orkybash Posted July 22, 2002 Share Posted July 22, 2002 Tales of Phantasia 'Journey to Thor' I'm sorry, but I wanted to shut this off the instant I heard the horrible string sample. Things sound like they're going to continue to sound like ass, until the song hit's 2:20. I guarantee you, wait it out until then and you will be rewarded with some wicked techno work that more than makes up for the iffy intro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firestorm Posted July 22, 2002 Share Posted July 22, 2002 The first couple of minutes were a little weak, but once the techno kicked in, I was hooked. This is definitely one of the best Progressive type mixes on the site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protricity Posted July 22, 2002 Share Posted July 22, 2002 Indeed the intro could have used less SFX, although I didnt mind the strings sample in the least. We work with what we have. Also, the ending had an unfinnished feel. Definately alot of detail and work went into this song. I love the pan effects and progressive feel. It is truly a skill when one takes a rather short song and turns it into a 5 minute song without it sounding repetative while maintaining our interest. Great job Bunk1e -Pro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan8bit Posted July 22, 2002 Share Posted July 22, 2002 I find this song getting stuck in my head. Last night, while struck with a bout of insomnia, all I could think of is the middle part with the chorus. How ominous it is. I truly like the darker feel of this song, and even the build-up to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fieari Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 Must I be in the minority here, in declaring my enjoyment of nearly every single portion of this mix? The strings at the beginning, contrary to Orky's experience, are what turned me ON to this peice right from the start. The strings sound like they are being made on very old instruments, perhaps a bit rickety... and this gives it a very colorful flavor. I surely wouldn't want to hear these strings playing something calmer... or something more elegant or elaborate... keep them away from anything classical, but for this peice, they are perfect. Perfect in all it's rust filled glory. But as much as I enjoyed the opening, (and the FX really back up the color thing I was describing earlier... this mix was made for "Outdoors" thinking)... as much as I enjoyed the opening, 1:47, and the wind rushing up to that point, was what made me sit up and really pay attention here. The sudden and stark drum blast brings me to mind of the sound of fireworks being sent up... not fireworks exploding, but rather that FOOMP sound when the rockets are first lit. On an open field, sitting in the right spot, this sound just reverberates through your chest cavity. I have a fairly decent, if now aging, subwoofer... and while I didn't get the entire effect of hearing a rocket go up, there was enough to stir the memory, and my imagination accomplished the rest. I like how the double beats, and the triple beats are laid over top of each other in an unordered fashion... giving it a NATURAL feel, as opposed to an orchestrated one. Perfect for explosions. The rest of the mix didn't have many SPECIFIC items that can be brought directly to mind, but there was still enough to hold my attention at all times. It never got repetitive, the trademark of a poor quality mix. The one other mentionable spot is at 4:30ish, pointed out by djpretzel as well, the piano came in with a solo. You may have read some of my previous reviews here... if so, you know that I love piano solos in the middle of a piece (and if done well, as the entirety of the piece as well, but that's a different case) and this one was no exception. What a perfect way to end a solid mix alltogether? This one is a keeper. I've had it on repeat for a while now. I'm loving it anew with each time. Eventually, the passion will subside as I slowly memorize each nuance, but it will forever hold its place on my random WinAmp playlist, this I promise. DJ Carbunkle, I know this one has been in the works for a while. Congratulations to you, it was worth the wait. Huzzah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zandar The Weeble Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 Mmmm. I gotta admit, I could have done completely without the first 2:15 of this. There's too much overdrive EVERYTHING and nothing "normal" to ground it. Well, the bass line from 1:21 - 1:47 is almost there, but the way cranked kick drum from 1:48 -2:10 made me want to commit MurderDeathKill on something. I understand the building theme of this one, because the payoff at 2:18 on is really really nice stuff, but when this song builds a solid if not beautiful house, it uses a sledgehammer on the more delicate parts of the frame. Still, the last 60% of this is pretty good. But man...I dunno. There's a lot of work that went into this one (it's obvious) but this one doesn't do it for me, the first 2 minutes really really grate on my nerves while I love the rest of it, evens out in the end. Little high, little low. 5/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xaleph Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 This is not just a song about a specific place or a specific person but rather a journey, and boy does that sound cheesy =D. This is what is pictured in my mind, 1) there is a storm and you get onto a boat, where you travel to the middle of the sea. 2) where the choirs are is where you jump into the water (with the help of a summon, if you play the game you know what I'm talking about and I don't want to spoil anything for anyone). 3) as you get further and furthur down you start seeing this city under the water. 