OCR03597 - *YES* Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past "We're the Fugawe Forest" *PROJECT*

[Gario]

REMIXER INFO

Remixer Name: XPRTNovice (feat. Wiesty on Drums/Organ)

Real Name:  Joe Zieja

Email:  

Website:  http://joezieja.com

 

 

REMIX INFO

Games Arranged:  Zelda, link to the past

Name of Arrangement:  The Fugawe Forest

Name of Individual Songs Arranged:  Lost Forest 

 

This is a pre-emptive submit for the LoZ:LTTP album**

 

Remixer Comments:

 

Well I guess I needed a debut rap track at some point. I didn't expect it to go there, but it did. I wanted to create this sort of atmospheric funky thing, to give the feeling of getting lost in the forest, but at some point I think I ended up getting bored with it. And then I started rapping, and it all came together. Many thanks to Wiesty for his excellent live drum recording and augmented organs. Live instruments, other than that, include another organ played by me, 4 saxes, flute, trumpet, and dropping the mic. 

 

 

(Lyric Transcription below, and I use the term lyrics loosely.))

 

Intro

Where am I?

Goddamn old dude just tells me to go places to find a...sword.

This place is lame.

I mean I guess I feel kinda cool doing the hero thing.

Alright, let's see what happens.

 

Outro

 

Bring in the beats

1, 2, 3, 4

 

It's the night before the cataclysm, symbols of virtue

Got a big ass knife in the ground, gonna hurt you

Keepin my line true like fine crews

And when I get through with you ain't no tattoo gonna cover that bruise

 

I got this voice in my head, and he's strokin my ego

Sayin the Master Sword is all I'll ever need wherever we go

It's the steel that makes evil retreat, beat feet, go skeet

Well damn that sounds sweet - let's go drop him a beat

 

Here I come baby, the hero of the ages

Gonna give GanonDORK a poke with the sword of the sages

All the angels in heaven singing a hell of a chorus

If I could only find my way out of this god damn forest

 

... Was it a left here? ... or...?  Shit. 

 

[MindWanderer]

Pretty cool and interesting.  Great musicianship as always from these guys.

There sounds like there's some distortion going on in the louder section from 1:44-2:47, especially in 2:05-2:26.  I don't know what's causing it or how to describe it any better; perhaps another judge can be of more help there.

The high notes from 2:27-2:32 were pretty shrill and loud, definitely outside my comfort level.

I'm going to hold off on my vote for now to see if another judge can pick up and comment on that distortion.  It bothers me a lot but I'm having a tough time putting my finger on exactly how or why.

Update: The distortion bugs me but it's not worth holding this back if it doesn't bother anyone else.  And I know I'm more sensitive to extremes of dynamic contrast than most.  I can get behind posting this.

YES

[Gario]

Very interesting arrangement you've got going on, here. The jazz is smooth and the rapping is pretty nerdcore, which while cool on their own I'm not 100% sold on the blending of the styles. It's not terrible, but it sounds like two different songs, a jazz track and a rap track, were mashed together, which is pretty distracting.

The talking and rapping is stylistically out of place in this, but it doesn't take too much away from the rest of the track too much. Very slow, smooth and crisp, with some really great performances throughout. Those instrument combinations really do bring some Sesame Street memories flooding back - apparently flute doubling was something they did a lot on that show, which is pretty cool.

I don't quite hear the production artifacts that MW is pointing out, though I can agree that the sax was a hair shrill. It'd be up to the arranger, of course, but a light low pass would've rounded that off a bit better.

Strange combinations, but I enjoyed it quite a bit despite feeling the juxtaposition was a bit jarring. I think others should enjoy it, too, on the front page.

YES

[DragonAvenger]

This is way more fun than I expected it to be. The jazz take here was a great fit with the source, and I thought the playing was all pretty great. Agreed that the sax is a tad shrill in that one spot, but not an issue overall. I wasn't as bothered by the transition as Greg, though I see his point as well. Overall a really fun track, lovely work!

YES

[Liontamer]

Just quickly timestamping this, the music was 3:44-long, so I needed at least 112 seconds worth of source usage for it to dominate the arrangement:

1:01.5-1:21.5, 1:22.75-2:47 = 104.25 seconds

Then you had lots of scattered references to the source, like right at :07 that I didn't feel like counting the bits and pieces of, since there were a lot of small gaps. The source usage definitely checked out.

There definitely seemed to be some light distortion in places with the sax, so it would be nice if that was looked at, but it was nothing dealbreaking. I also agreed with Gario on the jazz to nerdcore rap transition feeling abrupt, but it wasn't a big deal in the grand scheme and the overall presentation was cohesive enough. Let's go!

YES