ReMix: Tales of Phantasia 'Crisis Healing Salve'
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- Game: Tales of Phantasia (Namco, 1994, SNES)
- ReMixer(s): Christian Pacaud, Hemophiliac
- Composer(s): Motoi Sakuraba, Ryota Furuya, Shinji Tamura, Toshiyuki Sekiguchi
- Song(s): 'Mint'
- Posted: 2009-03-10, evaluated by the judges
What happens when you combine flute, string, harpsichord, and the guitar from the Law & Order intro? You get part of Hemo and Pacaud's track off Summoning of Spirits, a truly unconventional piece of music that spends most of its time as a drumless Baroque guitarscape with Pacaud's frets over Hemo's orchestral textures. Guit doesn't actually enter until 0'53", where clean arpeggios to the left are combined with delayed, warmly-distorted lead... this bit actually feels a little like the intro from 'The Street of Rage' to me, in a good way. Pacaud works in some really odd guitar textures, I guess a little Frippish if I had to name drop; check out the lone jazz chord at 1'37" (followed by... a bassoon riff!), strumming at 2'11", and awesome, warbly run at 2'20".
Genuinely fresh textures, here; maybe I've been watching too much Iron Chef, but this feels like one of those episodes where the main ingredient is something like Rhinoceros balls, but somehow they combine that with melon and light cream and the finished dish actually looks good. Or at least edible. I'm not saying the harpsichord here is akin to Rhino balls, I'm saying these two guys cooked up something interesting and palatable from some very unlikely ingredients. A lot of times I like to emphasize how natural and seamless a collab is, where you can't even tell two different artists worked together on it... well, this ain't that, but seamless isn't always the goal. Here you've got an odd-but-charismatic arrangement that tries some risky ideas but makes it all work. Hemo explains how he got from point A to point B:
"my original concept for this track was to start with orchestral and go into this kinda 80s ballad rock...well, after going thru 2 collaborators (for recording of bass and guitars) and then finding Christian (omg thanks!) this rather turned into baroque goes into prog rock. i am still pleased with the final result, despite the departure."
Baroque goes into prog rock... yeah, that pretty much sums it up. But as any pun-prone music history teacher will tell you, if it ain't Baroque, don't fix it. This was a resub that the panel had a go at way back in 2006; Malcos writes:
"I really like the sub-bass, don't hear that kind of thing often with submissions. The guitar and piano part is excellent and give a good sense of atmosphere. It feels like the actual main part of the mix starts 'late' (2.20), although stylistically it is very interesting."
Good call on the bass. Shariq also pointed out some issues w/ slow attacks on the strings, and in general the orchestral samples/mixing don't pop as much as they could, but this is a mix where you're either gonna go along with the premise and enjoy the ride, or shrug. I personally enjoyed the ride quite a bit, as I think the very strange arrangement ideas here mostly work. It's a thoughtful, moody piece of work that's unique in context on the album and here on the site, but I definitely recommend it as a breath of fresh, stylistic air.
Discussion: Latest 11 comments/reviews; view the - yosefu on April 19, 2009
I love the part around 1:30 going into the prog rock section. Pretzels right, does sound like law in order, more power to them for that lol. Nice kind of fade out-ish ending. What is that "wwwaaaaaah" sound in the background?
- Mtlbro on April 11, 2009
The intro is wonderful, and I think it fits Mint's theme perfectly. I would have loved to hear the entire song like that. The transition to the prog section was tenuous, I felt like scratching my head and wondering how it managed to get there.
The prog rock section in itself was pretty good, with fantastic guitar work. Some spots didn't mesh well, as the judges mentioned (some string sections weren't quite meshing right). The section from 2:20 was pretty cool, I found that to be the best moment in that section.
I'm glad people are willing to take a chance combining genres that we wouldn't expect. It didn't work overall for me, but there were moments I really enjoyed seperately.
- DragonAvenger on April 7, 2009
I love the opening and think is transitions to the guitar part at just the right time. The section from 2:25 to 2:40 doesn't do much for me, but that's really a matter of personal taste.
All around though, this is an enjoyable mix to listen to :)
Nice work guys!
- jintoreedwine on March 27, 2009
The sub bass at 1:48 is one of my favorite moments.
Very coherent and the transitions work extremely well for such an eclectic genre.
I love the guitar tone, but the tremolo picking at 2:33 and especially 2:36 kinda irks me.
Anyways, congratulations on a great, stylish and emotionally charged track.
- PriZm on March 13, 2009
- OA on March 13, 2009
--Eino
(nice name drop, djp!)
- evktalo on March 11, 2009
Hemo's work gave this mix good life, while Chris's gave this thing some great guitar work...
I'm sorry... but this mix has really left me lost for words. :oops:
It's like Djpretzel said: "an odd-but-charismatic arrangement"
- Sir_Downunder on March 11, 2009
- KyleJCrb on March 11, 2009
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