ReMix:Super Mario 64 "Raga Koopa" 3:59

That gold gleams so good, as LXE shines with his DoD-winning transformation of Mario 64's "Koopa's Road" into an Indian raga! Who knew he rolled like that? For a game-based frame of reference, imagine if "Koopa's Road" were adapted for Lethal Lava Land and it all fits like a glove. LXE dipped into lots of Indian instrumentation to color our minds:

"This was my exploration into the world of Indian music. This arrangement features sitar, bansuri, tanpura, and various hand drums such as tabla and ghatam. Hope you enjoy this unique take on the song. :D"

Nothing but fond memories for me playing this right after it came out; those of us who were just wrapping our heads around playing Mario in three dimensions had to push past the eye-opening visuals in order to press forward and take out Bowser! LXE kept it brief with his comments, yet this is a longer track compared to his submissions thus far, so there's more to love and more time to be enveloped in the mood. Judge Emunator felt the risks earned the reward:

"This is brimming with creativity, it reminds me a lot of your Koopalings track in that regard - I never would have thought to take the source material in this direction, but now that I'm listening to it, I absolutely see how you made the connection and got here. [...] You straddle the line between unpolished and raw, but I think you fall on the right side of that equation more often than not in a way that evokes a live jam band improvising their take on Koopa Road. In the end, creativity wins out - a well-deserved gold medal finish for DoD and another one for the books Alexis!"

Meanwhile, MindWanderer had to study up on the inspirations to get comfy with this and better inform his wholehearted approval:

"Well, here's another genre I had to research in order to evaluate a submission fairly. Although I learned that rāga is more of a framework than a genre, so there's a lot of wiggle room there. But I still tried to approach my listening from the perspective of Indian classical music, which is can be quite minimalist, even moreso than this.

From that perspective, this does everything it needs to do, in spades. It's a clever and complete genre transformation, well-realized. (I'm not as surprised as Emu by the direction—I'm sure I've heard Koopa's Road on sitar before, but I can't place it.) Nice original writing that fits right in, and fun riffs on the theme that keep it fresh despite the repetitive structure. Great job."

Oftentimes, the difference between a successful submission vs. one sent back is needing more substance, so in this case the longer track length allowed LXE to employ more variations and ideas, so good on him for that. :-) We're hoping he continues approaching his future arrangements with that same explorative spirit! A unique approach and an awesome experience, dive in!