ReMix: Chrono Trigger 'JESUS CHRIST IT'S A DINOSAUR GET IN THE EPOCH'
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- Game: Chrono Trigger (Square, 1995, SNES)
- ReMixer(s): DrumUltimA
- Composer(s): Nobuo Uematsu, Noriko Matsueda, Yasunori Mitsuda
- Song(s): 'Rhythm of Earth, Wind, and Sky'
- Posted: 2009-05-16, evaluated by the judges
We wanted to give that Civ4 mix a few days to marinate, but let's get back on track, shall we? This here CT mix from DrumUltima happens to be our very first percussion-only ReMix. Yes, you read that right. Percusssion, percussion, and more percussion, and nary a melodic riff in sight. Oh you can look, but look not to hope, for melody has forsaken these lands. When Doug first asked if a percussion-only ReMix would be accepted, we all kinda scratched our collective head. When I think arrangement, I'll confess that the first thing (among many) that I think of is melody/harmony. How could a source that essentially lacked both possibly pass our submission standards? After stewing it around for a bit in my ever-slowing noggin, I realized that drums = music. Composers can, have, and will continue to compose percussion-only pieces, and that which can be composed can usually be arranged... to some extent. The real key would be divining what & where "interpretation" could be construed from purely rhythmic modification/addition/subtraction. I didn't envy the judges their job, I told Doug that it'd probably make getting the mix passed more difficult due to higher scrutiny, but we all basically agreed that - like communism - it could *theoretically* work.
... But did it? Obviously, since you're reading this, but the panel did have fun dissecting the submission. Luckily Doug provided ample evidence of what he started from and where he went, which was greatly appreciated. He writes:
"So this is an all percussion remix. It was a project for my computer music class in which we could only work with audio. It was supposed to be a Music Con Crete project, but as you can see I didn't really do that ;) All drums and stuff are played live, albeit a few samples I took from the percussion studio. I'm curious to see how this will turn out! Much thanks to bustatunez for remastering this, Geoffrey Taucer for his undying love and support, Peabody for letting me abuse the Computer Music department, as well as the fine folk of #ocrwip for "helping" me come up for a name."
Larry took the time to break this one down, which I imagine a lot of folks will be curious about, so let's see about it:
"This needed 121 seconds worth of the source to pass. The source has 4 distinct sections, so the breakdown I had ended up like this:
- :00-:07 of source - :03-:19, 3:39.75-3:51
- :07-:23 of source - none
- :23-:39 of source - :35-:51, 1:07-1:21, 2:44-3:07
- :39-:47 of source - :51-1:06, 1:27.75-1:41, 3:07-3:22.5
That tallies up to 124 seconds, so even if I'm missing something outright, this is more than fine to me. If anyone needs me to go into more detail as to how the rhythms Doug used mirrored the original, let me know, but it's there. I remember listening to an early WIP of this, but I can't say I had confidence in a concept like this passing. Not from a performance standpoint by Doug, but because, with this source, it is extremely easy to go off the rails.
Lots of great expansive spices, full of grace notes while not losing site of the original rhythms. A couple of the cymbal swells felt a bit out of place with the timing, but it wasn't a big deal. For something like this with no real melodic focus, you definitely had to retain a lot of the structure of the original but expand and personalize the arrangement, which you did in spades. Doug, you're a legend for pulling this off."
Here are some select other quotes:
- Vinnie: "Doug, you magnificent bastard. It definitely takes balls to remix this source, and I pretty much think you pulled it off as best as one could."
- AnSo: "Doug. You are now an international VGM-arrangement hero and will continue to be just that until the end of time. And JESUS CHRIST, you deserve it. :)"
If you don't want to play and would prefer to bang on the drum all day, this is YOUR ReMix. Those looking for a melodic CT fix may be disappointed, but Doug certainly rose to the considerable challenge of arranging an all-percussion mix that would actually pass the panel, I dig it quite a bit, and hopefully you will too. They sure don't call him DrumUltima for nothin'.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the Plus, this has got to have one of the best titles on a remix ever (not trying to start favorites, I am not! :) )
- Tmansdc on July 20, 2009
Wonderful job.
