Album: Humans + Gears: Xenogears ReMixed

And part 3!:
Crash + Restore: Not as good as “Of Sea and Fire” to me, but still very catchy. My only big complaint comes from being a guitarist: I really wish the acoustic guitar wasn’t synthetic and that it was an actual guitar. Other than that, this starts off very unassuming and then grows and never stops growing. Unique mixing of textures and hard-panning makes this mix stand out for me, and is very catchy once the grooves start to set their course. The latter half of the song is the strongest once the melody starts to switch up, a little after 2:30. Great “harmonic distortion” on the lead; Ziwtra truly is a jack of many trades.
Dreamscape: This did not immediately stand out to me. I actually called Avaris up after my first listen through and said “I love Nutritious’s work, and it was satisfactory but just didn’t grab me.” Then, I had the craving to listen again. And again. And then it didn’t leave my head for a solid week. This has to be laced with some kind of audio-crack, cause I needed a fix every so often for a while. While not an epic mix by any sort, this is one you can listen to on loop by itself for hours. The sax is great above all else, and the choice of pads and synths throughout is spot-on. There’s so much layering going on it’s hard to dissect it, but Mr. Nutritious-and-Delicious made something totally addictive here.
Wounded Soldier: the strings and brass were a bit harsh on my ears, but I found this mix to be satisfying from a dancey-standpoint. Not one of my more favorite tracks, but it’s still pretty good. Also a bit too short, now that I think about it. Please sir-or-ma’am, make it a little longer next time. It’s over before it gets really good!
Smooth Criminals: Two words – bad ass. This is a bad ass mesh of late 80’s early 90’s pop and indie-electronic style. I can’t figure out the best way to describe it as a whole, but the chopping throughout the entire song is masterful and shows true attention to detail. Nothing feels sloppy whatsoever. Great title as well.
Sleeper Dreamer: Now THIS is a nice long trance song. This got a lot of playtime on my trips to and from college park ever since I got my hands on the project files for Xenogears. Great chopped strings, subtle choice in leads, and overall just feels very well-arranged. It has that especially-good flow of staying the course without being entirely predictable. The swells were also mighty gorgeous during the breakdown. I bow to you, Siamey. I will personally request this song be played at some point this year to get the jamspace room bouncing.
Omen (R3Mix): If Avaris hadn’t showed me the original WIP of what you had planned, I’d say this was masterful. As it stands, I really wish you finished that first WIP! This song, however, is still fantastic on its own. Haunting and, somehow, it retains both human and gear qualities. The instrument wails are great for setting the mood, and the piano is processed to a fantastic degree to get this mechanic feeling. Very well done, though I also feel it is a little short. I have no problem hitting the repeat button though.
Akkadia Rising: Interesting groove here. Unique, to be sure. I like this version better than the solo sax because this just feels a good bit fuller and more rounded. Masterful sax playing though, and the production on this is great. Nice e-piano as well, every supporting bit does its job here. A must-listen for the originality here.
Devil Flare: I don’t even know if this counts as a call and response between the lead and the strings-buzzsynth, but its definitely SOMETHING like that. This has a very raw and aggressive feeling to it, which is both a good and bad thing – great for feeling aggressive, bad if you want to calm down when driving. It makes me feel like something urgent is going on and I need to get up and do something. The orchestral instruments used here are GREAT, hands-down.
Binary Chain: Another one of those mixes I just can’t describe in words. Listen. Listen now. The piano-lead sections alone make this mix a must-have on my playlist. For some reason, I’m reminded a good bit of Phil Collins, but only in a good way.
October Rain: Having this back-to-back with Binary Chain causes overwhelm-of-awesome. My only complaint is the snare sounds too processed and doesn’t have enough punch. Great collaboration otherwise, and everything is proper. Another “Listen now” track.
Of God and Man: Creepy way to start off, and didn’t take off early enough for me, but I guess that was not the intention of this mix. Makes feel genuinely unsettled, very very cool stuff nrich.
Dogma: Interesting opening, can’t say I was the biggest fan due to the detuning, though I know that was definitely intentional. Once the drums kick in, I started to enjoy it, and this was another genuinely creepy and unsettling mix.
Defective: This is a story told in music. Gorgeously done, folks. The center focus felt a little much during certain parts of the song, but that didn’t detract from the final result for me. And thus would end a great project for me…though there is one last song…
Shit on Citan: *sigh* Oh CHIPP Damage…I really used to be into this kind of music, and whether this be joke or not, I just can’t say it fits anywhere on this disc. I just….ahh man, why?! This kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth, no matter how funny certain parts are, it really makes the album seem a little tainted in retrospect. I’m not trying to offend here, but I just really did NOT dig this song. Frowny faces from me here. Sorry, dude.
And thus ends my elongated reviews of the entire project. I’m going to go get some ice for my wrists now, that was a lot of typing.

