Posted 2009-08-31, evaluated by djpretzel


What's this? AnSo + Skrypnyk collab!? Our first Xbox 360 ReMix? And from Uematsu's score to Lost Odyssey, no less?? Yes, yes, and... yes. The man with two umlauts in his middle name, Mattias Häggström Gerdt, writes:

"I really enjoyed Lost Odyssey. I think Mr. Sakaguchi's still got it, the art direction was fantastic and the music some of Uematsu's best. Obviously I wanted to give it some creds by remixing it. I started doing some quirky electronica but couldn't for the life of me do a drum track that worked. Since it's a widely recognized fact that a certain Andrew Skrypnyk enjoys drums I thought I'd collaborate with him, sharing the drums like a kid after a divorce, 50% each. The concept became to do a sort of "drum battle" with us switching who's doing drums every section. For anyone that cares and likes to keep track, Skrypnyk did the first one and then every other one, I did the second one and.. well you get it. Then Skrypnyk sprinkled some of his magic on the arrangement too and here we are, a collaborative arrangement of Battlefield from Lost Odyssey."

Skryp adds:

"i liek drumz :3"

And AnSo finishes with:

"I also enjoy percussive elements and feel happy about stating that."

... and there you have it: scintillating revelations of percussive lust, right here on OCR. There's melody in this mix, to be sure, but it's clearly a drum-packed, rhythm-oriented arrangement, replete with elite feats of beat. Most of the variation from phrase to phrase involves changing up the rhythms, mutating the accompaniment for the simple, graceful lead motif with kicks, snares, hats, and plenty of less-identifiable bits. The final minute gets more elaborate, melodically and structurally, with an additional motif that adds some refreshing chromaticism; dig the held + bent-downwards ending. And the mix title? I looked up Mattias on IRC, where he was idling while drinking scotch and playing HoN... he explained that it's NOT actually Klingon for "That's what SHE said," but rather spells out "The Immortal Hironobu" - backwards. Edews Yzarc! I'll admit I find ReMixing fully-produced, modern game soundtracks much more challenging, since there's so much already THERE from a production standpoint, but I like the approach AnSo and Skryp took with keeping the melody simple and going crazy with the drums. Great, fun mix with very elaborate percussive showmanship from Mattias and Andrew!

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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timaeus222
on 2015-04-21 23:14:27

Damn, the drums on here are so good. :nicework:

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42
on 2009-12-30 17:05:05

On a side note, this is one of my favorite mix write ups ever. :

As for the mix itself, it's really cool. It reminds me of like the theme to really ancient ruins. There's not much of an undercurrent of severity in the first half but it's there and lays the groundwork for the rest of the track. This mix develops in an interesting way too; the drums continue and enhance the tenseness that was only in trace amounts in the first half, which I would assume is a byproduct of the drum battle. I also like the textures here; at times its a holding-your-breath-walking-on-eggshells mood and others its an Indiana Jones-esque running away from the bolder type mood. All in all, this a really cool and unique mix and one of my new favorites.

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Level 99
on 2009-12-23 14:09:25

This really captures a classic Uematsu feel while still adding some nice new stuff. I like how the heavy melody-focus doesn't detract the other instruments from exploring some new support areas. Good production, and I loved the drum samples (I have a guilty pleasure of glitch-drums). I found myself snapping to this without realizing it. It's both smooth and edgy at times, a quality that is hard to capture.

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SwordBreaker
on 2009-09-27 11:26:54

Lost Odyssey...one of my favorite soundtracks this generation and definitely one of Uematsu's finest. After a slump with Blue Dragon's soundtrack, I started to doubt the man. Glad he bounced back.

Very interesting interpretation of Battlefield we got here. It's too electronic for my tastes (considering who we have collaborating here) but it's done well. My criticism is that there's just too much going on it's hard to get the source on your first couple of listens. Upon listening closer, the lead sound is a variation of the Lost Odyssey main motif (which is used in the original Battlefield). So that slight variation in addition to the drum work and electronica masks the source tune for me. Additionally, I don't think you used enough of "Battlefield" in the first place. The original track is extremely dynamic in structure, but the remix uses only a part of a source that's repeated for about 2 minutes. There's another part of Battlefield used towards the end as well. So in essence, the dynamic feel of the original is somewhat lost here...replaced with some repetitiveness in the first half of the remix. I do like the fact that some of the electronic samples of the remix remind me of what was used in other Lost Odyssey tracks (like the Capital of Uhra).

