OCR02100 - Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker 'Rime of the Wanderin' Seafarer'

[djpretzel]

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

[fil_razorback]

Excellent work and great references (Iron Maiden, drunken sailor songs...all good !).

It's funny how the whole song reminds me a LOT of Ian Anderson's work with an OCR touch. And that's a huge compliment.

[Chernabogue]

Already, listened to it on DoD, but it's a really beautiful arrangement. The lyrics are cool and the track is perfect to relax.

WW is one of my favorite Zelda games and its soundtrack is amazing.

Great job! :nicework:

[SwordBreaker]

ABOUT FREAKIN' TIME. This should've been in OCR long ago. Glad zyko got around to do so as I too have been wanting this gem to have more exposure.

Been a fan since its DoD release, and I also think it's one of zyko's best offerings. Didn't know it was so personal to him...but I guess that's what made this track to be that damn good.

Dragon Roost is one of the best tracks in TWW, and zyko's take does it a lot of justice. Great vocals, perhaps in my top 10 favorites when it comes to OCR vocal tracks. The lyrics really fit in without being too Zelda-centric. Has a lot of parallelisms with Tenacious D's "Wonder Boy"...but a lot more serious of course. I especially like the performance of the chorus. Excellent guitar playing. Very nice and moody atmosphere particularly in the beginning with the beach soundscape and faint flute (of a Zelda classic tune)...and towards the end as well with that flute once again.

One nitpick is the breakdown mid-track sounds out of place at first despite the cool guitar playing. That doesn't take the greatness this track offers though. Keep it up, man!

[Kadosho]

Definitely a surprise, didn't expect it to have lyrics. (but always wondered)
Nice work Zyko! Just hearing the acoustic guitar sing a sweet melody. I vote there should be more covers like this one.

Its a delight to the ears. =D

[Dunther]

Nothing new for me (I'm a huge fan of DoD), but still awesome.

[DragonAvenger]

This might become one of my top favorite Zelda remixes ever. The vocals and story telling are fantastic, and it's only enhanced by the guitar performance. Awesome work.

[BlackPanther]

Absolutely stunning!

[Htheines]

This is really great. I think the vocals add a lot to the song.

[MechaFone]

Striking, epic, and emotional. The whole performance is fantastic, but I especially like the last two minutes. Excellent vocals and talented guitar playing make this one of the best vocals I've ever heard here. Well done, sir.

[Nearly]

This gave me shivers. In an Odd way is Reminds me of Joanna Newsom ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kM0VVUjRXc )in terms of Lyrics. But of course the guitar playing is very different and Beautifully crafted to the story. Having just moved to the surreal seaside Uni town of Aberystwyth, this really connected with me. Thanks for posting it up.

[Flexstyle]

Ahhhhhh goosebumps aplenty! Absolutely a beautiful song here.

[WolfenAmphithere]

This is really beautiful work ^_^ I'm curious to know exactly what the "drunken sailor" version sounded like in comparison. Do you happen to have any old files online somewhere?

[predcon]

Funny you should use the word "Rime" for a song used in Dragon Roost, since rime is actually a kind of frost, specifically the frost that appears on windows early in the morning when dew and fog freezes on them.

[Swann]

About time. I love this arrangement, the reprise section is particularly breathtaking.

[C7]

I absolutely love it. The subtlety throughout all of it along with the really wonderful performance makes this an instant classic. The piece is quite touching and your singing is just right in it. Really great work with a lot of heart.

[DrManhattan]

Wow! Great job man!!!

[melody]

rest in peace mohamed el-hawatky, absolutely touching mix here zyko

[Bahamut]

I remember this track from the DoD - unfortunately I didn't really get a good chance to absorb it then due to lots of things going on with my life, but it's no surprise why this made it to first place for the month back then. It is full of soul that is pretty rare in music.

I absolutely love the instrumentation in this song. The acoustic guitar and other ethnic instruments lend well for an emotional song like this. The lyrics take advantage of this setting greatly, bolstering this heartfelt tale.

This could be one of my favorite tracks on OCR now, it's that deep & different.

[OA]

Pretty awesome stuff, incredible arrangement here, and the scope is massive without being overdone.

A++ would listen again. :-)

[Martin Penwald]

As far as I'm concerned, this is zyko's best offering so far. Beautiful guitar playing, good vocals, and awesome, fitting lyrics. 2:25 onwards, when the song picks up a bit, sounds rather epic. 2:50 adds a little bit of caribbean flavour to the mix (same around 4:15 and 5:00), and the following breakdown is very interesting, having a dramatic feeling to it.

My only criticism is that at about 4:30, when the vocals come in again, it sounds as if they were recorded too loud; this is especially apparent when listening to the mix with headphones.

6:00 onwards, when the flute joins the mix, is just great. Wonderful way to end this remix.

[zyko]

:) thank you, my friends - i'm moved by your words and it reminds me how much of a pleasure it is to share my work with you. thank you and i'm glad you enjoyed it

Funny you should use the word "Rime" for a song used in Dragon Roost, since rime is actually a kind of frost, specifically the frost that appears on windows early in the morning when dew and fog freezes on them.

you know, that irked me as well actually. the iron maiden song is based on a great 18th century poem by Samuel Coleridge of the same name (and the same spelling of rime) and not only structured its lyrics after the poem's style but also directly quotes a couple of verses from it. the poem was actually my chief influence on the piece, not the maiden song (as you can tell they are stylistically nothing alike lol) particularly, but in the end it kinda worked out the same. the lyrics read like a straight forward poem about finding one's way in the world although i ditched the allegorical context to focus more on the isolation of our "hero" on the open sea in search of his destiny.

and like coleridge's poem, its strangely autobiographical :)

[King Bowser Koopa]

Absolutely beautiful. The emotion actually brought tears to my eyes, and I decided to log back in after a -several year- absence just to express my thanks for this amazing piece.

