If you’re a long time listener of our podcast, Barrel Roll!, you might recall a very special episode last June where we chatted with Mustin of The OneUps about his two new projects in the works, and even played a radio edit from each. One of those albums, CHRONOTORIOUS, has long since been released and reviewed. The other is finally dropping on May 4th.

For those unfamiliar, The OneUps are a videogame cover band that interprets classic tunes into a variety of styles, including Fusion, Funk, and Jazz. Their newest project, the Super Mario Kart Album, has been a long time coming. In our interview, Mustin shared that both the game itself and the original soundtrack by composer Soyo Oka, holds a special place with him. The Super Mario Kart Album is a labor of love you wont want to miss.

The album starts things with a soothing acoustic guitar rendition of the game’s title screen. It’s a great introduction to the album. Besides its individual merits, it gives a very coherent flow to the album as the energy builds up in the next track, “Mario Circuit”.

If you listened to the interview, you’ve already heard a radio edit of “Mario Circuit”. The full version found on the album is over 2 minutes longer, giving the arrangement more room to breathe. It’s a very funky track. There are lots of slick sections where the drums drop out at the end of the bar, causing a very cool and unique accent to the flow of the song. One of my favorite parts, is the four-part solo where the bass, a very expressive synthesizer, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar take turns going nuts.

Next up is “Donut Plains”. The track is as fast paced as it is mellow and relaxing. You can’t help but feel good when listening to it. “Ghost Valley” is where things take an unexpected shift in both mood and instrumentation. In contrast with the rest of the album, you’ll hear synthesizers take things over. Even the drums are electronic. It’s a very creative take on the source with a lot of interesting sections, specifically in the leads.

Not letting “Ghost Valley” be the only black sheep, “Bowser’s Castle” keeps the album transforming with a heavy rock cover. While it starts out about as you’d expect a rock cover of the theme to sound, things start to get really interesting a little over a minute in. The song’s pace changes a few times, with one of the beats even seeming to nod to Mario 3‘s airship.

By “Choco Island”, things finally come back around to more of the sound you expect from the band. This is also where we finally get to hear some sweet, sweet saxophone. It’s another fast paced, feel-good track that’s easy to love.

The highlight of the album for me is the next track, “Something About Koopa Beach”. It takes obvious inspirations in its title and sound from Daft Punk’s “Something About Us”. As a huge Daft Punk fan, this track really resonates with me. It’s also the biggest departure from the mood of the original of all the tracks on the album. Considering you can already find a truer to the source version of the song on The OneUps: Volume 1, the extra creative liberties taken with “Koopa Beach” are more than welcome.

Coming off of the last slow jam is “Vanilla Lake”. This one bridges the gap between the surrounding tracks nicely as it very gradually starts to bring the album back up to speed. Following is “Battle Mode”, a pretty zany track altogether with some pretty crazy sounding synthesizers and lots of fun drum fills to keep things interesting.

Finally, the album closes out with “Rainbow Road”. The disco beat and uplifting melodies really make the album leave on a high note. When it finishes, you’ll want to start the whole album over again. I know I have more times than I can count already.

The Super Mario Kart Album is a very creative and satisfying take on some very under-appreciated music. If you already know the tunes, get ready to hear them brought to life in ways that do great justice to their origins. If you aren’t familiar with the soundtrack, this is a great introduction into Soyo Oka’s fantastic work.

The album drops on May 4th and will be available on TheOneUps.com, Band Camp, iTunes, and Amazon MP3.

This review is based on a digital copy of Super Mario Kart Album provided to us by The OneUps.

Tags: arrange album, fan projects, Mario Kart, music review, Mustin, SNES, Soyo Oka, Super Mario Kart Album, the oneups

This entry was posted on Monday, May 3rd, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Music, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.