Since the first do-over somehow sounded even more like ass, I remastered/redid the whole track now that I have more experience.
Picture this as the OST for a surprise XTRA WAVE during the next Big Run. Even better if this "King Salmonid" isn't announced anywhere beforehand.
Imagine, if you will, that distorted victory jingle plays to signify a King Salmonid, but nothing happens. All eight(?!) players Super Jump back to their starting locations and Mr. Grizz pipes in to express his confusion. Then he notices... no, no, he definitely sent out a four-man squad! Why are there more of you? How long have these conspicuous individuals in the same uniform been trying to blend in amogus? Are those Grizzco weapons?!
Then without a word, the interlopers all open fire at once. Cue the music.
Although the firefight would break out as the music kicks off, the 100-sec Xtra Wave would only officially start at 0:22 — when the Grizzco helicopter is blasted out of the sky with a Trizooka, careening into the ocean in a catastrophic, firey wreck. Mr. Grizz lets out a long, garbled string of curses and hails the emergency speedboat he prepared in advance to come pick you up. But will it make it to your squad in time? Here's hoping.
---
Ditching the odd time signatures and overdriven timpanis in favor of breakcore drum loops is kinda like sanitizing what made the music ω-3 (the band for Salmon Run) special and shoving what's left in a place where it don't belong — which is similar to my interpretation of what "salmonlings" would be like. Literal fish out of water.
Salminid culture is heavily tied to the belief in the circle of life (via being cooked alive). It's why they're so willing to zerg rush players during Salmon Runs. So imagine being torn away from said cycle, altered so irrevocably that you barely recognize yourself. My intent was to capture that feeling of horrid mania, and the music I sampled from/covered lended itself well to that, I think.
I've also found a good in-universe performer at last: DJ Unregistered Hypercam 3 (by @teethflavoured on Tumblr), a retired Mudmouth turned solo artist for whom I instantly fell head-over-heels.
(sample source list and an ultra-rad visualizer can be found on my YouTube)