OCR04700 - *YES* Shadow of the Colossus "On the Shoulders of Giants"

[Emunator]

Main ReMixer name: TheManPF (User ID: 35318)

Additional artists: Zach Chapman; Na Daoine Laghairt (evilsonic; Ian Martyn; Ronin Op F; Andromeda; atomic; DregsHeartRender)

 

Submission:

Game: Shadow of the Colossus

Name of arrangement: On the Shoulders of Giants

Songs arranged: Prologue; The Farthest Land; Demise of the Ritual; End of the Battle

Original composer: Kow Otani

System: Playstation 2

Year: 2005

 

Comments:

Earlier this year, on May, I worked on a supercollab for Dwelling of Duels Playstation 2 month, where me and Zach worked with the folk group "Na Daoine Laghairt", comprised of several DoD regulars who are very skilled at putting out celtic style music. We chose Shadow of the Colossus, and did a folk/metal tune that ended up placing 7th out of 23 tracks.

 

I haven't played the original but I played the 2018 remake which stays mostly untouched and enjoyed the experience, I wanted to arrange something that would evoke that folk melancholic style while also bringing power through distorted guitars and full choirs. The song is mostly comprised of two parts, which are sandwiched by the other two sources:

 

-First 30 seconds taken from "Prologue"

-0:30 to 2:10 is taken from "The Farthest Land", with a small original section added at 1:39 to work as a transition

-2:10 to 3:28 is taken from "Demise of the Ritual", the final boss of the game

-3:28 to 3:55 reprises a section of "The Farthest Land"

-Last 40 seconds are taken from "End of the Battle", the original is pretty dramatic, I decided to stop on the major chord to give it more of a happy ending

 

The lyrics for the chants and choir are written in "Runic language", a fictional language written for both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, and it's mostly romanized Japanese inverted with some vowels removed. I wrote the lyrics after going through a bit of a down period I had where I was feeling musically exhausted and couldn't get to the same highs I had before, sort of a "pride before the fall" feeling, you climb to the shoulder of the giant, but then you fall again, and then you have to climb back up.

 

Full credits:

TheManPF - Arrangement, lyrics, sequencing, mix, electric guitar, vocals

Zach Chapman - Bass

 

Na Daoine Laghairt is:

evilsonic - Acoustic guitar, mandolin

Ian Martyn - Whistle, Irish bouzouki, percussion, vocals

Ronin Op F - Violin, vocals

Andromeda - Vocals

atomic - Baritone ukulele

DregsHeartRender - vocals

 

Lyrics:

Awie o etmotm

Irkuy oppi ustz shatw
Aw njoyk on atk in urbn

Irkuy oppi ustz shatw
Aw njoyk on atk in urbn
Asid in omett iakch

Amnakst on naknsh

Urbn, ukgm
Uansh oknk

Ukgm, urch
Askikm
Urdm in nmij

Shatw aw njoyk
On atk ark urch

Asid in omett iakch
Amnakst on naknsh

Urmazm, urmazm
Onk umk ark urmazm

Nnmr

 

[prophetik music]

sfx intro. initial prologue presentation is really spot-on - excellent work. 0:31's ensemble sounds excellent as well, although the vocal parts have very bright siblants which stick out of the mix. 1:16's violin sounds beautiful, as does the female vocals that are heavily verbed at 1:27,

there's a big transition into 1:38 that's much heavier. the guitar gets lost a bit under all those cymbals initially but the heaviness is still there. the melody from The Farthest Land is just great here, and the transition into Demise of the Ritual is appropriately creepy. there's some sfx going on here - sounds like storm sounds? - which make it pretty cluttered, but the addition of the guitar in the right ear helps balance it actually. the dropoff at 3:15 is so eerie.

3:30 switching to triple meter is inspired - what a great way to keep it feeling interesting and new this far into the track. there's a big hit and fall, which unfortunately doesn't fade entirely but has an artificial cut at 3:50. the ending elements sound to my ear to be pretty close to End of the Battle, and the vocals here are a bit loud. the violin part here is much more treble heavy and has a wrong note in the ascending line, which is really disappointing after the rest of the track is so well balanced (guessing whatever EQing is used in the ensemble parts wasn't removed for this part). the last note fades quickly.

this is certainly not without flaws, but is a really interesting and engaging arrangement of several elements from one of the best soundtracks of the middle aughts. i think i'd have preferred the vocals to often be mixed quieter, some of the transitions to have more patience taken with them, and some more attention to detail between the big parts (cluttered elements, sfx usage) and the quieter parts (EQing, balance). these are more nitpicks than anything though, and i really enjoyed the experience. excellent work.

 

 

YES

[MindWanderer]

I'm so used to only the intro, main theme, and victory theme being remixed that it's actually weird for me to listen to a remix of other tracks bookended by the stuff I actually know. It sounds great, though. The crashes cause a little bit of pumping in the louder sections (1:39-1:48, 3:30-3:50), but otherwise production is great, performances are great, arrangement is great.

YES

[Liontamer]

I’ll listen on my proper set-up soon, but appreciate the source usage breakdown. Nice work, folks!

EDIT (12/17): Yep, sounds good overall. Muffly at 1:38, there was some SFX around 2:56 that was just mud, and around 3:00, the snare drum lost it's snap and was more of a dull thud for the rest of the way, but none of that's a big deal. Closing vocals were a thing of beauty, as well as the violin and bird SFX. Good stuff!

YES

Edited December 17, 2023 by Liontamer
added updated comments

[Emunator]

The intro immediately sets the mood with a loose acoustic guitar that evokes the melancholy of The Last of Us, before the choir takes us somewhere even more adventurous and mystical. As I've come to expect, you are rarely content to hover around the same musical idea for long, but it always connects cohesively in the end. Tremendous vision and ambition throughout the whole arrangement, and the execution is solid enough to support it! 

On a technical level, the mixing feels cluttered and compressed to a degree, the vocals and sound effects appear to be the culprits and could possibly benefit from a subtle low-frequency cut to clear out some of the mud. The vocals occasionally do feel loud compared to the other elements. The ending also came out of nowhere and didn't quite feel properly paced. Just a few minor notes though, this is easily enough for our bar. Congrats!

YES