[The Orichalcon]

Artists: Bladiator & TO
Game: Chrono Trigger
Remix Name: Tears of Contention
Source: http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/spc/ct.rar - CT 3-03 At the Bottom of Night
ReMix URL:

All right. This piece was initially Bladiator's idea. He came to me one day and asked if I was interested in making a Chrono Trigger remix of "At the bottom of night". I liked the piece, so I told him it was worth a shot. He seemed to have quite a few ideas in mind and we went to work coinciding our styles and working out a format. After what took about 5 months, we finally finished it to our liking.

Starting off with some reverbed piano, leading in to the Bozzy Drumset from Stylus, with Squidfont strings making the backing. When we build up, there's some nylon guitar strumming in there, low-end bassline and Atmosphere strings. The midsection is a combination of the squidfont strings, atmosphere strings and a squidfont Cello, before heading back into a final drum and piano section. Closing out with Bladiator's piano and the strings accompanying. Finishing on F Major was Karl's idea, and I think it worked out quite well.

[GrayLightning]

This is superlative and rivals Clairvoyant Elegy as the best, or arguably the best effort by the duo of Bladiator and TO.

I think the arrangement is dazzling on all fronts. Bladiator's new age piano style (more in the style of yanni/clayderman this time works a lot better in my view than his brickman style). The piano is not obnoxious, but it quietly becomes the focus and central point of this arrangement. It's the anchor here and is it ever wonderful. Blad adds a lot of new performance touches in this one compared to some of his other mixes. I love the ornamentations he puts in the piano work. And yet, even with all this going on, it never steals the thunder of the other elements. Everything still has their own space working harmoniously together.

TO as usual brings in the great supporting and production touches. The strings, instrumentation and groove is perfect for this mix.

Wonderful in all degrees. This mix could not have been accomplished without either collaborator - in that sense at its most basic level is a great testament of the succesful nature of this collaboration. Direct post material in my book. YES

[JJT]

Respectable arrangement and a good trademark Karl performance.

I personally would like to have heard a little more dynamic contrast in the string accompanyment, especially in response to what the piano is doing.

At 2:10 Karl begins transitioning towards the break at 2:35, dropping the dynamic level and getting less busy. The drums, strings and bass don't respond to this, but maintain the same groove at the same volume.

Also the piano is mixed a little too soft for my taste.

These issue aren't enough to persuade me to change my YES vote however.

Nice work, though I feel like some of Karl's interpretation has been lost in the final mixdown.

YES

[Liontamer]

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "At the Bottom of Night" (ct-3-03.spc)
http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs...iteEve_psf.rar - 113 "Out of Phase"

Good piano stuffs immediately starting things off; nice atmosphere, very engaging. :43 brings in the TO beats to drive things along. Good stuff at 1:07 with the quick reference to "Out of Phase". If it had stopped with that, I wouldn't have recognized that as an influence but later on it was confirmed.

I think the percussion could have gelled a bit more tightly with the piano work, but overall the piece was clicking and the synergy was there. There's irony involved in that you both had stuff rejected recently, but subsequently team up for this new age gold. Man, this is groove-biasing me with the groovaliciousness. McDonalds, I'm lovin' it.

Full on usage of "Out of Phase" at 2:30 along with that swanky string filling things out. That theme is the best one from Parasite Eve; been a fan of it since using it way back on VGF38, so when I asked Lee to find out from Karl if he'd heard of the theme, I wasn't surprised to find out it was an influence. Goddamn, I be feelin' this mix. The arrangement of "At the Bottom of Night" was very interpretive. 3:43-3:44 seemed like a little burp; notes felt kind of odd, but no big deal to me.

Yeah, this was pimp. Don't need to say anything else.

YES

[Vig]

This mix isnt terribly groundbreaking, and not considering the strong piano performance, the composition is rather simple.

But it's hard not to submit to the OMGGROOVEBIAS going on here. The simplicity of the rhythm and harmony sections works in that it keeps the piano out front where it should be. the interlude before 3:00 is quite nice.

Enjoyable all around.

NO




er...sorry, habit.

YES