Posted 2014-03-07, evaluated by the judges panel


Donkey Chips™!! halc's crunchy chips blend with Stevo's creamy guits for the taste-flavor sensation that everybody's talkin' about!! If this mix were a children's breakfast cereal, I think the tagline would go SOMETHING like that. I'd buy some, too. This mellow, electro-acoustic collab from Double the Trouble! goes down easy with ambient pads, crispy & crushed percussion, undulating synths, and shimmering electric guitars. Drew was the primary arranger:

"I was never aware that the GBA version of DKC3 had a completely different soundtrack until Emunator linked me to some of the tracks. The Water World theme in particular (which is basically an arrangement of "Aquatic Ambiance" itself) caught my eye, as "AA" has always been one of my favorite DKC songs and one that I've wanted to remix. I took a very ambient-electronic approach to the arrangement and Emunator suggested that the lead might sound cool on guitar, to which I agreed. So he roped in Stevo, who whipped up some excellent guitar tracks (A+++ would collab again), and the whole thing just meshed. I took a lot of inspiration from Vig's "Beneath the Surface" and also Monkey Kong's "Dolphin Ride," hence the guitar parts, of course. ;) Another shout-out to Mattias's Ecco 2 mix as well. :3 I'm very proud of this mix, and I hope you all enjoy it!"

As well he should be; also, those are three mucho bueno mixes to draw inspiration from! Co-conspirator & fretted friend Mr. Bortz addz:

"Talk about a game of telephone: halc asked Emunator to find someone who might be able to give some guitar work for a chill, chippy take on the Water World theme. Emunator had heard of my stuff and sent me a message asking if I'd be willing to lend a hand. I ended up doing clean rhythms and a distorted lead for the melody line; a bit less high end than what I normally use, but it went well with the effects that halc put on them. Slow, drawn-out notes with lots of bends, I focused above all else on keeping the flow of the track with as precise of timing as I could muster. Really nice experience and I look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with halc again!"

Judges were unsurprisingly unanimous, given the superb blend of creative arrangement and crisp, deep production; Deia writes:

"halc is back with his traditional style, this time working with our friend Stevo for a pretty fun collab. You've taken the original and added a lot of ambiance to it, also slowed it down to get a nice effect. Guitars are really working well here, everything is incorporated together nicely, and the work between the two of you is pretty seamless."

Not much else to say; definitely one of the more chill, approachable tracks on Double the Trouble!, halc's signature sound benefits from the extra dimension that Stevo's guitars provide, and they pulled the whole thing off rather swimmingly. An excellent ReMix of a composer's rearrangement of his own source?!? A little meta, maybe, but magnificent, mellow, AND stays crispy in milk!

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 8 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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Black_Doom
on 2015-12-02 07:21:56

"Ugh... Another AA remix. It's not gonna be great" you may say. But hey, give this a listen. It's a halc L99 collab! Nothing can go wrong here. Very lush and crispy chips blended with sweet electric guitars give this mix an unbelievably chill atmosphere. One more track for my "Rainy day" playlist :)

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metamorphosis
on 2014-10-22 17:13:27

Very solid, flowing and thoroughly emotive production - though I never liked or played the donkey kong series, that's what I like about ocremix - bringing my attention to new music that I don't have any nostalgia for. Great work halc.

Nice guitar-work too.

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Chimpazilla
on 2014-03-09 12:49:26

Really super nice mix, guys. It's very relaxing, and detailed, and your talents combined beautifully here.

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Crulex
on 2014-03-08 08:50:36

A ReMix of a remix of the water theme, I knew this one would be interesting to hear considering the source. It amazes me that there is always a new way to get this melody into a song without it getting boring. Arrangement is like going from a riverbank right into the ocean, so nice placement. Got to love all those synths and blips complementing the guitar. Great teamwork and collab by Stevo and halc.

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timaeus222
on 2014-03-07 17:32:21

I see halc's been having some fun with granular delay and FM. Really cool soundscape. Stevo, dat guitar. 3

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Flexstyle
on 2014-03-07 17:14:27

What do I have to think about this mix? I think it's about freaking time it got posted! :-P

All snark aside, this is definitely one of my favorites from DKC3, and that's saying a lot--there were a ton of great tracks on the album. Love the guitar mixed with those glitchy scratch bits and the silky synthesizers.

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Brandon Strader
on 2014-03-07 17:07:26

This remix is nothing short of brilliant. Extremely enjoyable, and very well produced. Just hearing the extra trail of guitar around 1:23 panned to the left blew my mind. Very great attention to detail here. Really outclasses halc's collab with me from way back in the day. :lol: Now we gotta outdo this one with our next collab. ;-)

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djpretzel
on 2014-03-07 16:41:20

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix!

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Donkey Kong Country 3 (Nintendo , 2005, GBA)
Music by David Wise
Songs:
"Water World"

Tags (7)


Genre:
Mood:
Mellow
Instrumentation:
Chiptune,Electric Guitar,Electronic,Synth
Additional:
Effects > Lo-Fi
Origin > Collaboration

File Information


Name:
Donkey_Kong_Country_3_Aquatic_Transformations_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
9,459,030 bytes
MD5:
c4fb45fb2276a34f8503b24b86b432e0
Bitrate:
243Kbps
Duration:
5:07

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