ReMix: Final Fantasy Adventure 'A Dream Is Not A Mission'

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Final Fantasy Adventure

And, in the wise words of Queen, "another one bites the dust"; 2006 was a big year for OCR, and as you've hopefully noticed, we capped it off by migrating our forums from phpbb to vbulletin. The sheer notion of the complexity and potential for error involved with this migration made me delay it until I was sure that risk would be limited as much as possible, but we managed to pull if off on Saturday, and have been making incremental improvements since. The immediate focus will be ensuring security and basic functionality, but we hope to start adding some cool stuff in 2007 that will take advantage of some of vbulletin's benefits. A big thanks to all who helped test, as it would have been impossible without the real time feedback that was provided. I'll be making a more elaborate forum announcement that sorta summarizes 2006 and highlights some of our plans for 2007, but until then, happy new year, and on to the music.

Mr. Hahn, alias Ziwtra, joins the ever-lengthening list of ReMixers returning from extended sabbaticals. He explains the plurality of FFA materials from him and BGC:

"way back when (i can't even remember 2004? 2005?) i got together with BGC and we planned on doing a remix project of final fantasy adventure. but that fell through, mostly because i didn't have the time or commitment, which is pretty pathetic considering that i'm a college student and not even married like jimmy. but that's why there's been a plethora of FFA mixes from us."

And suddenly the plethora of FFA mixes from both chaps makes total sense; shame the project didn't make it, but honestly, the totality of their works to date are solid enough to represent a sort of "mini-project", albeit sans the associated fanfare and release coordination. The ReMixer writes of this piece, specifically:

"um. and now for something completely different! if the introduction sounds a lot like BGC's recent mix, that's because we rubbed off on each other quite a bit while we were working. though i left the lead melody intact, i pretty much completely reinterpreted the mood of the tune, taking a pretty standard RPG sorrow song and turning it into a weird hip-hop piece with a focus on string arrangement.

There's even the trusty ole' Malcolm X samples, from "The Ballot or the Bullet", spun around a bit for that authentic "fight the power... while listening to rearranged music from a gameboy RPG" feel. It's both dirtier and hip-hoppier than Ziwtra's oeuvre to date, and I particularly like how the melancholy of the original melodic motif works in this new context; it's more old-skool due to the scratching and spinning and what not, but pieces reminded me of the type of arrangement Eminem employs. The strings themselves aren't uber-realistic, but are arranged wonderfully, with very dynamically accentuating runs and stabs. You've also got a tasty lo-fi electric piano, acoustic piano, deep bass pizzicato coupled with a hybrid synthetic upright acoustic bass, mixed urban percussion with a bunch of sampled scratching fx, and more. It's one of those tracks that has the unique appeal of being groovetastic while at the same time waxing melancholy and bittersweet, and Ziwtra's capitalized on that dichotomy effectively. As we settle into our new forums, and as yet another mixer returns with yet another impressive mix, 2007 is already shaping up to be another great year for the site, and it's not even a week old yet.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
Well l liked this, l thought the scratching was great and the beat was funky too.

- metalsnakejuice on May 8, 2009
A little too edgy for my tastes. The constant scratching gets a little distracting, and the vocal cut up section doesn't fit stylistically. I think if the track was a harder-hitting, song, the vocals would have fit well as a breakdown section, but as-is, it seems like a completely different section from a different song pasted in.
I love the rest of the track; the bass and strings are great, but as a whole, this one didn't really work for me.

- OA on March 31, 2008
Fantastic!
I keep coming back to this song when listening to my "Recent OCR" folder. I enjoy: the voice clips, the punchy strings, most of the scratches/stops, how the drums come in at 0:25, the playful sequence at 2:34, and the transition out of the "clean section at 2:10. There's definitely many other nuances that I'm unable to spot right now, but to me this song has lots of little entertaining details. :)
The only thing that throws me off is the ending, which feels like the departing of a friend. I don't know if that means the song's too short though, since it's dangerous to drag anything out (see: Rogue Galaxy).
Ziwtra, I've greatly enjoyed many of your songs, especially Downwind (http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00805/). Keep up the great work! :D
-Austin Spafford

- DarkFrog on May 3, 2007
reminds me of black eyed peas at intro, mike shinoda song that i don't know title to, and Zion and I's 'the bay'. Don't know why that means anything.