Also, I couldn't wait for this to be posted because of how hilarious the title is.
- DragonAvenger on July 14, 2009
- BogusRed on June 29, 2009
About the title: I, too, was a little annoyed when I saw it on the front-page; not because it has Jesus Christ in its name (to be honest, I never thought that someone could get as worked up about it as some of the people who posted in here did), but because I am tired of the meme and don't really need 4chan jokes in my remix titles.
Anyway, great job, DU.
- Martin Penwald on June 9, 2009
Can someone explain to me the . . um title ??
Edit: Oh I get it !! Funny :)))
- Mtlbro on June 9, 2009
Good thing we don't care what you want/do not want here
- Nekofrog on June 8, 2009
its a SIN!
nice remix, but I dont want the name of Jesus here.
- marcio772 on June 8, 2009
I like this remix. I heard it way back on the wip board, and liked it then. It's nice and refreshing to have rhythm without any melody, maybe it'll spawn a whole lot of new and creative remixes doing things different. Beer bottles, anyone?
Yeah, I said refreshing to have rhythm without melody. That brings us to some of the issues brought up in the Evolution of OCR thread. There's an abundance of kind'a thick songs that in the long run make it difficult to enjoy ocr music. This breaks free from all that, and I'm grateful for it. Not only is this enjoyable, but it also spices up the other remixes on my playlists.
I re-read the wip thread and found Joren's echo of zircon's concerns for this approach, something I didn't understand myself. Why wouldn't a distinct rhythm be eligible material to interpret? You're the right guy to do this, and you did it well. Excellent remix, my only criticism is the title.
- Rozovian on June 5, 2009
Anyway, look, it's against your religion for you to "take the Lord's name in vain" but this is YOUR belief. You speak for yourself. You have the right to complain, yes, but guess what? The people you are complaining to have the right to listen to whether your complaint is valid enough to warrant some kind of response. In this case, djp was kind enough to offer a response to you that was at least thought-out and informative as to why he chose to not do as you requested. (which was obviously to change the name of the song)
Doug is a really nice guy, and I am completely 100% sure that he meant no offense to anyone.
As a Christian, your set of standards is different from those that are not, and there is plenty of offensive material out there for you to become offended by. So to this, I offer a little advice. Pick and choose your battles a little more carefully. The world is way to big for you to get offended by something like this... I mean yeah it's your right, but you're just going to be met with the same kind of resistance and you'll just get sad/hurt/disappointed/angry again and have another fight on an internet forum.
In this case, you played the role of a victim over this. This would indicate that the ReMixer (and the site) are abusing you and your sensibilities. But the people that know DrumUltima also know that he's not an abusive individual and he just don't roll that way. They used their noggins and they decided that this was a pretty ridiculous request. He's not abusive just because his definition of what is sensible to say is different from you. As has been said before, try to think of "why" he would use this in the title, and understand the context. I really think that's the best way to get along with anybody in general, and there are a whole lot of people out there to try this with. Less people would be alienated if both parties tried it out.
So anyway, I just think that wasn't the right way to go about this at all, I would go as far to say that it's not even the "Christian" way to go about it, and it happens far too often in the name of Christ. Maybe if your grandmother's name was Jesus Christ and she was eaten by a dinosaur, maybe you'd have more of a case, and maybe those in charge would take more pity.
What a waste of precious energy, you know?
ALSO DOUG THIS IS A GREAT SONG. REALLY IT IS A GREAT SONG YOU ROCK, GREAT JOB, WHAT A FUNNY NAME TITLE! Hey guys what do you think about this ReMix?????
- Monobrow on June 5, 2009
- Tensei-San on June 5, 2009
- Nekofrog on June 5, 2009
Nekofrog;554723 wrote: If you think calling a black person a nigger is "disrespectful" you just need to stop right here and now.
You are probably the most ignorant person I've ever encountered on these boards.
Obviously there's no point in discussing anything with you since you already have it in your head that anyone who disagrees with you is ignorant. Ironically, such a closed-minded attitude is itself characteristic of an idiot.
- phillbato on June 5, 2009
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