4) it's much further a long in technology than any other city known to man at this time, it is incredibly advanced. Thus the electronic sounds. Anyways I hope you enjoy, the storm is approximately 10 tracks, the song with out the storm was around 30-40 tracks, this song I've spent the most on. Bad things: 1) I wanted to have a friend do the violin part, to give more of a real feeling, however, he's working and is busy and doesn't think his skills are up to par, (I completely disagree). Maybe I'll resubmit later (much later) with real violins if I get someone to record it for me. 2) Also I wanted to get my girlfriend to do some talking vocals between when you jump in the water and the pure electronic part at the end stating like how many kilometers, how many knots... etc.. like those female computers that tell you information. and those are the bad things, well things I wanted to happen but couldn't Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homo Pocket Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 Sheesh I don't know, I thought it was pretty good overall. I actually liked the intro Alot with the interesting sounding strings. The strings sounded kinda hollow which is what gave them such great character to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fieari Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 Homo, that's exactly what I was talking about! There's an odd sound about them, but I think that's GOOD. Hearing real violins would be neat though, I will look foreward to hearing an updated version if one ever gets made. I had forgotten that the Abyss was underwater... I was getting it confused with that deep cavern thing where the most powerful equipment can be found (optional) at the very end of the game. But either way, there is a DEFINATE sense of decent involved. I suppose the piano solo at the end would be entering the building, and standing in awe, gazing at the thing we had been searching for in the first place? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlwaysAlone Posted August 23, 2002 Share Posted August 23, 2002 Fieari, I feel the exact way that you do, the intro I found was quite good...IMO. That doesn't mean that it IS good, but I like it, so I'm fine with that. The rest of the mix is as good as the intro, and DJ Carbunk1e is one of my favorites. ^^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryu7x Posted August 25, 2002 Share Posted August 25, 2002 I personally loved the ripened-like strings in the beginning and really enjoyed the rest of this detailed and fantastic piece. Great job Carbuk1e! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straziante Posted December 1, 2002 Share Posted December 1, 2002 I absolutely love this song. The strings could use some work, but they still give the song an "urgent" feel that works in its favor. The gradual building of the song was really nice, and completely annihilates any repetitive feel most remixes hint at. The SFX are wonderful, and really recreated the mood of Tales of Phantasia, minus the XXX. The break with the choir was a nice transition into the conclusion that totally went ape-shit with wholesome techno goodness. Even with the bad violin sound, I found this to be quite the remix. Recommended highly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSJ_Rahlen Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 The City of Thor was my favorite music from Tales of Phantasia, and I was worried that, as is the case with so many remixes on this site, that efforts to make the song "tecnoish" would completely ruin the integrity of this dark, eerie music. Now listening to it for about the fifth time, I realize my fears were completely groundless--this remix is nearly PERFECT. The strings at the beginning are beautiful and eerie, and the remix takes off from there through a roller coaster of ups and downs--in volume, not quality. The remix expands on the relatively quiet game music, turning it into a thrilling arrangement of dark and powerful sound, and, just for good measure, quiets down to the original melody several times along the way. This is exactly what I would expect out of a Thor remix, and I can only hope future mixers will follow the example of this extraordinarily talented artist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richter Posted October 5, 2003 Share Posted October 5, 2003 I love the whole thing. It's all good. It reminds me heavily of one of the instrumental tracks off of Depeche Mode's Music for the Masses. (which is a good thing imo) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 21, 2004 Share Posted September 21, 2004 Checking this one one randomly; the groove here was pretty good; pretty cool stuff, Matt! Tales of Phantasia definitely had some good cuts on it, and Journey to Thor definitely works well with the source material. I'm sure this one's fairly unknown to most people, so don't pass it up. It's not "great" per se, but things certainly got more solid as they went along and I liked the end result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mutericator Posted November 1, 2004 Share Posted November 1, 2004 This one has been on all my OCRemix CD's since I got it about a year ago. This, along with Zelda 2's 'Temple Trance', ToP's 'Emotions Lost in Time', and several others, are my favorites. I'm a sucker for epic trance remixes, and this one definately hits the spot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 Definitely gets better as it goes on. The string sample at the beginning though was a bit ouch; nice bring in the sound effects to cover the hiss. THe track got better as it got more electronic I think. Not a favorite, but a good, solid track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucentas Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Gets a little choppy and loose in the arrangement at times, and does take a while to build up, but I like the overall atmosphere and mood that's set here. Nice work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
42 Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 The mix takes a -long- while to build up, but it does become more cohesive/coherent as it goes along. Still, it's to repetitive for my tastes, but I do like what the mix is trying to present though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansdown Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 It does take a while to get going and even then it's more of a background track. Then again, some Tales tracks are like that (and usually meant to be played briefly in the game). I like parts of it, but that string-sounding backing loop drives me a bit nuts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necrox Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 God, that string sample is awful. It seems it wasn't heard much more positively 13 years ago. When the hi-hats came in, things started getting interesting. I like how this mix uses techno to turn this source into something really mysterious and otherworldly. Cool stuff, even though it probably isn't as good today for some. Good mix; it reminds me of why I added the source to my maybe-remix list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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