OCR04844 - *YES* Disco Elysium "First Death of the Heart"

[prophetik music ⚖️]

EDIT (11/10): Tweaked/revised version in the submission comments -LT

From TheManPF: "Requesting to submit a very small change to the remix, just added a few subtle reversed reverb tails to the quotes so they ease in better"

Artist Name: TheManPF
Additional artists: Zach Chapman; Cory Johnson; CeCe Ennui

I FUCKING LOVE DISCO ELYSIUM

There, if you haven't played it, it's one of my highest recs, it's a game that filled me with a lot of strong a emotions, it's a deep piece of art, and one of the two only games I've ever played that I'd dare call a perfect 10/10. For a while I wanted to do something with it, and when we figured a Mystery/Detective month was coming to Dwelling of Duels, I remembered this song "La Revacholiere" stuck with me ever since I heard it, it's a huge spoiler so I cannot give many details about it, but all I'll say is that is the most powerful moment in the game for me.

I went for a midwest emo/post-rock style, it's something that I think fits the vibe of this game very well, and I tried to emphasize what I think is one of the most prevalent themes of the game: the world is fucked up, and DE is not shy at showing you this when you start the game, there's a lot of things happening around you that could immediately send one spiraling into despair, and the protagonist is caught in the middle of all of this. Despite all this, and throughout your whole adventure, the game never stops hammering you about one thing, yes, things look really bad, but there's always one bit of light, one tiny ray of hope that's always by your side, and a voice in your head telling you that things can, and will, eventually get better, as long as you keep your head up and don't let this cruel world beat you down.

A lot of this is expressed through the arrangement and the lyrics, and I thought midwest emo/post-rock fit the themes well, as well as the style of the music in the game. Along with this, I put sprinkles of different quotes from the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", one that I never watched, but shares some common themes with Disco Elysium, particularly rough romantic relationships and memory loss. It also helps bring a lot to the overall atmosphere.

Zach is of course here, his bass tone is immaculate as always, but I also want to shout him out because he wrote all of the lyrics for the song, he hasn't even played the game! I gave him some pointers, some quotes from the game that I liked, and a vocal melody, and he did the rest, he's always been incredible on bass but lately he has showed me more of his hidden talent of lyric writing that he has, he even delivered these super fast, and they fit the arrangement perfectly.

For this one I decided to team up with good ol Cory Johnson, I figured he has a much better grasp than I have at this genre, and he helped me with a lot of bits and pieces for the arrangement, suggested Eternal Sunshine when I told him I wanted to use quotes from something, played a bunch of acoustic guitars, and my favorite part, he sang! He doesn't usually sing, but every time he does he nails it, he usually really knows how to use his voice when it fits, and I was convinced he was perfect for this one, and I'm happy he was able to pull it off.

CeCe Ennui also joins the team for this one, she's more well-known as the accordionist for The Tonberries, an incredible vgm band that mostly plays live but also submits regularly to DoD, she has sung something all the way back in October and when I first heard it I thought "man, this voice quality would fit an emo track so well", and here she is! I'm so happy she was able to deliver for this one.

Once again, very different from what I usually do, but I love experimenting, I love vocals, I love lyrics, and something I realized these last few months, I just love plain good ol songwriting, which is something that I have been showing with all of my last few vgm covers I've been doing, hope you enjoy it!

Lyrics:

[Excerpts from "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"]

"I had a really nice time last night."
"...nice?"
"I had the best fucking night of my entire fucking life."

"I still thought you were gonna save my life, even after that, it would be different, if we could just give it another go-round."

"Is there something wrong with a girl being attracted to me, is that a problem?"

"I can't remember anything without you."
"That's very sweet but try."

"Alright Joel, look man seriously, here's the deal."
"Rob, don't do that, Rob what are you doing?"
"Well what's your fucking suggestion?"

"What a loss to spend that much time with someone, only to find out that she's a stranger."

