ReMix: Final Fantasy VII 'Serenity'

Final Fantasy VII 'Short Skirts' prev   list all   next Final Fantasy VII 'The Crossroads'
downloadDownload MP3
5,036,827 bytes, 5:29, 122kbps
Stream/preview on YouTubePlay Preview
Streaming preview on YouTube
eStarland.com
Final Fantasy VII

The Return of Mustin!! Mustin's last solo mix was posted in April of 2003, more than four years ago, but he's back as part of Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream, and his track is killah smooth. He of no surname writes:

"I really put this track together at the very last minute. I mean less than a week away from the deadline. I remember that I had Tim Yarbrough (Guitar player from The OneUps) the nite before New Year's Eve to lay down the guitar tracks. I stayed up really late editing them and in the morning, I had Lisa Leamons and Jennifer Graham over to lay down the vocals. I would have had plenty of time to put it all together, but for whatever reason, one of my clients was getting married on New Year's Eve and she asked that I be there. So I took Lisa to the wedding, dropped her off, and then ran into my house where a HUGE New Year's Eve party was happening and finished editing this track just in time for the midnight deadline. Somehow I managed to pull it together 'cause everyone seemed to like it. For this project, I was able to go back, finish all of my edits and have Dale North do a quick remix and mastering job for me.

I love this track. It has a special place in my heart. It's dedicated to Lisa and I hope that everyone enjoys it."

So, to give Mustin's comments a little context, Andy actually held a competition for one track to be put on the album later in its development, and Mustin won said contest. It should be easy to see why: this arrangement has a fresh sound that's very open-ended. The wordless vocals add a lot, the gated effects add a lot, and the hip-hop elements combined with jazz combined with electronica all form this chimera that can't easily be pegged down - it's in the "just great music" genre, which is the one I've always preferred. The bassline is huge - definitely gonna get your sub working overtime - and the piano, bells, lovely EP progression, guitar, and slick, jazzy drums all form part of a larger picture. This piece manages to be haunting and funky at the same time, which is a difficult balance to strike. The ending's classy and unresolved, there are some progression modulations that challenge listeners to adapt pretty quickly (good thing, at least in this case), and in general this avoids all of the pitfalls a groove-oriented approach can encounter, while enjoying all of the strengths. Making it... awesome. Mustin and The OneUps in general have been doing great lately, having recently played at PAX alongside The Minibosses and Neskimos. Hopefully, though, he'll have time to do a solo mix more than once every four years, as this triumphant return simply begs for a follow-up. Until that day, however, enjoy Mustin's contribution to FF7:VotL, the very slick and sharing-the-same-name-as-a-kickass-joss-whedon-feature-film "Serenity".

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 14 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
Very chill indeed.
Love the guitar towards the ending.
The vocal theme sounds great, too.
It definitely takes the main theme to a new level of greatness not seen by many.
Overall, nice work!

- sefirosu on May 2, 2009
Between the bass, the vocals, and that guitar towards the end, this song is just sexy as hell.

- MisterBiggler on July 14, 2008
Man I love this song. I keep playing it over and over. Great work.

- J3 on July 13, 2008
This is a pretty seamless blending of the themes, and has a great groove to it; I love the slightly-behind-the-beat backing guitar and the layered vocals, and though the song itself seems simple at first, the level of detail and care spent on each element is really nice.

- OA on December 5, 2007
Although some of the other effects are a bit iffy, that smooth female chorus makes this a winner. I guess I'm a simple man. Very nice.

- Nec5 on September 26, 2007
Holy....shit......................
That is all.

- Gman on September 19, 2007
-listens to said track-
:oops: simply beautiful

- muzikal-phoenix on September 16, 2007
the airy, lounge vibe certainly takes this “heard it a thousand times” theme to new heights. a spectacular and polished effort, many kudos all around.

- vici_ruthless on September 16, 2007
This track is chill as hell. I'm swept away to a classy lounge every time I listen. Sexy bassline, and serene vocals. All in all, classy is a super effective one-word summary of this one.
Fine work, this one gets many plays.

- big giant circles on September 15, 2007
A rather sublime take on the FF theme... definitely used the source material well to make this one of the strongest tracks in the compilation.

- hhallahh on September 15, 2007
the hotness.

- JJT on September 14, 2007
This is far and away the sexiest track off this album. Love how it was put together. Too bad we couldn't co-credit the 3 other collaborators to beef up the artist ranks, but I still love 'em.
Sereeeeeeeeeeeeeeene.

- Liontamer on September 14, 2007
Real chill. Has a definite place on my placelist. And I'm hot for Mustin. But that's not the reason that this song rocks. The wordless vocals really worked for me.

- bladiator on September 14, 2007
What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

- djpretzel on September 14, 2007

Content Policy
(Submission Agreement and Terms of Use)

Page generated Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:25:35 -0500 in 0.0363 seconds

All compositions, arrangements, images, and trademarks are copyright their respective owners. Original content is copyright OverClocked ReMix, LLC. For information on RSS and JavaScript news feeds, linking to us, etc. please refer to resources for webmasters. Please refer to the Info section of the site and the FAQ available there for information about the site's history, features, and policies. Contact David W. Lloyd (djpretzel), webmaster, with feedback or questions not answered there.

top of page