ReMix: Final Fantasy IV 'Theme of Love for Guitar Duet'

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Final Fantasy IV

Pot Hocket's work on Voices really stood out and added something unique to that album, and I was glad when I saw he was going to be involved with Echoes as well. I think it's fair to compare his contributions on both of OCR's FF albums, because they're both slow, they're both acoustic guitar, and they're both gorgeous, personal, emotional arrangements/performances. OA writes:

"Probably the most intimate and delicate song in the collection, once I heard Michael was interested in recording, I couldn't imagine it done by anyone else. Beautiful and expressive, this duet is the perfect way to symbolize the love between Cecil and Rosa."

This is an expansive, interpretive arrangement that is more impressionistic at some times than others; you'll have no problem spotting the source at the beginning and about halfway in, but a lot of what Michael's done involves taking the melody and reworking it over the same progression, filling out a complete 4'13" performance with variation and deviation. It's definitely on the liberal side of things, but everything feels cohesive and whole, and the overall piece as Andrew mentions really embraces the narrative context. It's beautiful and relaxing, but it also develops, with 2'58" getting faster and more firmly articulated relative to the softer passages.

It's worth mentioning that Higher Plain Music posted a full review of Echoes and, more recently, follow-up mini-interviews with many of the artists involved - very interesting read(s)! As our debut flood concludes and I take a look at just these eight FF4 mixes alone, I'm damn proud of what this community has accomplished, yet again. Yet this is just the tip of the iceberg - a diverse, beautiful, badass tip, but still the tip. Once you're done relaxing and reminiscing to Michael's track, explore the rest of the album over at http://ff4.ocremix.org, and be sure to let the artists know what you think. I applaud Pot, OA, and everyone who was involved with this project for producing an album that exceeded my already high expectations; it keeps getting better with each listen, pays awesome homage to Nobuo Uematsu and FF4, and should be as timeless as the game and music that inspired it.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 13 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
Very beautiful guitar playing hot pocket. With out a doubt i will be looking for more of your stuff on this site. Great stuff!

- yosefu on October 24, 2009
Well, it should go without saying that I like this a lot :-) Your guitar playing is exquisite and the tone is unbeatable when it comes to acoustic guitars. However, like some of your other mixes I have a hard time picking out the source tune except for a few parts. Nevertheless, it's only once in a blue moon such an emotive, personal mix comes around, so I'm really glad you contributed this to the project. Wonderful work!
Also, your production has definitely shot up a notch since your FFVII songs! :-D With such a bare-bones style as this, a high quality recording quality is absolutely a must.

- Emunator on October 3, 2009
I <3 Pot Hocket mixes, mainly because of his guitar tone and how well it works for the songs he does.
One thing in particular I found curious about this mix is that he approached it delicately throughout, whereas the original grew more dramatic as it progressed. I was somewhat mixed about that, but it worked out for what he was going for so kudos to him.

- Bahamut on October 3, 2009
Man! We need some more of this great stuff on OCRemix. Slow, emotional, real instruments... fantastic! This is the kind of mix I know I can let ANYONE listen to and know they can't turn it down just because it's "from a game". Nor would they suspect it is from a game. Please, keep it up! :)

- jintoreedwine on July 29, 2009
The emotion of the playing is what does it for me. Fantastic piece, and wonderfully played. Nice job!

- DragonAvenger on July 28, 2009
This track is perfect. Phenomenal.

- OA on July 25, 2009
Ever since his first remix was posted (FFX), I've been following Hot Pocket. This track is one of the best in the album and possibly his best work thus far. The quality of recording has gotten much better since Pocket's early work and the arrangement of Theme of Love is played beautifully. I can relate to this theme since it's one of the few tracks I recognize from FFIV. Acoustic guitars--I wouldn't have it any other way for this track.

- SwordBreaker on July 24, 2009
My favorite off of the entire project. Remember all of the sudden this finished mix popping up one day. You did this theme justice; and that's damn near impossible to do.
P.S. Now go do Star Stealing Girl...zomg :shock: (please)

- avaris on July 24, 2009
The most beatiful OCRemix (or any other VG stuff) that I know. Very great song...
No messing around with synths and sequencers.. just bare guitars with natural acoustics. The playing is most emotional, skilled and imperfect (in a good way) =sounds more like performance than a production.
Not to mention the arrangement.. very cool playing, neither of the guitars seems to be leading, both just flow with the theme giving room to each other.
Superb stuff. My very favourite track of the FF4-album :)
*****

- ilp0 on July 24, 2009
I absolutely love this song. I don't usually listen to, or even like this genre that much, but Pot Hocket is a very huge exception to that. His talent is incredibly obvious from the first note. The pacing and dynamics of the overall arrangement are pretty damn amazing. The amount of complex harmonies and little subtleties applied to even the quiet parts of this song, pulled off effortlessly, is awe-inspiring. I have to say, Pot Hocket is one of, if not the most talented musician on the site and I do not say that lightly.
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000/10 :D

- Hy Bound on July 24, 2009
This is an absolutely amazing rendition of Theme of Love. If Uematsu-san heard this he would cry from how his original version got turned into such a fantastic piece of music. Kudos Pot Hocket! I hope you continue to make great music

- Rasevales on July 24, 2009
Pot Hocket is one of those ReMixers whose work I'm pretty much guaranteed to love. Even if, for his next piece, he employed a chainsaw ensemble with jackhammer backup and the best "dying cat" samples he could find, I'd probably still put it on my playlist out of sheer, mindless adoration.
Well, okay, maybe I was exaggerating just a bit.
But Pot Hocket is still awesome, and this mix is still beautiful. Rock on!

- Lucentas on July 23, 2009
What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

- djpretzel on July 23, 2009

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