Everyone's praising the drums, which is the highlight of the remix...I feel the same way too. Great stuff. Again, it's hard to appreciate the drum work at first because there's too much going on. Perhaps if the percussion was highlighted a bit more (more volume than the electronica). For me though, I loved that breakdown at 2:30. Definitely another highlight here. It gets good after that part too.

In short, I feel that the other parts of the remix were underdeveloped in terms of structure in favor of some very solid percussion work. Either way, keep up the good work people. We need more Lost Odyssey music. Epsylon Range, anyone? I'd like to see a Sixto/AnSo/Skryp collab on that one!!

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Martin Penwald
on 2009-09-26 12:54:54
simply fantastic. the bells are certainly one of anso's signature sounds :-P

Just like the drumwork made it obvious that skrypnyk was involved in this remix, the bells were what made me realize that this is also AnSo's work.

Loving the faster sections from 2:04 to 2:30 and 2:52 to 3:11. We need more stuff like this.

The following section, i.e. 3:11 onwards, really shows that this Uematsu-stuff; quite reminiscent of FF.

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OA
on 2009-09-24 14:41:33

I agree that the best part of this mix is the drums. Some sections were a lot better than others, but it definitely felt like a battle between sections, and between anso and skyrp.

The source melody is pretty basic, but I think if a more involved source was chosen, there wouldn't be enough room for all the percussive inventiveness. There's a lot of bass stuff I imagine happening, like some cool drops and dives, but unfortunately, it's only in my imagination.

Anyways, great percussive battle! Fight on, my brothers!

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JenZ
on 2009-09-24 03:53:02

Um, I really don't know what to say about this song. I thought it was ok until it gets to 2:05. Ftw. Then it kinda goes crazy and unique. I like the sounds you picked. Very punchy. Nice to see a Lost Odyssey remix too. I love Nobuo.

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Bahamut
on 2009-09-09 01:35:04

Glad to see a Lost Odyssey mix - that game sports some of Uematsu's best work in quite a while.

The direction taken on this piece is kinda quirky though. I sort of think of a cyberpunkish setting with this song with the drums, synth, and fake guitars (?).

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DragonAvenger
on 2009-09-01 21:28:30

This is a catchy mix, as per most of Mr Anso's work. The electronica mood really adds a nice touch to this, making it that much bouncier. Nice drumwork by all around!

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Shhteve
on 2009-09-01 11:16:49

No way, a Lost Odyssey remix! This was the last thing I expected to see on OCR this morning! Aside from that, it's pretty awesome and clearly someone likes drums. :3

You'll have to forgive my simplistic criticism, it's early in the morning and I've only had about 4-5 hours of sleep. :3

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halc
on 2009-08-31 21:46:35

simply fantastic. the bells are certainly one of anso's signature sounds :-P

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Brandon Strader
on 2009-08-31 20:50:27

I really liked the percussion for the most part, especially when the song erupts into chaos around 2:30, but I think that the remix is too different from the original source track. When I listened to it, I couldn't even recall the original track because they are so different. Lost Odyssey does have really incredible music but I don't think this remix represents enough of it--it's too different. Good job though, and the song was very well done.

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Emunator
on 2009-08-31 20:46:33

Holy shit! WIN!!!

Stellar work guys, I'm sure I'll be able to listen to this one on repeat for ages and find something new and cool about the song with each listen :-)

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HitoriJaNai
on 2009-08-31 20:31:46

Absolute craziness. The whole thing works very well together, and the work that both of you put into this shines through like a huge flashlight.

Keep it up with the awesome electronica!

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djpretzel
on 2009-08-31 20:11:20

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Lost Odyssey (Microsoft , 2007, XB360)
Music by Hiroyuki Nakayama (I),Nobuo Uematsu,Satoshi Henmi
Songs:
"Battlefield"

Tags (3)


Genre:
Mood:
Instrumentation:
Electronic,Synth
Additional:
Origin > Collaboration

File Information


Name:
Lost_Odyssey_Ubon_Orih_Latrom_Mieht_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
5,299,345 bytes
MD5:
900a6dd559aa36656212b8a1ea716ffd
Bitrate:
160Kbps
Duration:
4:20

 

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