Posted 2015-11-30, evaluated by djpretzel


CYBER MONDAY DEALS, eh?? How about a FREE NEW MARIO EDM ALBUM??

We're proud to announce the release of our 55th FREE community arrangement album, Super Cartography Bros., featuring 17 EDM ReMixes (with DJ-friendly edits) dedicated to the music of Super Mario map themes!!

Director Michael "Flexstyle" Birch writes:

"EDM is a genre near and dear to my heart. Video game music is also near and dear to my heart. I've been wanting to direct a high-production-value album for OCR that combines these two things for quite a long time, so when Shariq posted his ideas in the forums, I knew this was going to be the project for me.

I'm in the somewhat unique position of being invested in several different communities that all appreciate great video game music, so, for this invite-only project, I reached out to a lot of incredibly talented people. Many of these faces are well-known around OCR, but a few of them make their OCR debuts on this album. Thanks to friends from not only OCR, but also GameChops, RadioSEGA, the Nerdcore VPC group, and more, this is a well-stocked roster of ReMixers! Please make sure you check each one of them out individually, as they're all well worth following.

Some notes on the direction process: To ensure continuity, yet make sure each artist's unique sound shone, I made sure songs were submitted as unmastered files, and then I mastered everything myself. I decided to have each artist submit a club-length version of their song as well as a condensed, "radio-length" version. This way, all the OCR listeners who would rather not listen to a minute or so of stripped-down song (as is traditional to have in a club-friendly track) before the meat of the track hits aren't left out in the cold. Of course, the DJ-friendly version had to be included on an album like this as well.

There's also a third set of songs included in this download, and that is the DJ-mixed version - I had my good friend and fellow DJ Global-Trance, real name Aaron Wu, turn in a continuous mix set of all the songs together. That mix is available as a single continuous file, but also cut up to be easily playable as skippable MP3s or FLAC files. By doing this, I wanted to ensure that this free release through a video game music website mirrored the quality of many high profile releases from EDM record labels around the world, which often include both full-length and DJ-mixed versions of the album. Heck, by including the radio edits, I've managed to cover a base that those labels usually miss! Never let it be said that OCR doesn't cater to a wide range of listeners.

Overall, this was a real labor of love, but what sort of fan-made arrangement album ISN'T? I've been playing these songs in my car and in my DJ sets for nearly a year, and I can't believe how well it turned out. I hope that you find this release as enjoyable to consume as it was to produce!"

DarkeSword's come up with a lot of album concepts, and it's quite cool that this one clicked for Mike, resulting in an unapologetically 100% EDM album that takes on the wonderful & often minimal map themes from Mario games through the ages. We start the party with our FIRST EVAR arrangement from Super Mario 3D World for the Wii U, a KILLER blend of dance & gypsy/caravan flavors from Mike himself, with XPRTNovice collaborating on an arsenal of live instruments. Flexstyle (Michael Birch) writes:

"We'd been scheming to do a Caravan Palace-esque track for a long time. When I started this project and found this source, I knew that this was going to be the one to do it with. The original is practically begging to be done with funky gypsy jazz guitars, driving beats, groovy bass, and crazy-fantastic solos, so, of course, that's what we did. Super thanks to Joe for being completely on board with the concept and giving me a ton of great material to work with!"

XPRTNovice (Joe Zieja) adds:

"My favorite part of this track was working with an experienced DJ who ALSO loved Caravan Palace, a group that was the original reason Flex and I started talking. What I liked about working with him from a DJ perspective was that I didn't have to compose any long parts or worry about the structure of the song; I could literally just give him 2-second long ideas - about 50 of them - and I knew he'd know what to do with them. Easily one of my favorite tracks I've worked on. How could it not be? I got to yell "Wahoo!" like Mario!"

I looooooove this ReMix; everything clicked, it feels perfect, it's insanely, disgustingly, revoltingly catchy & infectious, and the use of varied licks & phrases paired with phat beats & synths... ridiculous, gentlemen. If you can't get funky to this, you can't get funky, period - it's that freakin' good. Highly recommended, a collaboration that was cosmically preordained to be amazing from the beginning of the universe and is only hitting us just now, today :) AWESOME way to kick things off & a wonderful introduction to SCB!!

