OCRA-0009 - Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream

[Nelo Angelo]

is there any place to just straight download and no torrent?

[Oni865]

I've downloaded several albums from this site, but this one in particular is my absolute favorite. Final Fantasy VII may be one of my all-time favorite video games, but that's not why I like this album. It was very well put together, had some great remixers on the project, admired the artwork as well, and it's one I listen to on a daily basis.

My absolute favorite track would actually have to be the first song, "Deliverance of the Heart" done by pixietricks and zircon. I posted a review on that song as well, but was worth another mention. I would like to personally thank everyone who was on that project for putting together such a great album.

[zircon]

is there any place to just straight download and no torrent?

Yes, http://ff7.ocremix.org/ has HTTP mirrors.

[JWDragair]

Wow, it's really nice to see that people are still discovering this album I fell in love with it long ago, and have never regretted getting the entire thing on my slow as snails internet via individual track downloading. It took all night but was worth it XD

Love the album, and love the remixes. And I really wish I could be as good as this, but my works are much to rough to even put on OCR :\ Anyway, good work and more music! XD

[Mirby]

It is a nice album... and the ones to come out in the future are shaping up to be quite awesome as well!

[Ben Steed]

This album has shaped my musical path as I know it. It was such a huge influence on me when I first heard it. I regard it as one of my favourite albums of all time.

[letalis]

Aiai.. I'm downloading this now.. This was such a surprise to find. I'm looking forward to listen to it. From what I can see on the comments the stuff is good

I'm in one of those final fantasy 7 periods again so thanks alot for this.

[VV666]

Bonjour,

je suis français et je ne parle pas un mot d'anglais, alors je ne vous ferais pas l'affront de m'exprimer dans un anglais incompréhensible ou pire, utiliser Google traduction !

De tout manière, je pense que vous aller comprendre :

LE TRAVAIL QUE VOUS AVAIENT FAIT SUR CETTE ALBUM EST GÉNIAL !!!!! MERCI !!!!!

Je l'écoute en boucle depuis quelques jours, c'est SUPER !!!!! :-D:-D

[Sansato]

I've actually downloaded some of the album's songs from OCR's main site, and all of them are good so far. I'm not familiar with a majority of the original soundtrack, but I'm going to assume that this will be kickass based on the remixes I've heard already. I'll post back with my thoughts on the album after I've listened to it.

[Litsuna]

Oh gosh, I've been a member for what seems an eternity, and yet I've only ever posted twice!

I just re-downloaded this album...can't believe it was released this long ago already....

Ah, I'm swimming in a sea of wonder again. Can't say enough about this amazing album, except: Thanks for making my day.

[Swifthom]

Sitting through the album in several sittings i've finally been able to gather my thoughts on it... Several years too late but this is still something worth celebrating

http://imburningout.blogspot.com/2011/04/final-fantasy-vii-voices-of-lifestream.html

Voices of the Lifestream is a pretty epic undertaking, rolling in just short of three and a half hours of music it covers all the major areas of its original source. Unfortunately this strength is also its weakest; Final Fantasy VII had a fairly varied soundtrack and whilst in the context of a game most of it works, as a cohesive body of music the album struggles to remain focused, particularly around the third disc.

Disc One: Crisis

Standout Track: Deliverance of the Heart

There’s one thing that struck me in ‘Deliverance of the Heart’, something that told me straight away that they’d got something right. It isn’t Pixietricks sumptuous vocals, which are excellent, or the rich, ambient chords that accompany them throughout. It’s the bells; a strong, metallic clunk that just suits the source material to the ground. ‘Deliverence of the Heart’ sets the tone for the following two remixes, taking the source music in slightly different, much more ambient and cinematic direction, than the technology was capable of in 1997. It’s certainly a very strong start to the album.

However by track four we start to reach the all important battle music of the games, allowing some traditional electric guitars to step forward and claim their place. ‘Materia Junkie’ and ‘Full Frontal Assault’ step up to the mark, and although they don’t anything as radical as the preceding tracks they continue the strong production values set before them.

After the duel guitar tracks the album shifts gears again, giving two more ethereal pieces produced by OCR stalwarts Another Soundscape (now Mattias Häggström Gerdt) and Daniel Baranowsky. Both tracks ooze a quality, well constructed soundboard that provide a feeling just as strong as the base melody. Then once again the album shifts gears to two more faster paced battle songs, utilising a more techno-electronic sound this time to rocket up the tension alongside the beat. ‘Son of Chaos’ provides one final lower temp song, becoming one of the darkest and most intimidating tunes of the album. Then the final two tracks race headfirst to the ending, one metal the other techno.

The first disc represents a strong direction for the album, laying out its intentions and ambitions, cleverly pacing the musical styles to tell its story whilst not ever getting too repetitive. Artistic license may be high at certain points, some songs diverging from the source tunes more than others, but without exception these are all masterly crafted pieces all worthy of your attention.