"...what if you stayed this time?"
"I walked out the door, there's no memory left."

"...she's there with this guy, and she looks at me like she doesn't even know who I am."

Punitive numbers and measures
All that push me on
Pain, duty, rejection
And all my unpaid bills

Warm primordial blackness
(Ferments your consciousness)
Now it's finally done
(In your insignificance)

Only myself to hear
(First death is in the heart)
Here is love for a face

End to my pain and struggle
(Here there are no ex-wives)
The disco ball slows
(Your act is wearing thin)

But through the indignity and bloat
(The machine is firing up again)
My will to overcome

Dust myself off and proceed
(Dust yourself off and proceed)
Turn my radio back in
(Turn your radio back in)
I'll do this sober and beautiful
(You'll do this sober and beautiful)

This will be a victory
For the light

"I could die right now Clem, I'm just happy, I never felt that before"

---

Games & Sources

Game: Disco Elysium
Songs arranged: La Revacholiere (DON'T look this up outside of incognito mode if you ever plan on playing this game, it's a behemoth-sized spoiler) (https://youtu.be/54moBCJSfXg)
Original composer: (British) Sea Power
System: idk it's in a lot of platforms
Year: 2019

[prophetik music ⚖️]

original is so lush. and i agree, it's an intense experience in-game.

opens with the expected very slow rush of sound and aleatoric plucks. the initial wash of sound is in the same key and pitch as the opening, so i'll even count it as source! i realized when it moved at 0:50 that it was guitar really washed out, and that's a neat feel to have the rhythmic stutters in it as it flows out.

the rest of the band starts at 1:29. this section feels really Silent Hill with the simple approach. the vox at 1:46 is super sharp and over-treble. we do finally start to get some melodic material at 1:56. this is a really introspective approach through here and i appreciate it, although i'll say that i'd prefer there to be no voiceovers whatsoever. i found them to be just in the way of the beautiful soundscape. there's a very relaxed solo section at 2:40 that's really nice and fits into the feel really well. 

there's a hard transition at 3:27 as the vocals come in. i felt the vocals felt a little boxy initially (as in the recording wasn't as clean as i'd have hoped) but i felt that especially once the band filled out more that wasn't noticeable. cory's voice is excellent, i love the tone! same with cece's additions. i found the vocal elements to be interesting - i didn't grok a direct connection between the melody you have for the vocals, but the backing elements mirroring the descending idea was a great way to tie the original to this new version. 

i was a little concerned at overall source usage, but with the entire middle section (1:28-3:27) being very clearly adapted from the original and then having lots of the descending motif alongside the chord movement in the following 1:45, i'm good with source usage here.

i think this is a super fun track! i love the vibe of the music. use of vocal clips aside, i think that there's a really shining example of adapting a very ambient original into a melody-driven track here. excellent work.

 

 

YES

[Liontamer ⚖️]

Nice moody adaptation of the original; cool to hear it done with this warm guitar as the lead. The drums also give this a particularly different quality, and the bassline was enjoyable to listen to as well. 3:28 shifted over to original vocals. Definitely dug Zach and CeCe's performances, though they sounded too quietly mixed and should have been more upfront; nothing meaningfully dinging this, but the vocals cutting through more would have had more impact, IMO. Had a great 90's rock vibe to the whole thing.

Great source tune choice, and a well-personalized approach to it. :-)

YES

[Flexstyle]

Easy rubber stamp for me. Source cuts through appreciably, and the arrangement is great. Midwest emo was definitely a prime choice for this arrangement. Instruments are parted out pretty well, including my usual gripe, the drums -- those were quantized, but clearly played or sequenced in a way that FEELS like a drummer chose to play the part. Bass tone is warm and gritty and while that doesn't really figure into going over the bar or not, it's something that I love to hear. Vocals are among the better-performed ones I've heard at OCR, and they're mixed appropriately for the genre. 

 

YES