ReMix: Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Houseki 'Interdit'
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- Game: Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Houseki (Square, 1996, SNES)
- ReMixer(s): Jaroban
- Composer(s): Yasunori Mitsuda
- Song(s): 'Day of Summer', 'Ending ~ Le Tresor Interdit'
- Posted: 2003-02-04, evaluated by the judges
Oh yeah. Smooth. Jaroban makes a memorable, lasting debut with this challenging, interesting, innovative arrangement that mixes a surprisingly good sounding Korg X5 (damn decent saxophone) with real guitar in a very sound, technical, but also emotional jazzfest. Let's hear what Jaroban says:
"It's my first vg project in 2 years, and it took me the better part of 2 months to create, not including the time it took to revise and get the second draft ready. Anyway I'm really quite happy with how it turned out and I hope you all enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed working on it. I also hope you're not all still sick from the Radical Dreamers flood a few years ago :) This song is actually 2 RD songs fused together: Day of Summer and Le Tresor Interdit. I changed a lot of stuff about them, reharmonized a bit and decheesified the melodies slightly, and put an afrocuban beat under them. All the samples you hear are off my Korg X5, and the only real instrument is the guitar; I want to thank Matt and Andres for laying down that guitar track for me."
- Indeed. While DiscoDan contends that the beat ain't really that afro-cuban (I'd tend to agree), he concedes that it "uses very technically accurate and rich jazz chords, and the theory is sound" - not that sound theory is a guarantor to greatness or an enjoyable ReMix, but in this case it's an asset. You've got great, organic acoustic guitar, a really wonderful sax, some jumpy, syncopated drums, and towards the more flamboyant second half some peppy brass. Whilst the brass samples aren't of the same calibre as the rest of the lot, and pitch bending ensemble ROMpler trumpets is always a dead give-away, the programming & playing is great and things always feel very much alive, developing, and in motion. It sounds like two months were spent on this, as there isn't the type of filler - even acceptable levels - you'd find in a lot of arrangements. Plus the whole idea is very unique and the arrangement is in the interpretive school of ReMixing, with modifications to rhythm, melody, harmony, and chord structure all present and accounted for. Very good stuff, warranting relistening and, speaking at least for myself, studying & learning from. Highly recommended.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the - metalsnakejuice on May 4, 2009
I think if you really knew the soundtrack well, you'd get a lot of additional enjoyment out of this track; it's fun to hear the various motifs appear.
- OA on March 20, 2009
It doesn't really get started until 1:46.
Usually I like Jazz, but this is a little too liberal for my tatses.
It also changes too often; the mix is trying to too many things at once.
It's O.K. but not really one of my favorites.
- 42 on December 13, 2008
But VERY good work overall. I'm certainly impressed -- and disappointed to find that the remixer has no other remix other than this.
- arias on June 3, 2005
- suzumebachi on June 3, 2005
jaroban did an excellent job on this
- jordex on December 30, 2004
love love this. Bad bad me for not commenting on this earlier.. I either lack music of this kind, or this is the best music of this kind that i'll ever ever heard. Good good job, jaroban. May you live happily ever ever after.
- underthesun on June 29, 2004
ahm, good stuff. >D its going on one of my new cd mixes tomorrow.
- pixlz on June 6, 2003
As for the soundtrack itself, of course a lot of it's going to be generic, since RD is a text adventure. But the main tunes, like Day of Summer/Far Promise and Star-Stealing Girl, I feel are some of the most profoundly beautiful I've ever heard. Of course, Far Promise has been done quite to death by now, so I was very pleased to see someone remix the ending theme for a change.
Mad props, Jaroban. Mad, MAD props.
- Dhsu on April 22, 2003
Thanks everyone for the nice comments and valid criticisms. Of course I'll take it all to heart on future projects.
Vigilante: Good ear on the minor 9 chord. As for the question, Majin was right, guitar was the only real instrument. And it's true that the RD soundtrack is a little generic and cheesy, but hey I'm a cheeseball myself, and I like that kind of stuff. It's a matter of personal taste I guess.
Prophecy: Thanks for the in-depth review and the constructive comments :) I just had a couple questions. I wish you could be more specific with your structure comment so I would know what to improve. I think I know what you're driving at, and if so then I agree with you, but I'm not sure. Also I still have no idea what you meant by "numbers" in the transitions. I'm not sure you'll come back and read this, but if you do, and you could clarify, that would be fantastic. Again, thanks!