[UnveiledOsiris]

I am so, so glad that you decided to submit this. Over the past week or so, I've been thinking "Man, wouldn't I love to hear a great Dragon Roost remix", and then this popped up in my RSS, ad voila! Insta-fave! Please continue to post the awesome that I've come to expect from you :D

[Proven Paradox]

I already commented on this on the YouTube posting, but there's a lot to say about this mix and the character limit on YouTube comments doesn't allow me to do this proper justice.

First of all, the music is great. Really breathtaking work on the instrumentation. Your guitar-work is divine, and the flute at the end sealed the deal. My only serious complaint on music is the breakdown at ~3:20. It's really sudden and kind of out of place. It's executed well so this complaint isn't TOO loud, but it needed some transition time. It felt kind of like I tripped and fell into another remix. A GOOD remix, but it was sudden and unexpected. And, if I may be allowed to indulge in a bit of nit-picking, the puzzle-solved sound at ~4:27 seems a bit crammed in. But not terribly so.

The voice work, I am less sold on. Firstly, the lyrics are perfect, and I would love to see more song-writing from you. That's not the problem: the glaring weakpoint on this otherwise indestructible monolith of a mix is the vocals. The way the track is written, it really, really needs two different voices singing, because your voice seems to be straining really hard to hit some of the high notes, and not quite getting there.

Don't get me wrong: when you get it right, you get it really right. The fifth verse ("now on this new day, a cold wind blows...", ~2:25) works great as is and was the point that this track went from "pretty okay" to "actually quite good." You drive it home on verse seven ("within the belly of the beast, son...", ~4:30). At that point the only appropriate response is to throw a fist into the air and shout "hell yeah!" (I did not actually do this, but I wanted to.)

But then there are the parts where it doesn't work in a big way because your voice doesn't quite get the note called for. Just about any time the word "legend" comes up in the lyrics is a really good example of this. This happens mostly at the beginning of the track. The voice breaking in verse 2, on the word "stone" made me wince when I first listened to this. I think these points are really begging for a woman's voice. This could have made a great duet: I'm no composer, but instinctively I think this kind of song could have some great weaving effects with two voices. (Or maybe three: get a baritone in there to belt out the super manly verses!)

Overall it's still good, but it brushes close to perfection that I find myself judging it harshly simply because with a few tweaks it could actually reach it.

[DeepChild]

Incredibly beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

[zyko]

proven paradox:

first of all, thanks for the love both here and on youtube... as always, it is much appreciated that my music was enjoyable!

about having multiple voices; while i've never been against collaboration (as i've probably collaborated more over the years than anyone i know), i've gotta stress that not very many of my tracks are presented as "studio" music. i actually struggle mightily with making studio quality music and i invariably end up making mood pieces or environment pieces probably as some kind of copout ... or, like this track and many others, guy-with-a-guitar-in-the-woods types of pieces

because of that, the vocals aren't meant to wow you into thinking "ya know, this guy is a great singer!" instead, it is meant to sound like a guy, who isn't necessarily a musician, with a guitar on a boat... maybe just a boy who found himself caught up in the middle of something much bigger than himself and is struggling with trying to make sense of it. i can't imagine link being a classically trained vocalist and luckily, neither am i :D

honestly, i kinda like my voice cracking... i find the imperfection to be so intrinsically human that it may just be perfect hehe

[Dennyaaa]

This particular ReMix was the first one that have ever gotten to me in a sentimental kind of way. I have been scouting this site for a long time now (not beeing a member untill now, dont ask why, cause I really dont know) and nothing in here, NOTHING drove the feelings of pure brillancy yet strangely sorrow into my head, like this piece.

Everything from your voice (which is amazing) to the simple strokes on the guitar and the nice use of the theme from the game is just taking this... this masterpiece to a whole new level of ReMixing.

I hope that we will be hearing more from you, and once again, thanks for showing the world, that the Triforce indeed is real, or atleast this part of it.

[Emunator]

because of that, the vocals aren't meant to wow you into thinking "ya know, this guy is a great singer!" instead, it is meant to sound like a guy, who isn't necessarily a musician, with a guitar on a boat... maybe just a boy who found himself caught up in the middle of something much bigger than himself and is struggling with trying to make sense of it. i can't imagine link being a classically trained vocalist and luckily, neither am i :D

honestly, i kinda like my voice cracking... i find the imperfection to be so intrinsically human that it may just be perfect hehe

Fuck yes man, this is what I love about your music. A lot of the feel and emotion of your music comes the flaws that are noticeably present, but somehow manages to actually improve the songs instead of detract from them. This is the perfect example of that. Will this be winning any awards for the most technically proficient vocal performance? Probably not, but damn if it isn't one of the best written, most enjoyable, and most heartfelt vocal mixes on the entire site. I hope you don't ever change that aspect of your music, it's what drew me to you at first and what continues to hold me as I hear each new song of yours.

I'm glad I was able to play a small part in helping this reach more ears, it's an unequivocally brilliant performance and absolutely one of those songs that I'll always look back on with the utmost fondness.

[jordanrooben]

After a few seconds my first reaction was "crap, lyrics."

About 30 seconds in and my reactions was "this actually isn't bad."

2 minutes in and I know i'm listening to the whole thing.

This is actually really good. Awesome!

[champ the hippie]

1. love the title, an apropos reference to a beautiful piece of literature
2. such an amazing voice, plays the too high(?) notes well, as stated by djpretzel
3. impressively fitting lyrics that make an already touching song nigh tear-jerking
4. amazing that you seem to have put your own emotions into a melody you didn't compose: props
5. this is gonna be stuck in my head for a while

thank you!