Disc Two: Dirge

Standout Track: JENOVA: Celestial

Djpretzel’s introduction track struggles to set as strong a first impression as the previous CDs, but there’s no denying that ‘Short Skirts’ it a truly beautiful jazz song. Vibrant and colourful it demonstrates excellent choice of instruments and arrangements to give an underappreciated source song true depth. And like the preceeding album it sets the tone for what immediately follows; ‘Valse Aeris’ is something of a dreamy ballroom dance, orchestrally dancing back and forth around your speakers for a full seven and a half minutes without ever outstaying its welcome. Both technical masterpieces certainly but perhaps not the most exciting tracks on the album.

It’s a shame that ‘Embraced Empathy’ sits in this part of the album, surrounded by some of the best arranged pieces of the album. Whilst technically fine it struggles to distinguish itself, and the fact that its surrounded by some of the most musically accomplished pieces of the album it looks significantly worse for wear. ‘Serenity’ gives a smooth, confident production that mixes interesting chord changes with a trippy/jazz style beat and backing vocals evocative of Pixietricks opening on the first track. ‘A Life Without Parole’ follows this with a piano solo that is technically excellent, but perhaps outstays its welcome lasting almost a full five minutes.

‘Scenes From a Memory’ picks up the beat, although not as technically proficient as its predecessors, it does amiably prevent the album from wallowing by providing a much needed driving force for the song. It, ‘Golden Fields’ and ‘Crystal Sermon’ risk treading water in the middle of the album, buts fans of the source tunes will all find something to appreciate in each song. Things veer off slightly halfway through the song ‘Chasing the Storm’, which starts as just a straight tribute to the original, before transforming seamlessly into something very different. Fast, frenetic and most importantly exciting it leads into the equally strange and eerie song ‘Sephiroth’s Wake’.

This album really takes off however in the penultimate track, where bLiND introduces us to the Jenova motif that really embodies Final Fantasy 7. It’s something of a techno anthem, providing fast well selected key changes just when the sound is about to get monotonous. Some of this energy follows through into the final track; ‘Mark of the Beatsmith’, which shows potential with excellent styling and soundscape, but suffers from a few poor arrangement issues.

The second disc shows a much more musically competent side to the album, showcasing some of the varied styles and sounds from both FF7 and OCR. It has just as strong production values as its predecessor and a wider remit of styles. The pace if a little slower and a little more relaxed, giving the musicians time to enjoy the songs and flesh them out for all their worth.

Disc Three: Advent

Standout Track: Fading Entity

‘Suco de Malenica’ is a solid arrangement in its own right but its not the most inspired remix to grace this album. This isn’t a complex piece, a light hearted reprieve from the more serious songs on the album, but I doubt it’ll leave anyone with many lasting impressions.

‘Stone Eyes’ follows with another piano only piece, offering one of the more emotional source tunes on the album. It offers just the right amount of complexity to do justice to the original without deviating too much. ‘Daydreaming Again’ offers a similar musical indulgence, with live recorded instruments working through chord progressions from the original, yet the music never takes off with a strong melody of its own.

Things liven up quickly with the quirky ‘Alien Exploration’ which seems a welcome splice of fun at first, from the more mellow tracks that preceded it, yet it arguably overstays its welcome. ‘Golden Feathers’ follows this with an admirable musical flair elaborating on a source tune that offered very little musical scope, yet once again the upbeat jaunty instruments start to grate after a while. ‘Midnight at the Club Corel’ is more of an improvisation piece, blending some traditionall ballroom jazz with some very subtle synths. It functions well in breaking up the high pitched instruments which make a return in the happy hardcore ‘Ahead on Our Rave’ appropriately titled but containing very little musical intricacy. This run of oddball remixes comes to an end with ‘Kweh!’, the required Chocobo song, that sounds like the theme song of a children’s television show. Whilst it contains some interesting improvised sections the bulk of the song sounds almost exactly like the original.

Fortunately things settle down with the final run of songs on the disc, starting with ‘The Crossroads’, which starts with a fairly traditional homage of the original song before breaking into something entirely different; a metal-dance hybrid with some very strong vocal effects. Jovette River’s vocals aren’t as strong as Picietricks at the start of the album but he makes up for this with some excellent sound editing, giving a particularly interesting chorus. Whilst not to everyone’s taste this has to be commended for attempting to do something different with the song, remaining perfectly true to the spirit of the album.

After this bLiND returns with collaborator Leifo to give one of the standout pieces of the albums. ‘Fading Entity’ uses stereo panning and some impressive effects to lay out one of the most polished tracks on the album. I can’t explain how special this piece is; you need to listen to it to appreciate the piece.

Frozen Landscapes then finishes the disc, bringing some life to what was originally a very monotonous piece. It’s a very minimalist piece with no discernable memory but it holds true to the sense of ambient energy that the best tracks in the album have demonstrated.

