and we get another low-key driving beat here (now with chippy arps). [...] overall this is a really interesting ride. there's a ton of maturity in the textures you're building here, as expected, and the mix is super tight to help make it all pop. [...] as a whole i think this is superb."

proph's so right when it comes to this having a mature textural sensibilities. For me, for example, I dug the nice lil' pointillist approach to the theme at 4:03, and a simple but effective adding of some thump beats at 4:31. Then the theme dropped out at 5:00 and it was original beats with some quiet inclusion of the melody and chorus layered in. Grab any segment of this, and you're encountering techniques that were low key yet engaging in small, dynamic ways throughout the long haul. Fellow panelist jnWake initially saw the runtime on this one and felt like CJ from San Andreas:

"mo.oorgan and 6 minutes, insert "Ah shit here we go again" meme but on a positive note. [...]

On arrangement this is good, definitely a lot more subdued than what I expect from mo. It's a nice and chill electronic journey, keeping mostly the same vibe for the whole duration, but there's also enough breaks and variations to keep it fresh. I think it could have easily worked as a 3 minute track but I don't mind it being 6 minutes. It's a great track to have in the background. [...]

Production is, as usual, stellar. [...] Most of the samples used here sound excellent and there's a lot of cool sound design effects and transitions.

Overall, a nice chill journey with great production and enough variety to sustain the 6 and a half minutes."

Nothing but full agreement with Wake, i.e. this piece is a longboi, but it's got loads of evolution, development, and variety to reward those who go along for the ride. Brilliant stuff once more from mo.oorgan that's awash with creativity. It's a sound design delight and a dynamic piece of business. :-)