- Level 99 on November 17, 2009

Major props for using the word "heck" in a context that doesn't make it sound completely lame :nicework:

- Emunator on November 10, 2009

People keep asking me what the lyrics are to my Xenogears track, and I don't have a file saved so I'll transcribe it from the MP3. I realize I have a fairly horrible lisp but I recognize my own voice enough to know what I'm saying, heh.
[b]In Joy & Sorrow[/b]
I do not remember what happened; my memories have all gone away
I was a liability inside the gear that day
We set out to defeat the evil that culminates in our doom
A perilous trek from here to heck through the cloudy sky with you
[Chorus]
Above there was an explosion, a dimensional erosion
For you I can extend my hand and deliver you from destruction
"ahh"
[Chorus --
In joy and sorrow we find our way
underneath the sky so blue
there's nothing that I would rather see
than the sky, the clouds, and you ]

- Oinkness on November 10, 2009

Okay, fell a little behind with doing other things but I definitely need to wrap up these song reviews. I’m fighting that habit of starting things and not finishing them, so here goes!:
The Treasure That Must Be Seduced: Originally I had the impression this would be another song similar to AnSo’s Too Hot for Clothes mix, since I heard that one first, but while I may have been assuming incorrectly, I was not let down with the song. Nearly everything here is gorgeous, and even the acoustic guitar sample, which is not fantastic, suffices just as well due to excellent delay and the fact that all the other instruments used are great. It is probably impossible, in my opinion, to get sampled guitars to sound as good as real guitars would, or as convincing, and this one only suffers a small amount because of it. The song is extremely soothing, very nice work.
In Joy and Sorrow: I have to echo some small concerns that have been brought up about this song by others: the production is a bit lacking in areas. This is mix is definitely unique in that it takes a southern folk-polka-rock approach with vocals. Some really cool ideas here, and the lyrics are quite comical, which is a nice break from the serious nature of many of the other songs. Again, production holds this back from really breaking through though. Another one to throw to the learning process and it is still enjoyable if you’ve got an open mind. My own opinion is that this also feels like it was rushed and could have been polished and expanded a bit more. Some ideas feel like they were thrown in there just for experimentation and not truly tested to see how they mesh over time. Just keep progressing and learning from things like this!
New Day: While still very good, I think this is the weakest of Ziwtra’s songs on the project. Everything is mastered well, but the panning threw me off a little. Also, it feels like this took just a little too long to get started. A cool mesh of synth and organic stuff none-the-less, and the majority of the orchestral stuff reminds me a lot of Iwata’s and Sakimoto’s work on FFT. The bells are great too, and crescendos in the song are not jarring. It’s a faster-moving song but somehow still retains a good bit of a chill vibe.
Welcome to the Human Race: ….wow. John Revoredo, Paul Weaps, a ridiculous song here. You really do love those sound bits, don’t you? This song is awesome. The percussion and rhythmic reinforcement from synths gives the song a very pressured and “under fire” feel. The guitar is awesome, and fits the song great. The reverse speaking wasn’t my cup of tea, but that one small part I can live with. The strings…so simple but so great. Welcome to the Human Race, indeed. *hits repeat*
First Meeting – The Shadowed Forest: Soothing piano, reminds me simultaneously of writing for a mime-play and something from silent hill but with less dissonance. Not an uplifting song but it stirs the soul, the performance is pretty amazing. I can’t pick away the performance much since I am not very well versed in piano, so I’ll just call this like I hear it: beautiful. One instrument can truly convey so many things.
Akkadia Rising: Crazy processed saxophones. Well, looks like I have to jump on the bandwagon, cause this stuff is very cool. As it stands, I’m a fan of the full Akkadia Rising on Gears disc more than the solo sax edit, simply because this is still pretty but also seems a little too empty, even with all the delays, reverbs, and parts playing at the same time. A cool experiment to say the least. Bleeding Gums Murphy would be proud. Performance seems pretty flawless from a non-saxophone-knowledgeable standpoint, and it is well-mastered, with a cool arrangement on the source.
A Trace of Tears: Wow, what an all-star collab. No complaints here at all. I demand you listen to this song. I wouldn’t be surprised if I heard this in a movie soundtrack or on the radio at some point (if I listened to the radio, that is). Ending the disc on such a strong note…very yes.
End of Humans Disc, on to Gears Disc…
Zeno Paradox: Yeah, this is another song that I just can’t put into words due to overwhelming awesome, and yes I realize I use that word a lot. Shut up. Just listen to this one, I can assure you that you will find something to enjoy about it, if not enjoy everything. E-Bison has musical powers like a psycho crusher to the face.
Daijiru (Too Hot for Clothes): Ballsy move with those vocal samples, man. It paid off in my book, but I get the feeling not everyone will appreciate or enjoy it like I do. Arrangement is very cool, and you did a good job with keeping the locale’s feel and still adding some great spin on it. This a great car groove for me. Sexy!
And I'll hopefully be finishing this up soon enough.