- gliyw1thdabangs on April 27, 2007
Good to know the Ziw is still around. This didn't strike me as much as some of his other stuff, but it's not bad. I, like others, didn't take to the scratches in the beginning, but the vocal section is where they shine. Wish it was longer, too, but Ziwtra's stuff has always been rather short and sweet, right?

- metaphist on March 26, 2007
Just wanted to come back to this after listening to it a bunch. It's easy to overlook the bass in a song; we tend to just absorb it subconsciously, and sometimes it's treated the same way by the composer, as just a sort of conveyor belt to move the song along - but going through my OCR playlist, and reading some comments by the elusive Ziwtra, I was struck by how awesome his bass writing is. It's especially evident in this song, with that bass just popping in your face and riffing all over the damn place. So good, and very instructive.
If he lurks around, I'm curious what kind of music Ziwtra listens to that gives him such a keen sensibility for bass. I would guess some influence from jazz, as he doesn't use it as just another rhythmic element, but a voice in its own right.
Anyway, love this stuff.

- Villainelle on March 4, 2007
Edgy, memorable. Ziwtra really is quite gifted and it's a pleasure to listen to him evolve. I agree with previous comments about the vocal clips and scratching, mostly the scratching--it might have been more effective toned down a bit--but overall this is something fresh and idiosyncratic. Drum sequencing & processing is amazingly tight, as always in a Ziwtra mix. I'm impressed and would love to hear more experimentation/exploration like this from Ziwtra.

- Villainelle on January 8, 2007
[URL="http://www.ocremix.org/forums/../remixer/ziwtra/"]Ziwtra[/URL] never fails to impress. I'm digging this. Not something I have on repeat like your other work but something that blends nicely to my nonchalant mixes playlist to keep me level. The added bonus of the voice in transitions is nice. It wakes me up. Just when I get get nice and snuggly with it, it whips in and puts me in my place. Harsh at first but after a few listens it grows with abundance.

I knew this download was a good one and a keeper. I was oh so right.

- Mahaboo on January 7, 2007
This mix isn't getting enough love. This kicks ass. The string attacks? Awesome. Drumwork? Killer. Scratches and voice sampling? Both great. And with the melodic piano work, this enters the pantheon of great OCRemixes in my opinion. Reminds me a lot of Malcos' Collision which I also love.
A triumphant return by Ziwtra. Keep it up.

- MrBogus on January 3, 2007
I like the drums and the entire feeling of the mix, but the scratching felt like too much like a novelty, but I did like the Malcom X samples. Overall nice mix

- The Vagrance on January 3, 2007
I really liked this, it develops nicely, and the Malcolm X samples add a lot. All in all, I'd say it is good and solid, but I do wish the vocal part was a bit longer, and... developed a bit. It's just this one really awesome section but then it is over, and I am left missing it.

- Master_Yoshi on January 3, 2007
I really don't like the scratching in this. It's too frequent and some of the scratching sounds completely out of place, making it difficult to enjoy the awesome beats. I love the strings and enjoyed and and most of the mix from the second half on. I agree with Audity in wanting a little more "craziness" from the voice part, though.

- Mozutaka on January 2, 2007
This mix sounds very different, in a good way. The best part about it is all the little things goin on. (Pitch bends, vocals, rythms) When those strings start hitting really fast is def the highlight for me, good stuff dude.

- avaris on January 2, 2007
Very nice.

- Geoffrey Taucer on January 2, 2007
The part where the voice clips come in is amazing, though I would have done a bit more craziness with it. Before that, the song seemed like a random plethora of mixed genres and out-of-place scratching. After this true focus finishes playing, things start to make a bit more sense.
The rest besides the great middle section (could have been better, personally) is simply an enjoyable listen. However, thinking about how great the concept of the voice-sample section sounds makes it even more enjoyable; at random points in the song I'll reminisce about it and want to hear it again. If there was a long version I imagine there would be more craziness :O
Good to see something like this at OCR.

- Audity on January 2, 2007

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