ReMix:Super Mario World "Apparitions" 4:34

BOO! Is the spirit of Halloween ever truly gone? Just like last year, ain't nothing wrong with a belated treat, kind of like snagging a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup from your kiddo's more-than-sufficient candy stash. :-D We've got another goodie from judge duo Chimpazilla & Emunator (ReMix #40 for Emu!), who take on a quintessential Halloween-ready theme in Super Mario World's sub-castle music. Emu kicked things off with a brief proof of concept:

"This song started its life as a 20-second lo-fi demo back in 2021 that never went anywhere. Fast-forward several years, and it found new life as the latest entry in our ever-growing catalog of collaborations that just felt right. After hearing Kris's intro, the vibe was completely changed for the better, and it inspired me to get back to work on this, instead pulling more inspiration from gritty industrial sounds and the quirky haunting synth tones of Celeste. This track was always destined to be like this, it just took a few years before it fell into the right hands to get it there!

Letting go of a concept to a collaborator, even a demo that has been gathering dust for years, can be extremely anxiety-inducing. That said, I can say that I never feel that fear working with Kris. She gets it. She has an innate ability to understand both the existing spirit of a song, and its unrealized potential, and bringing both halves of the equation together in a way that shines every time."

It may not be spooky, but it *can* be scary to hand off something creative of yours to another creator; in the case of these two, however, tons of past team-ups have solidified trust, leading to Chimpa manifesting the "Apparitions":

"Another Chimp-Emu collab coming at ya! This was a WIP that Wes put together a few years back, but he lost motivation for it, so he sent it to me. I was immediately interested, and I loved the fact that the arrangement structure was already about 90% mapped out, ready to be worked on. I ran with it, I wrote an intro for it, and we shipped stems back and forth, but I ultimately ended up with the file. (The next collab coming up for submission is the opposite situation: it was my initial WIP, and Wes took over the file! A perfect criss-cross situation.)

"Apparitions" is another track where we both worked on it in a frenzy and every idea was a winner. The track was originally intended to be a lo-fi bop but my additions pretty much killed that idea! The result is a half-time chillout groove that Wes and I are both super happy with. The arrangement sounds so eerie and groovy at the same time. Wes is 100% responsible for that utterly astounding outro! I'm sounding like a broken record here, but look out for more Chimp-Emu collabs coming up soon!"

We've indeed got something else in the hopper from these folks, and at this point, there's gotta be some sort of trophy they're in the running for regarding the most two-person collabs on OCR. No matter which way they seem to approach music collaboration, things click so naturally. The melodic variations sound good, and I liked playing with the timing of it, dragging it just a bit to alter its feeling. Kudos to the original countermelodic line added in at 1:12 as well, another very nice touch. In the best way possible, the sound design hearkens back to YoshiBlade's Halloween trilogy of Candy Corn EPs! Nice line handling the source's countermelody at 1:45, that was very cool sound design, a fluttery feeling to it. So well personalized, and nice dynamic contrast at 2:45 that was less beat-driven and more atmospheric until 3:04. Some nice swagger until 3:26, then a little mellower while still beefing up the textures a touch. Loads of ear candy is sprinkled throughout, while the arrangement personalization is also way up there; THIS is how you do it, especially when it comes to successfully putting one's stamp on a legendary theme. :-)