- Level 99 on November 10, 2009

Catharsis;610162 wrote: Almost every time I listen to the whole album, I find a new favorite that I overlooked the first listen. My recent discoveries: "Crash / Restore" is absolutely fantastic, and I all but dismissed it at first. The same goes with "Dreamscape". I'm sure others will suddenly occur to me that are also fantastic.

Thanks, glad you liked it :). Dreamscape is one of my older songs (and it shows, I think), so I'm glad to hear it's still enjoyable.

- Nutritious on November 10, 2009

Not much to say other than that this is now my favorite OC Remix album by far. And I LOVE many of the others, so that's saying a lot. I've always enjoyed the Xenogears soundtrack, and the "Creid" album. I'm quite pleased to see that this album does justice to just about every track.
Almost every time I listen to the whole album, I find a new favorite that I overlooked the first listen. My recent discoveries: "Crash / Restore" is absolutely fantastic, and I all but dismissed it at first. The same goes with "Dreamscape". I'm sure others will suddenly occur to me that are also fantastic.

- Catharsis on November 4, 2009

I practically never post here (and I've been listening for nearly a decade), but I decided it would be borderline unconscionable not to write a "thank you" post after listening to Humans + Gears almost exclusively for nearly two weeks straight. ;-) I took a look at the original project thread, and MAN am I glad the noobs in charge marched on despite the initial pessimism. :nicework:
From the concept to the artwork to the music itself, this album is simply fantastic. In fact, it's so good that it completely renewed my interest in the Xenogears universe. There are even a few source tracks that I'm just now fully appreciating for the first time after hearing such good remixes on this album. Sure, a couple tracks weren't my favorite, a few others took some getting used to before appreciating their awesomeness, and there's no Small Two of Pieces (so nothing to bump Alexander Prievert's Broken Mirror out of playlist circulation ;)), but all in all, this just might be my favorite album project so far. To pick just two standouts for me from each disc which didn't hit the main page on OC ReMix, I'd go with Ship of Emotion and Song, Take Flight, October Rain, and Defective. Still, listing all of my favorites from this album would involve copying down almost the entire tracklist, so I'll refrain. This is enough of a gushing fanboy post as it is.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone involved with this project for making it happen, and THANK YOU especially to Foxhull and Avaris for being the driving forces behind it!

- Mini-Me on November 2, 2009

Been a long time lurker/fan of OCReMix and it's crew. This album was amazing but there was one track that kinda had me do a double take really quick. "Wait... Is that.. moaning??? haha" I thought the track was pretty awesome and creative. Definitely wouldn't want to get caught on the train blasting that in my headphones though. XD
Congrats on another successful album.

- kurokikaze01 on October 31, 2009

Just finished downloading the album. I have listened to track 1 and 2 so far. I like this one alot. Thanks ! :)

- Didaji on October 25, 2009

Studio Eden;606535 wrote: However, R3FORGED's Omen (R3 Mix) is still my absolute favorite track on this entire album and it's well deserved considering he's been revamping this mix for years. The electronic, programming style that this was hoping to show definitely came through.

^_^
Thank you! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it, as well as everyone else that has been voicing their opinion.

- Reforged on October 24, 2009

avaris;606077 wrote: Quickening was actually specifically made bc there was no Small Two of Pieces mix. Even though it's only an instrumental of the melody/motif that is prominent in Faraway Promise it was the best we could do.
One of the things in running a project that covers *all the tracks* is that it extends the life of the project considerably. Given the already 3 years this was out; I did not think waiting another 1-2 years woulda been a smart thing. Given the HUGE soundtrack and the lack of wide spread support in the beginning it would have been impossible to deliver a quality project in a reasonable time frame. it's kinda all about checks and balances and working with what ya got! :) Luckily everyone worked their asses off on their mixes. I am truly thankful for all of the awesome people who made songs for this project. Thanks guys! :)

That's fair enough. It still would have been cool to hear something from those tracks, but it's understandable why you guys did not do them. What's there is amazing, so I'm certainly not complaining. :)

- Darth Magus on October 23, 2009

I just wanted to say that after listening to the first three mixes posted on the site, and loving each of them, I had to download the whole album! Looking forward to listening to it.
Great work!