The third disc is arguably the weakest of the three. Things pick up towards the end but it starts relatively bland and unmemorable, before transforming into something loud and obnoxious. By and large these are the ‘extra’ songs that weren’t essentially a part of Final Fantasy’s 7’s central storyline and stylistically they’re somewhat out of kilter compared to the other discs.

Disc Four: Order

Standout Piece: The Beginning of the End

‘Sleep, My Sephy’ is a bit of a slow burner to kick off the final album. Like Pot Hocket’s previous piece it follows the chord progression of the original piece with some nylon guitars. Although artistically sound it’s something of a lullabye piece and a little unusually placed as it kicks off the final disc. It does however feed in nicely to the gloom ridden haunting melody that is ‘Collision’, a powerful piece with an excellent sound but very little melody and a lot of repetition.

‘Airships Make Me Happy’ could be the most inspiring piece on the album, a chiptunes-esque (with some subtle orchestration in the background) that only strays slightly from the original but tunes it into a much peppier, upbeat piece of music. ‘Hydrophone Breakdown’ follows breathing some life into a fairly simple piece of backing music… To be honest there’s a slight sense in both songs feel as though the album is wrapping up the remaining erroneous songs that they couldn’t fit onto the third disc. On the other hand production values are high and they do carry a required tension in them, as though the end if slowly drawing nearer.

'Omnislash’ brings back the quasi-metal style that infected the first album, drawing together the ominous pace with heavy guitar riffs and some great synths. It’s much more dramatically driven than the first disc, with a sense of impending danger throughout, most clearly embodied in the string section towards the end. This is followed by the somewhat repetitive ‘Rare Square’ that feels more like a film soundtrack than a tune in its own right.

Fortunately ‘JENOVA: Returns’ more than lives up to the high standards set up by ‘JENOVA: Celestial’ on the second disc. It’s a very theatrical piece, blending the J-E-N-O-V-A theme with a few other pieces in a grand musical masterpiece that’s larger in scope than almost any other song on the album... This is followed by ‘Beginning of the End’, another of bLiND’s stellar performances, moving from trance to a drum’n’bass fast paced masterpiece that just takes everything excellent about the original song and emphasises every element.

‘Black Wing Metamorphosis’ is perhaps the most important song in the album, its source being the most controversial yet recognisable song in Final Fantasy history. To combat the task before them six arranger’s collaborate to make something just as disjointed and perhaps divisive as the original, melding together a range of styles to produce something truly unique. It starts with a series of chiptunes blips and beeps with the orchestral strings coming in slowly, before the choir takes over to become the meat of the song. Things end with an orchestral rendition of the chorus, before a fuzzy guitar solo closes things out neatly. It’s hardly the epic masterpiece that some might have expected but it certainly treads new ground. Then, to bring listeners down from that ‘The Golden Memories of Gaia’ blends together several tunes from the album, giving a fairly sombre and reserved finish to the album.

Disc four is certainly something special, combining together the strong dramatic tension from the first disc, the musical skills from the second and something of the variety from the third.

[CrazyCanuck]

Holy crap. So much amazing stuff on this site. Just had the pleasure of downloading and listening to this album over the weekend, wished I had gotten it earlier.

Have to say, Motor Crazycycle by tefnek was one of my favourites. It had just about the catchiest tune I've heard since, well, a long time. Disappointed it didn't make onto the site. Ah well. All a blast to listen to anyway.

[Masakado]

Is it okay to upload "Voices of the Lifestream" on http:/soundcloud.com/?

Or put it on facebook?

Is it okay for the artists?

Is it okay for Mr. Uematsu?

Are there some official statements, i could refer to?

please help

[FlangEG]

Does anyone know the lyrics of any of the tracks? I desperately need the info. Sorry if I'm repeating a similar request.

[swansdown]

Good question. I took a quick look over the site and the album folders. I can only find the track list, and not the lyrics. FF VI came with a lyrics .txt; does FF VII also have one?

[Xarnax42]

This question cam up years ago.

The only two tracks with lyrics were posted.

http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01612

http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01619

Just click the lyrics tab from the ReMix page.

[timaeus222]

Midnight at Club Corel was so good. Then I realized a collaborator was Shnabubula. Then it all made sense.

[Clem Fandango]

I've listened to this album so many times that not too long ago when I took advantage of there being a Switch port of FF7, I found myself expecting to hear the OCR album versions of songs instead of the actual tracks from the game. There's a lot of variety in the game's soundtrack itself and I love how that's represented in this album, setting a standard that I think that all of the future JRPG album projects on this site were going to have to meet - and have met; I enjoy all of them too.

Some diverge wildly from the style of the source track, like 2-02 Valse Aeris, while others like 4-04 Airships Make Me Happy hew closer to what might have been found in the game, and I dig these and everything in between. I've still got the torch burning for this album in 2020.