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 13 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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superdan54
on 2018-10-17 23:42:11

Love this mix! I'm guessing the title is in reference to the French band "Caravan Palace", which also has this kind of EDM/swing hybrid thing going on. Great job!

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Crulex
on 2018-04-21 01:55:03

Oooooh, yes this is so jazzy and funky, I love it! A good ol' electro-swing beat with some powerful underlying blasts full of energy, god it's really hard not to dance to this ReMix. You almost HAVE to at the very least tap your toes or nod your head to this. If you don't feel like The Mask in the club listening to this, then somebody must have stopped ya! Great mix, fellas.

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evktalo
on 2016-01-07 03:44:33

Tight stuff. It's clear to hear how XPRTNovice is your go-to collaborator for this type of tune! The process Joe mentions (snippet recording) sounds like a lot of fun as well.

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Somewareman
on 2016-01-04 12:50:21

This song is a ton of fun. Why isn't this a common style in popular music? Who wouldn't want to dance to something so goofy?

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jnWake
on 2015-12-27 21:18:35

The hell is this style haha. I love it though, perfect mix of Flex and XPRT's styles, with Flexstyle's electronic chops and XPRT's quirky creativeness. If I had to critique anything, I felt the guitar playing could've been more "stylish", like using slides for the chromatic licks or stuff like that. It sounded a bit boring for such a fun mix, ignoring the crazy bumblebee-esque thing at 1:17. Sax playing was, as always, spot on.

This is awesome and I hope we get a blues/jazz/whatever remix of this source next haha.

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Necrox
on 2015-12-24 16:11:48

I would love to play this in a club just to see the reactions. Excellent job fitting sax into a dance mix so prominently. I love whatever happened at 1:18. Great clarinet work with the title theme, don't even need to look at the remixer roster to know who it is. Stellar mix, colorful as hell.

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Geoffrey Taucer
on 2015-12-03 01:06:31

Definitely among my favorite mixes on the site. Top-notch.

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DjjD
on 2015-12-02 01:06:49

Man, you guys have truly outdone yourselves. Fucking awesome. \m/

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YoshiBlade
on 2015-12-01 21:31:47

Electro-Swing! Electro-Swing! Electro-Swing! That opening...I can't help but see the needle drop on one of those old wind up gramophone record players, it just sounds so much like it's spinning, as matter of fact I feel like I'm spinning while I listen to this track and that guitar is the channeled spirit of Django Reinhardt, everything that is old is emulated perfectly and everything that is new is on point! I enjoyed dropping in on Felxstyle's twitch sessions when he was mixing this and I've been waiting for this one....must...resist....urge to...Charleston....

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timaeus222
on 2015-12-01 03:56:58

Joe's contributions really made the track here. Totally evokes that feel of a caravan!

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Black_Doom
on 2015-11-30 23:35:02

I've alwayas loved it since its realese on DoD. I'm big sucker for such combinations of EDM and live instruments and this track doesn't disappoint at all. It's just hard not to fall in love with the groove here :) It's just too catchy and too vivid. But so awesome!

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Chernabogue
on 2015-11-30 15:02:57

Instant fav here. Love the electro swing style. Great work to both of you guys! :)

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Liontamer
on 2015-11-30 13:06:45

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Sources Arranged (2 Songs, 2 Games)


Primary Game:
Super Mario 3D World (Nintendo , 2013, WIIU)
Music by Koji Kondo,Mahito Yokota,Toru Minegishi,Yasuaki Iwata
Songs:
"World Bowser"
Additional Game:
Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo , 1985, NES)
Music by Koji Kondo
Songs:
"Overworld BGM"

Tags (2)


Genre:
Mood:
Instrumentation:
Additional:
Origin > Collaboration
Origin > Competition > Dwelling of Duels

File Information


Name:
Super_Mario_3D_World_Caravan_Bowser_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
5,950,337 bytes
MD5:
1cd974e1fe6cb860913661a4892c7ebf
Bitrate:
237Kbps
Duration:
3:18

Wahoo!

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