ReMix: Donkey Kong Country 'Chekan Winter'

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Well, it's been relatively quiet recently, but here's a mix from newly knighted OC ReMixer Prophecy, originally created for the Kong in Concert project but abbreviated/adapted a bit for submission here. The ReMixer, aka Jason Miller, writes:

"...there's been some questions as to the origin of the remix title. The "Cheka" were Soviet secret police. I think the name is appropriate for the mood of the song."

I'm not sure if I would have conjured mental images of stern, slavic men running around and being... official... had the image not been planted there by Jason's explanation, but it seems fair enough; think cold, distant, uncompromising trance/electronica with a hard edge, and you're there. The build here takes a little longer than some mixes, and things really only get going full-steam at around at 2'22" when the four-on-the-floor kick drops. Prophecy's added in a large variety of elements that wouldn't appear in a more cookie-cutter trance piece, at times going pretty far outside the trance mold and venturing into breakbeat. There's choral elements, church bells, mucho bell timbres for that wintry feel, layered percussion, filter breaks, a kickin' extended breakout at around 4'05" that's especially groovematic, and while the core underlying progression does pretty much stick to its guns throughout, variation efforts are clearly running on high for structure and additive/subtractive groove layering. Judge Larryshkaya Ojinova played the mixed-heritage card with his thoughts:

"Being half-Russian myself, something like gothic trance wasn't going to be literally evocative of the motherland, but I definitely see the Russian influence here from many of the elements in play like the choir vox, bells, and strings, as well as the cadence of the source tune arrangement from 2:48 to 3:14 in particular. I thought the winter vibe was captured very well. I could envision DK & Diddy having to navigate through the most difficult Gorilla Glacier level imaginable."

It definitely conveys cold temperatures effectively while being a hot mix, and in this sense is comparable to McDonald's McDLT from days of yore, which kept the hot side hot and the cold side cold. Great, solid electronica from Prophecy - looking forward to more.

― djpretzel