ReMix:Super Mario Maker 2 "Banned Wagon Mix" 4:08

Mario Month rolls on, with the wagon pulling us to our latest artist & game debuts! Inspired to pursue their music in part from musicians like Lena Raine and aivi, maj7 contributor & video editor jneen collective (Jeanine Adkisson) arrives with their DnB/breakbeat version of the Super Mario Maker theme! This one was actually a resubmission after the judges encouraged them to spice up the presentation, particularly the drumloops being on autopilot, and jneen came through in spades with more dynamics, as they detail:

"This track was made by me in Renoise, using:
* Samples From Mars
* Rave Generator 2
* Mario Maker 2 samples

This mix was originally made as a theme for the Banned Wagon Team, but we eventually decided to use a different track. It came out really well though, so I wanted to polish it up and send it in. Bass parts are all original, the breakbeat is custom-sliced, and I added a lot of space to the harmonic rhythm to let the D&B elements and a couple melodic flairs shine through. The mashup bit was inspired by the credits version in SMM2, where the B section of the SMB1 Ground theme is played over the main theme. Mastered to approximately -14 LUFS, peaking momentarily around -11.

On new version:
* Added some mix variations on the breakbeat in the first loop
* Broke apart the drum pattern in the second loop and added ride cymbals and claps
* Added an entire new section with a resampled and re-sliced breakbeat and big horns and quotes inspired by the credits version of the track
* Tamed the bass quite a lot
* Differentiated the ear-candy bits in the mix a little more - hopefully, now they sound distinct enough to not slip into the uncanny valley they were in before
* Slightly more aggressive mastering, still targeting the YouTube guidelines

Thanks to Hemophiliac and all the other judges for your suggestions, they were quite helpful!

And thanks a ton for listening. <3 Hope you enjoy!"

Much like a Mario Maker level being tested and refined, this one had some feedback and came through the other side with some meaningful improvements, including MOAR Mario theme cameos such as the legendary "Overworld BGM" (just inducted into the U.S. Library of Congress's National Recording Registry!). Judge prophetik music followed this piece for both submissions, describing the initial version as "a really neat tech demo" that he wished were more cohesive, so he honed in on Jeanine's new ideas:

"the bass is definitely tamed quite a lot! the synths sound like they're in the same bucket more than they used to be, so that's nice. the intro breakbeat is also actually break instead of loop, so that's nice too. the second iteration of everything continues to mix it up too, so it's not just the same thing. the break at 2:22 is needed and well-timed, and the shoutout from the horns is a good complexity. 3:02 continues to keep it mixed up too, even if we're back to what sounds like the first breakbeat loop.

this is a great example of making a better track from some simple changes. there's so many more interesting things here now. nice work."

"Ear candy" was definitely apropo here, as there's lot of smaller details to pay attention to, if you're diligent. Jeanine also was enthusiastic enough to join our Discord last month and we had a great time doing a Watch Together with Hemophiliac & Siolfor the Jackal (and EAR for a little bit) where they played the maj7 community's first Cover Ring collaboration album (visualizer by them too!) and shared their knowledge on the contributors within the bustling digital fusion scene, as well as their own musical journey.

If I'm remembering correctly, they don't plan on doing too many more VGM arrangements, as their interests have more been into writing original music, but based off the strength of this Mario Maker piece and their maj7 Cover Ring contributions, interpretation & rearrangement are things jneen's not too shabby at, so you never know if they'll grace the OCR front page again! ;-) Once you have one featured track, you're a permanent part of the community to us, so I certainly hope Jeanine's great attitude and penchant for community building stick around our scene as well! A fun way to debut for sure, so we hope you all enjoy jneen's musical building blocks and check out their fuller catalog of tunes!