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OCR01261 - Ecco the Dolphin (SCD) "Eternal Abyss"


djpretzel
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First off: MORE SEGA! WOO-HOO! endblink is a happy man.

Second, while Gray stated he wanted to go back to his "new age/ethnic" roots, I feel this is very different from his early works, and equally impressive.

The slight militaristic feel to it is very powerful and commanding and the overall feel of the piece is very complimentary to the original feel and ideal of Ecco.

Excellent excellent work. Good stuff, Gray!

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Ahhh, nice ambient work. I always felt you were stronger with these type of pieces as your orchestral works always had this traveling feel that suits new age so well. Some of the percussion as mechanical (like the snare and tambs), but other than that the orchestration was wonderful. I see you found a way around VOTA's audio buzz ^_^ (through it in the background).

Edit: I hear the Doduka now! I cant believe I missed it the first time.

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GrayLightning mix = automatic download.

It would take me much longer than this to write up a review of all my favorite parts of this song, and I look forward to appreciating this one to its fullest extent with multiple listens (many of those being tonight) but I just wanted to say after finishing my first listen that it is already one of my favorites by Gray. Absolutely love the chilling intro, bells and strings in conjuction are enough to establish the hanuting atmosphere. "Hynotizing work" seems to be the catch phrase here, and I couldn't agree more. The choir (SOV or VOA... don't know if I really know the difference) is always put to Gray-t (great) use by Gray. Armageddon had quite possibly my favorite use of choir in a song to date, but this songs style is unique and enjoyable in its own rite.

And as always, Gray is the man. He offers us some of the most mature and progressive music that challenges traditional interpretations while still being honest to the source material.

Respect.

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Hello everyone, i'm brand new, even though i've been observing OCR for about a year. I've finally decided to register since I hope to create some mixes of my own (i'm brand new at that too).

Ecco brings me back, I remember the music and how deep and sort of lonely it is. This mix seems to bring back that with a little bit of perseverance added from the suspenseful violins and rising and falling bells tones. It just gives a great aura when you listen to it, an aura of a deep ocean of potential and discovery, it is wonderful.

This is an aspiring community, and i'm glad to be a part of it.

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Wow. I can't think of one negitive thing to say about this, (after inital listen) so I just wanted to say, "Thanks, Grey, for creating such a truely beautiful orchestral piece." So here I go: Thanks, Grey, for creating such a truely beautiful orchestral piece. ;) I'm not familiar with the source material, but I know what I like -- and this is it. Nice bell work, too! Well done.

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Very nice.

What makes this the most enjoyable for me is the fact that you can easily picture Ecco exploring some huge, dark, mysterious underwater environment, something I loved about ALL Ecco games.

Sound quality, instrument selection and balance.... all grand. The only thing that sort of bothered me was that without the image of Ecco and exploration, the song seemed to drag on a little, losing important energy more than midway through..... I felt there could have been more 'music' if that makes sense...

However, this is made up with the final, and BEST, part of the song, the last minute. Atmospheric, slightly harrowing, and gorgeous sound qualities. I enjoyed it!

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Look Gray! I did it!

Gray Lightning’s latest remix, a self proclaimed return to “new age/ethnic” style music after his recent endeavourers into more cinematic styles, is an excellent example of how one can take a small amount of source material and turn it into a four minute long epic piece that is chock full of Gray’s touch. While this may not be his best mix, it definitely works as an excellent remix with

We open up with chimes and waves, a soothing ambient opening with bells, which, as DJP stated, have become Gray’s staple instrument. The strings are emotional and work well to compliment the mood of the mix.

As the song continues, the bells continue to repeat their melody and we are introduced to a filtered choir that has an ethereal feel to it. The drums are subdued during this part, and along with the piano that plays segments of chords as well as the waves that resurface, create a moody ambience that builds up to the next section.

At 3:00, we shift gears to the finale. The strings pick up the pace and we have an increase in percussive activity. The song ends and we have closure, with the waves that brought us on our journey, bringing us to the end.

While this mix may not have a lot of energy until the last minute, its beauty is in the emotions it creates. DJ Pretzel described it as hypnotizing, and I doubt I could come up with a better word than that. Excellent stuff from teh Lightning that is Gray.

~Mythril

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Gray's music has been increasingly cinematic and lush these past few months and this mix is no exception. When I say cinematic I don't necessarily mean orchestral, but rather that the music has a very expansive, or even epic, quality.

I particularly love the way the dissonances are handled in this mix. Long drawn out suspensions (for instance the choir at 2:05) that beg for resolution until... at last the tension is concluded. Despite the preponderance of sustained notes, the piece gives the feeling of a constant forward momentum- of a seemingly calm river that hides a powerful undercurrent.

Beautiful work.

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Very nice! I've always held the opinion that when artists expand into different styles, their original style becomes richer and more refined -- I think this happened for Gray.

The first thing that struck me about this piece is how the timing is cleverly teased. The whole piece is in straight four, but much of the piece is presented in such a way that a non-attentive listener won't realize where the downbeat lies. Specifically, the bass root note -- often a queue for the beginning of a measure -- often isn't brought in until the second beat. The point of this? It creates a dreamy unmetered feel without losing form, and retains the listener's attention by throwing them something subtly different than they're expecting.

The second most standout quality is that the mix sounds huge. The effect is accomplished with surprisingly little reverb on the main instruments -- Gray does things the right way by relying instead on good panning and subtle ambient effects to create a sense of depth. The result is a mix that sounds vast, but retains clarity.

Also, although this is new age music, it's definately not "relaxation" music. It seems a bit low-key on the surface, but the emotional build, while subtle, is nevertheless quite intense.

I can offer nothing substantial in the way of criticism; GrayLightning really has this style down pat.

Great work as always :)

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Definitely a fantastic take on Nilsen's - 'After the Storm'. The first word that immediately popped into my head while listening to Gray's Ecco 'mix for the first time was the word "epic". Graylightning, the crafty lad that he is, managed to take the shortest theme from the original Ecco the Dolphin CD and crafted a much longer and more epic sounding masterpiece.

The bells, strings, wind chimes, flute, percussions, and pizzicato strings really stand out and all come together quite beautifully throughout the song.

This mix is 'epically hypnotic' OR 'hypnotically epic' - are those even Words?? Bah, doesn't matter! See what I mean, Music so good it has you making up phrases! ;)

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Deeply profound, the title is highly appropriate here.

Can't really say I'm digging the drums though, but still this is a great mix.

Very cinematic, majestic, full of abstract alien wonder like deep see exploration and seeing all the bizarre forms of life down there.

Definitely worth checking out.

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