I’m finally back and as announced, we start 2020 with a remake of one of my most popular songs: Crossing the Dark Road 2020.
I don’t know how or when the popularity of that song exploded, but for a good while now I regularly get some non-English comments mentioning “zeta”. A quick Google search couldn’t really give me any lead on that, so if anyone can shed some light on that (in English preferably), it would be greatly appreciated.
Either way, the song was originally a remix of Bowser’s Road, the remake adds Bowser’s Theme from Super Mario 64 to the mix. What I didn’t expect: the song really didn’t seem to have as much potential for improvement as I was hoping for. It seems to have aged rather well, so the only thing I could do was changing around the mixing and a few instruments a bit. Unsure if it’s actually an improvement though, but judge for yourself:
As announced last time, the Best of album has been released a little later this time – but the wait is over, it’s finally here!
2019 was a somewhat rocky year, with a few unplanned delays and a month-long hiatus. There were a few surprises, songs that worked out quite well and songs that had to be salvaged for a release. To sum it up, I think it was a “meh” year in terms of music.
Despite all that, I still think a lot of the 2019 tunes actually turned out pretty cool. My personal favorites this year are hard to pick, but I’d say Night of the Vampire, Coconut Tower and especially Wolfen Mercenaries 2019 get my vote.
As usual the album features all songs of 2019 which aren’t already on another album (like the Clad in Shadow songs). The songs have been re-rendered for maximum quality and are available on bandcamp in different formats.
As usual, some of the songs got a little makeover for the Best of release – I went all out this time and tried to improve a lot of songs. Some songs got a new intro, like Time to Battle 2 and Night of the Vampire (actually got the Entrance Theme from Super Castlevania IV as an intro) among other changes, Dancing Through Grunty’s Lair 2019 got Treasure Trove Cove, etc. Wolfen Mercenaries 2019 is a bit of a special case, as this album-exclusive version is basically the Surprise Edit with Corneria – so a fusion of both versions we had this year.
Of course these improvements are somewhat subjective – so you might not agree that the album version is better. But we can agree that it’s different at least~
Here’s where you can get the album, it will be available for free for a limited amount of time (just type 0,00 when asked for the price):
I just received 1,000 download credits for free downloads because you guys were very supportive and bought a bunch of my albums, so this should last a while! Finally, here’s the video. I tried to showcase the changes specifically as usual:
And that was 2019! As for 2020: I think we’ll start off the years with a nice little remake of one of my most popular songs before we dive right into this year’s big project. I got something very big and special planned, I sure hope I’ll be able to pull it off! After all it’s our 10th anniversary ; )
The year is at its end, and we’re doing things a little bit different this time – well, at least in terms of timing. Today I present you the final mix of 2019: Coconut Tower!
In the last years, the final mix was usually a big VGM medley. I wanted to continue that tradition at first, but then it turned out a little different after I decided to not take any risk and just roll with two of my favorite tunes, Stone Tower Temple (The Legend of Zelda:Majora’s Mask) and, of course, Bad Boss Boogie (Donkey Kong Land).
However, the mix is still somewhat of a medley as I also included two other themes I wanted to include in a song for a while, Cammy’s Theme (Super Street Fighter II) and Shovel Knight‘s High Above the Land (The Flying Machine).
Instead of a medley, it’s more of a battle between the two main tunes, starting off with Stone Tower Temple, but after a while DK takes over – and although Stone Tower Temple struggles to take control again, DK completely takes the lead after a short Stone Tower intermission.
As I said before, we’re doing things a bit differently this time, meaning the Best of album will be released in a few days instead of today.
As usual it will include all of this year’s songs that aren’t otherwise part of an album, like the Clad in Shadow songs. I also plan on revisiting some of the mixes and try to make some improvements where I can, as every year. Just taking a little more time for it this time – there’s so much happening at the end of the year anyway~
The target schedule for the release of Best of DJ the S 2019 is next Monday (January, 6th). As always, it will be available on Bandcamp, and for free for a limited time. I hope you’re looking forward to it!
