ReMix: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest 'Castle of Tears'
Start your weekend off right with the return of DigiE after more than a year of radio silence on OCR, with this epic ReMix from Castlevania II by Maurice & Sanjay. 'Bloody Tears' may be fairly popular territory, but the dynamic duo arrived at it through a creative process that took them a few other places first, before coming back to a revered classic:
"After a long break of deciding what to remix, we went through a bunch of songs but were never really sure of what we'd really like to do. We went through Street Fighter, Lost Odyssey, Double Dragon and even tried another One Must Fall track amongst others. We ended up back, once again, to one of our childhood favorites, Bloody Tears.
We've tried to remix this song countless of times, but were never really satisfied with the end result(s). We tried it again recently out of a whim, and sure enough it sounds better than all of our previous efforts on the track that ocurred before. We hope you agree on this. We've had a lot of fun working on this, and it's great that we finally got a reasonable result out of like, 6 tries. All in all, we hope you enjoy it! :D"
Having experienced ReMixer's block myself, starting 3 or 4 consecutive mixes of the same song just to throw out each after hours of work, I can relate to the process. I can also relate to the cathartic feeling of release upon finally stumbling upon an approach that WORKS, moving ahead with it, and finishing a mix. Sometimes the best mixes are borne out of a convoluted creative process that involves many such aborted arrangements and stylistic meandering, though, and this seems like one of them: DigiE have put together a great CV2 arrangement, and actually responded to several suggestions made by the panel with some quick modifications that made a good sub even better. Specifically, judges had some production issues, but also criticized the repetition that occurred in the original submission about four minutes in. The ReMixers responded:
"We've been more than happy to revise a few things for you guys as you had some awesome tips that really helped brought the piece forward even more!
For the revised version, these things have been changed and/or added:
* Intro has been overhauled.
* Compression has been toned down a lot.
* Cluttered instruments have either been completely removed or toned down significantly.
* Drums have been amplified.
* Certain sections have been completely overhauled.
* Clarity has been boosted.
* Large amount of additions made.
** On the comments of 4:44 and beyond hitting repetition; we completely agreed and tossed in a big surprise for you guys here after the 5:20 mark."
I'd just like to say... sweet! These fellas really responded to judge feedback on both a general AND specific level, improving an already solid mix and bumping it up into the realm of epic. The result is something that takes a familiar source and galvanizes it with electronic electricity, fixing most if not all judge complaints. Of the original sub, Jimmy wrote:
"This is a really great "I'm-gonna-throw-my-junk-up-in-your-face-and-you're-gonna-like-it" arrangement. Lots of energy, and even if at 6 1/2 minutes long it seemed to drag on just a hair, it never lost intensity, and I find that admirable."
That's only more admirable and accurate now, with the changes made. DigiE don't sub too often, but when they do, it's always high-grade electronica with a lot of ideas. From the opening, half-tempo groove with synth-guit lead against a Badalamenti-style pad progression to (my favorite) the fast breakdown bit at 3'52" that builds on that classic running eighth-note riff, there's a lot of junk being thrown up in my face... and I like it. Excellent to see Maurice & Sanjay back, and truly exceptional that they took a good sub and revised it into an accessible, energetic classic.
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