ReMix:Paper Mario "Sing, Sing, Sing Your Heart Out" 2:19

Our DoD 20th anniversary celebration marches on with more Paper Mario! minusworld and Graham Hardaway debut with their down and dirty burst of swing metal tributing our favorite sensitive Spike, Tubba Blubba! minusworld noted how he successfully blended the guitar work from him and Graham with sampled instruments:

"This track was made for the Dwelling of Duels competition in August of 2022, where it placed 3rd out of 25. Submitting to DoD enables lots of experimentation for me, so, for the August submission, I wanted to try a swing metal arrangement. Tubba Blubba's theme from Paper Mario really fit the bill, though it was a bit of a challenge to turn the 45-second loop with only 2 distinct sections to speak of into a solid listening experience. I ended up with a simple ABACA structure, where the A and B sections come from the game and the C section is an original section with solos.

I played the guitars and Graham Hardaway played bass. The rest of the instruments are VSTs. Speaking of experimentation, I wanted to see how far I could push a virtual brass section with this track. It's certainly no substitute for real instruments, but I think it makes for a fun track regardless. :) The brass VSTs used were Hollywood Pop Brass and Vir2 Mojo. The title of the arrangement is a reference to "Sing, Sing, Sing", popularized by Benny Goodman, and to Tubba Blubba, who separates his heart from his body in order to become "invincible" in the game."

We at OCR love to encourage wild ideas as well, and it's no surprise that, over thousands of entries, DoD engenders the same experimental spirit. prophetik music picked some nits that we judges all heard, but also nicely summed up our unamnimous call in this arrangement's favor, stylish arranging that punched above the weight class of the samples and combined so, so, so well with the live parts:

"catchy opening, roughly what was expected but well-done. agree it's a messy mastering job that felt quite drum heavy to me.

there's a nice break at 0:57 and we're quickly back to the band sound. the solo brass samples are pretty rough and obviously fake, but the full band tones sound a lot better, and the backing parts for the solo were nice. a quick break, another shout chorus, and it's already over at under 2:20.

it doesn't sound clean, but it's a fun track that doesn't overstay. i'm good with this."

As far as the execution, oftentimes it's not about the samples, it's in how you use 'em, and there's no question that minusworld squeezed all the juice from the samples, which have tons of charm and character and sit better in the fuller textures as prophetik mentioned. Much like how Tubba Blubba loves to eat ghosts, our most active listener judge, MindWanderer, was also feeling the "spirits" (nyuk nuyk nuyk!):

"Dee dee dee, ba ba ba da! I definitely got the influence. It's a great swing arrangement, and a superb job of extending a simple source."

It's a fun transformation, taking a swing source tune with Gothic elements and channelling that energy into a feistier version that really fits well with Tubba Blubba's character, who's more aggro and tougher to throw down with when he's separated from his heart. Fun times with a fitting title to boot, minusworld & Graham's collab matches up so well with Lucas's track before it, two inspired Paper Mario arrangements that showcase both Dwelling of Duels' rock roots and its reputation as a musical Petri dish where risky, but good, ideas go to grow!