ReMix: Xenogears 'Babel: A Prison of Fate'

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Xenogears

Happily bearing no significant similarity to Manos: The Hands of Fate comes the latest from bustatunez, a solo piano joint entitled 'Babel: A Prison of Fate'. Will writes:

"I actually recorded this shortly after the 2007 OCR meetup in D.C., and just never got around to finalizing/submitting until now. That factoid is relevant because it wasn't until that meetup that I realized some people might actually *want* to hear my random and overly-aggressive piano playing! Anyways, I hope you all enjoy it, it's my first "solo" remix project and I'm still getting a feel for things."

Check the links for YouTube shenanigans; Will plays some mean ivories, and I particularly enjoyed his Yoko Kanno-isms from Bebop and elsewhere. Be sure to check out Will's website for greatness - he's even released his own commercial percussion sample library. Respect. In this case the piano playing is perhaps less random and aggressive than one might guess from the artist's description; the intro is downright mellow, ebbing and tiding and doing other flowing, lyrical verbs as well. 2'16" is the "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" part of the performance and the only bit I'd characterize as aggressive, per se. The piece might have been random in Will's head, as I know he can improvise on the spot very effectively, but it sounds deliberate and logical enough to these ears, with steady progression and definitive build. Vinnie says:

"Nice piece, Wilbert. I love your use of the sustain to create some beautiful, complex sounds from the melody. You can listen to any one moment of the song and hear some gorgeous chords gently dissipating underneath the main melody. I also love the difference in tone you get from the quiet parts vs. the louder parts. Combined with the subtle but interesting changes to the melody, chords, and rhythm, this really has a lot of depth."

For a rollicking good time, be sure to read the judges decision thread and check out JJT's film noir opus decision, a definite first. Glad Will submitted this; very emotional playing, with mood & brood - as well as style - to spare.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
I never realized how many piano pieces were on OCR. And all the better for it, I feel.
Slow, contemplative piano arrangements can very easily be cliche, contrite and uniformally dull, and it's just a show of the talent pool here at OCR that that is never the case. Another superfine piano piece here, covering some emotive Xenogears tunage. The concept is almost too obvious, and done time and again because of it, but rest assured it's more a pleasure than a chore to add another one to the pile. Nice work.

- Marmiduke on December 21, 2008
I'm a huge fan of solo piano arrangements, including this one. It's atmospheric and emotional, and wonderfully done.

- Lucentas on December 6, 2008
Very nice music, I was never into the source too much, but when presented like this, it's a completely different story. It's arrangements like this that make me take a second (or in this case, maybe 30th) look at the source, and finding something previously hidden.
This is super moody and mysterious sounding, and it shifts between sections and feelings seamlessly. It's somewhat strange for me to say excellent sustain pedal usage, but your timing on it is excellent, and it really kicks up the mix.
Very well played, sir. I really enjoy this.

- OA on May 19, 2008
A little repetitive, but a very nice tribute to one of the best soundtracks of the PSX era.

- Martin Penwald on May 14, 2008
Well, I'm a long time listener, first time reviewer, and I think I'll start reviewing now. I've had this account for a while but never really got around to posting anything.

Overall, very talented piano playing here. The beginning was an attention hook, very nice way to start out with a solo peice. The song held my attention despite the repetidive melody and it was ful of emotion and style. With piano music I usually don't like it in a steady beat- this one didn't stick to any specific beat yet it still kept flowing at an artistic level.
There isn't anything that I think I can critique on this one, I think its just about as good as it can get. So, nice work!
I'm not sure if I'm making much sense, I guess I'm just typing out my disembodied thoughts and overall impression. So, I hope you can make sense out of that.

- Kaikuro on April 29, 2008
couldn't tell ya if this was sequenced or a performance into midi or whatever...
great job there.
Very enjoyable to listen to, really felt like a different take without departing a whole lot from the original.
Great work.

- Hemophiliac on April 25, 2008
This is excellent. We need more bustatunez mixes! :D

- pixietricks on April 24, 2008
artemisjaeger;400686 wrote: A fine arrangement and performance. Really captures the spirit of the original while taking it somewhere it never went before.

That's what I was going to say.
Excellent work.
Just beautiful.

- AeroZ on April 24, 2008
...Hmm. I like how busta chose to use the rhythm from the CREID version of Omen, unless Omen actually has that rhythm in it somewhere but I seemed to miss it.
Pretty nifty stuff.

- Shadix on April 24, 2008
Good stuff! I find there are styles of solo piano I like and some that I don't like (well.. d'oh), and this is something I like. Yay!
Also, JJT's judge decision made my stomach hurt. Worth checking out.
--Eino

- evktalo on April 24, 2008
Ooh ooh, fantastic stuff.

- Gollgagh on April 23, 2008
Amazing remix. "Omen" is one of my favorite tracks in Xenogears in addition to "The Man who is Torn Apart". Very well played piano piece and compares to Dhsu's "A Life Without Parole" from Voices of the Lifestream. Emotional stuff.

- SwordBreaker on April 23, 2008
I liked it, but I must be missing something. When I hear the word Babel, I think of the tower of Babel in Genesis. I assume that the same name comes up in Xenogears?
Good job nonetheless.

- Thin Crust on April 23, 2008
Beautiful and expertly-performed. Will showed me this and actually asked if I thought it was worth submitting. C'mon, man! :lol: The themes arranged here are among my favorites from the Xenogears soundtrack, and while there are a number of remixes of them already, this one stands apart as a very unique interpretation.
Now, let's all bug Will and get him to submit more stuff!

- zircon on April 23, 2008
Saw busta's name and jumped all over this. Great work!

- Audix on April 23, 2008

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