ReMix:Donkey Kong Country "Ancient Relics" 5:33

Happy birthday to OCR judge Wes "Emunator" McDonald -- whose handle, no lie, is pronounced more like an emu bird rather than a game system emulator! And speaking of defying expectations, Emu's got a transcendant, triumphant take on David Wise's DKC classic "Aquatic Ambiance", bolstered by the debuting Marissa Turnage's incredible violin! As he explains, Emunator always possessed the inspiration for this interpretation, he just needed the corresponding skills & confidence to take this VGM standard on:

"When considering making (yet another) remix of Dave Wise's classic "Aquatic Ambiance," it's hard not to question whether or not you actually have anything unique to contribute to the canon of legendary arrangements that already exist. Even if I did have a vision, were my skills up to the level they needed to be to execute? For a long time during the process, I didn't even have an answer to those questions for myself, but I kept trying anyway. Eventually, around mid-2019, my skills as an arranger and producer finally started to catch up to my ambition, and things started to take shape.

When composing this arrangement, I had a very clear visual in mind that influenced nearly everything about final product - one of a decaying, post-industrial civilization that had sunk to the bottom of the ocean, surrounded by marine snow and bioluminescent creatures that were slowly reclaiming this as their home. I built a sound palette that reflected this contrast, merging the organic sound of vocal pads, piano, and belltones with an array of warped and rusted industrial percussion, a warbling synth lead, and a gritty, resonant bass.

From a compositional perspective, I wanted this to be a slow burn, using only glimmers of the original source material at first. It's not until nearly 2 minutes in that the iconic "Aquatic Ambiance" melody shows up in full. I let the lead synth fall deliberately behind the beat to capture the feeling of drifting along in an ocean current, guided only by the soft glow of the sea life around you.

Past that point, the arrangement takes a more dramatic turn, tethered by the persistent harp and piano arpeggios and the steadily rising pulse of the electronic/acoustic drums. At 3:36, a string section makes a final climactic run through the source melody, led by some stunning solo violin performances from my good friend, Marissa. It's no exaggeration to say that this track would have never seen the light of day without her contributions - my sequenced strings were simply not cutting it, and the sharpness and expressiveness of her performance made all the difference. Words simply fail to express my gratitude to her for helping bring my vision to life!

From there, the arrangement closes off with a major key reinterpretation of "Aquatic Ambiance's" melody on the violin one last time, which serves as a grounding presence as everything else around it drifts away into formlessness and serenity.

My first demo of this track dates back to November of 2017, and, since then, I've clocked over 130 hours of working time on the project file. I've learned more about the craft of music production and grown more as an artist through this project than any other I've done to date. It's no stretch to say this is the most intensive, challenging arrangement I've ever attempted, but I also think it's turned out to be my best. Now here's hoping I never spend this long on another arrangement ever again!!"

Well worth the wait, we'll say! Chimpazilla mastered this one a couple of years ago, so she was happy to have Emu finally fire this off, proud to help Wes and Marissa's grand presentation sound its best:

"As usual, the bells, pads, choir and sweepy elements are on point, and I'm in love with the badass growling sustain bass. The filtered saw lead has personality for days. The live violin is an absolute delight and so well performed. I love this arrangement which hits me right in the feels. [...] I'm glad to see this finalized and submitted!"

Judge prophetik music had his usual excellent play-by-play that spoke to the cohesiveness of both the instrumentation and production techniques:

"low and slow intro, and we get some nasty bass at 0:28 contrasted against the percs and pads. beat comes in at 0:57, and there's some fun filtered patterns being played in here as well. the iconic arpeggio is up top and throughout this section. 1:40 gets us a break and some sliding synths, and then we finally get the melody at 1:54. it's heavily automated as expected, with lots of slides and volumization elements. a sustain at 2:38 finishes the first instance of the melodic material. [...]

we get some violin at 3:36, and it is quite striking. very well-played. the orchestral taikos (sounds a bit like a bamboo drum actually) are pretty fierce through this and the entire soundscape is pretty dense at 4:15 - clearly a lot went into making that section not be a mess.

the soundscape clears up more around 4:20, and the violins and eventually new filters escort us towards a washed ending.

this is pretty superb overall. it definitely achieves something that i haven't heard before from the piles of AA remixes that are out there. excellent work."

Nice work with the DKC3 GBA "Water World" usage brought in at 3:06 as well, a well-integrated tip of the cap to David Wise's own variation of his classic composition. Meanwhile, Turnage's violin performance added a gravity to the source that I'm surprised I'd never felt before; Marissa's violin was mesmerizing, I'll go so far as calling the build at 3:48, along with its crescendo at 4:10, breathtaking, a perfect endcap to the initial take on "Aquatic Ambiance" by Wes's synth work at 1:56.

When we interviewed Wise back in 2008, he said "OC ReMixers bring a whole new dimension and very much enhance the original material, and I think it makes listening to these original video game pieces of music much more enjoyable. It certainly adds a whole new dimension." With all the time that's passed since then, the new dimensions have truly never stopped! "Ancient Relics" is a timeless treasure, full of dynamic, hard-hitting percussion, striking synths & sound design, and gorgeous, gradiose strings. If you get goosebumps, you're not alone! :-)