About the samples, I promise I'm looking for better ones to use in future mixes, but good jazz ones are proving to be rather tricky to locate.
Oh and about it not being Afro-Cuban, well I will concede that it doesn't sound anything like pure Afro-Cuban, like a Chucho Valdéz or some such, because I haven't studied enough about 6/8 piano montunos and aux. percussion rhythms and such. The rhythm groove between the bass and drums that I set up was based entirely on Afro-Cuban rhythms though. So I suppose it comes down to being really difficult to categorize, which is AOK with me :P
Anyway, I'm happy to answer any questions and I welcome ANY comments/criticism you all may have, so feel free to post em here or PM me or whatever. Glad you all enjoyed the mix :) It's refreshing that so many people here like jazz— the jazz community is hurting for an audience almost as much as the vgmusic community. I guess combining the two isn't a particularly lucrative venture :wink: Ah well, never stopped me before.
Whew well I guess that's it for now. Thanks again everybody!
-~·Jaroban·~-
- Jaroban on February 8, 2003
0:01 - Mm.. Coool intro..don't quite know what to expect at this point..cool work though..
0:35 - Hellloo Jazz. Do you know Jazz theory? Certainly sounds like it. the backround sounds Very good..
1:03 - Sweet work man. The Drumbeat is almost too good.
1:29 - Love those Slides...Sweet work.
1:50 - Helllooo Jazz.. once again..VERY jazz.
2:11 - Cool Work..Increadibly Jazzy, Which i adore. not many could pull this off.
2:39 - The beat is constantly changing aswell, its also worth to note the backround sounds provide such clean harmony its almost impossible to deny the goodness.
3:14 - Also of note is the backround work, right here it SHINES. Excelllentae.
3:30 - Love the harmonies that are used here.. Those Chords are Indeed quite Jazz. most of them :P
4:06 - Delicious Work here...I love how full blown its gotten.. More Jazz Chords... Im Diggin' it totally.
4:58 - Excellent fadeout here.. just sort've makes you sit back..reflect...and say "wow" ..as most jazz does at some point..Terriffico!
5:42 - Jeez.. a bit long eh? .. Its entirely worth it. I don't think i can find anything to complain about here.
- k-wix on February 8, 2003
- incinerator on February 7, 2003
- Teliskopic on February 6, 2003
| 10 | Concept. A perfect ten. The artist "Jaroban" established flawlessly a very smoothly executed emotion and flow in this particular song. I felt as though I had just come down with some form of amnesia that seemed to only target the stress areas of the brain. I'm sure it may have something to do with the fact I haven't heard this type of music since my trip to Montana 10 months ago though. That may have made it seemingly more impactful.
| 9.5 | Repetition/Timing: HMM. What to put here? Oh yes, nothing. Everything seemed to check up just flawlessly with the very small exception of the very bizarre out of nowhere sax riff.
| 8 | Synths/Samples: Well let's see. Very realistic. The saxophone sounded a bit fake to me and too loud. I had to turn things up to hear the background in some areas which btw was very nicely done. I have a friend that plays the sax professionally so as far as quality is concerned you can consider me extra critical on this one.
| 6 | Structure: A decent flow. I feel personally that some things, and I say this generally speaking, seemed out of order. The reason I'm hesitant to say which particular areas is simply because a simple change in another area would completely re-balance the entire song. So it's difficult to point out specific areas. Besides these sort of things are more of an artistic thing rather than right or wrong. I just felt that certain things came into play at the wrong times in the song, particularly that sax.
| 7 | Transitions: Muy muy bueno. Trabajado mucho excellente. Most of the changes and recomboing in the song were smooth, fluid and consistent. I just didn't like the numbers and a couple of the transitions. Let me explain on the numbers. It started off with some larger numbers like fours and eights then changed to an almost swing type orchestral with 2 and ones. It was a very interesting style but I preferred the bigger numbers better. It almost seemed to digress into something different. The transition into this different form of style seemed random and a bit out of place.
| 8.1 | Overall: Wow that's the highest score thus far. Keep up the good work, measure your current success and expand upon it. I will be listening next time you decide to create a new 2 month masterpiece and undoubtably enjoying whatever I hear.
- Prophecy on February 6, 2003
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