- Bryan on October 23, 2009

Okay, first and foremost, I would just like to thank you guys for another great project. Amazing job and I look forward to all other projects you have in the future. I've been keeping tabs with OC Remix since it first opened up in '99 (and yes, I mean back when the download slots were between midnight and 6 in the morning - I can not BEGIN to tell you how many nights I stayed up with my crappy, dial up connection, trying to get these songs back then and it was still a decent size then) and I'm really impressed with how far everyone has come along.
Okay, so now with the review right? Xenogears is still, by far, one of my favorite RPG's of all time (definitely in my top 10). So when I came onto the website and saw that this was the new album project up for download, I immediately torrented it, went to class, came home and opened up both albums, listening straight through each one.
Humans: Oh...my...goodness. So, the instrumental pieces in this work were absolutely amazing. No disrespect to Mitsuda-san, but when I was listening through all of these tracks, part of me wished that these were the originals and not the actual ones themselves. I mean...damn. I was completely taken away with how everyone was able to keep the original score of the songs, not bothering to taint or change the main melody...but instead, transformed it into an original creation of their own. The vocals in this section were amazing as well. DragonAvenger has come a long way and I will admit, for the past few years, I have been an avid pixietricks fan and tend to be more bias towards her as a female vocalist. But after hearing DA's performance in both Thieves of Fate and the Humans portion of this Xenogears collaboration, I must say that those feelings must be thrown out the window. Vampire Hunter Dan's mix Ship of Emotion and Song was my favorite off of this section of the album and I enjoy how no part of the song was chopped up and obvious in its flow between one song and the next. I also agree that Pocketman's Take Flight could have been longer. But overall, great section of the album and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Gears: So, as stated before, I came straight home from school and listened to this. Which meant that I combined both albums, slapped them into my winamp playlist, and let it rip. I also didn't get a chance to watch the youtube trailer you guys made for the album, so I didn't quite understand the meaning behind splitting the album in half. Or at least I didn't understand the style difference you were insinuating when doing this. I figured it was just a random split like in Chrono Symphonic and didn't pay it much heed. However, when The Vagrance's Smooth Criminal popped up, that's when my eyebrows started to raise and the differences between Humans and Gears became quite evident. Invasion is probably one of my favorite "sewer/dungeon crawl" type songs ever written in that time frame of games, even to this day. So when I heard the glitch at the beginning of the song with the main melody, I immediately took a liking to it. The following track, Sleeper Dreamer by Siamey completely blew my mind. I mean, come on. Take a :30 second something track and transform it into a house technogasming experience? I commend you. However, R3FORGED's Omen (R3 Mix) is still my absolute favorite track on this entire album and it's well deserved considering he's been revamping this mix for years. The electronic, programming style that this was hoping to show definitely came through.
Overall, this album truly impressed me. It took a little getting used to and I probably should have watched the trailer video first. But then again, if I had, I don't think I would have really been able to appreciate the obvious differences you all, the remixers, attempted to make when creating Humans + Gears. A lot of hard work was put into this and I'm so happy you all did wonderful work for a game I felt has been long overdue for its just reward. I have yet to have been disappointed with any of the remix projects you all have created in the past, so I wasn't about to start doubting you guys now.
I look forward to the next remixing project. Your dedication and monstrous changes and improvements over the years have been well worth the drive to continue supporting and following you after all this time. You've never ceased to amaze me, even after 10 years.
And for that, I thank you.

- Studio Eden on October 23, 2009

Been a viewer at this website for quite awhile now, yet never really signed up. Well, the first album I downloaded was Voices of the Lifestream, the FF7 album. I kinda liked, and thought that I'll see which other albums are on here. Needless to say, they are pretty good in my opinion. I quite like them.
I have just downloaded this today, and I am still listening to it. So far I have enjoyed this album, and seems like a good piece of work, especially with the more classical/orchestrated tracks.
Can't wait until the next album.

- harbin91 on October 22, 2009

Any chances of seeing this on last.fm? :)

- kurokikaze on October 22, 2009