ReMix: Donkey Kong Country 'Cry of the Chasmal Critter Chain'

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"The original consisted of a string of melody fragments connected by random cave ambience - so I basically just connected most of those fragments together. It's a little more stripped-down and lo-fi when compared to my past two OCR mixes... it might not stand out as much upon the first few listens. Still, I think everything ended up coming together in the end. And yes, that is me playing the cello. That part was actually the very last thing added and was more intended to be intermixed with the rest of the instruments rather than being a solo part. I did have some tuning problems as well, but I feel that it doesn't detract at all from the piece as a whole."

So sayeth Jack Ryerson aka Adhesive Boy, who gives us another Kong in Concert submission. JJT and Jesse both had very cohesive, substantive originals to work from, which is not to lessen their individual (amazing) achievements, but Jack perhaps had a bit more of a challenge in piecing together something as solid from the interlocking themes in the original material, here. He himself points out some minor tuning issues on the cello, which still does a nice job of tying things together and integrating them. Things intro with tempo-delayed electric piano, setting the scheme for a nice down-tempo groove, somewhat trip-hoppish, as some drones come in stage left, with a very spacious xylo on the right taking on the main "melodic" motif. The cello enters as the structural solo instrument that either covers or doubles the melody, mostly, as synth arpeggios fade in and out across a beat that ends up being faster than one would have expected. There's some repeated triplets on the brush snare that make the pace downright aggressive for a bit, as we then segue into the next of the themes, with distant television-speaker ensemble strings. The last of the themes involves a little xylo riff and is more major key, and the piece winds down on this more positive progression soonafter. Given that the initial and secondary themes get a lot of attention, I would have liked this very different progression and vibe to have been played around with a bit longer, to make it seem more like a third segment than an ending that decides to switch gears a bit before exiting. I love, however, the types of processing decisions Jack makes with his mixes - he's never content to mix things the way you'd expect (which is hard enough to do "right", by the way), but instead will always experiment with running this or that part through lo-fi, or distortion, or delay, or what have you - his M.O. often involves unorthodox combinations of effects with instruments they aren't conventionally paired with, and it always seems to work for him. This mix takes a few listens to fully appreciate - there's a lot of little details, many in the processing/production realm, that you notice on repeats. The arrangement walks the line between downbeat groove and something that's more aggressive and demanding of the listener's attention, which is a good border to dance across when you can make it work, as AB has. Also, just to point out, this mix is as different from JJT's as JJT's was from Vigilante's, and all three pieces do a good job of representing the depth and breadth the KiC project mustered together. Further KiC mixes will no doubt be posted, but this is probably the last time I'll talk too much about the project itself, so I'll reiterate my initial kudos to Binnie for pulling everything together and to ALL the mixers involved for their combined creative accomplishment. Great mix from Jack, challenging at times and moody, but slick, and an excellent way of handling the material.

― djpretzel