ReMix:Final Fantasy "Dance of Descent" 6:19

What? A mega-medley, on OCR?? It's more likely than you'd think... all it takes is making sure that the glue that holds your arrangement together is top-notch, and that you're not time-traveling from source tune to source tune in a crude effort to pack as many in as possible. In other words: Melting Pot, not Salad Bowl. Continuing the trend of newcomers, this track is from Izkemia (Fernando Calvo, Claudio Lavín), but also features album director Brandon Strader w/ a brief orchestral intro & contributions to the arrangement. Fernando writes:

"This is basically a prog metal medley of nine FF1 OST tracks. It was a big challenge for us to arrange this, as major scales are predominant in the original tracks, and we tend to avoid them in our compositions. Anyway, we think it came out decently. Recording this took lots of effort and time, but it was definitely worth it. The medley is rather conservative in terms of harmony, with some exceptions like, for example, a "jazzy" take on "Menu Screen," but we played quite a lot with time signatures, keeping very few of the originals. We really hope you guys like this!

I really want to thank Andrew Struve, a.k.a. Obtuse, for telling me about this project, Brandon Strader for making a kickass intro for the song and for his invaluable support, and my good friend Claudio Lavín, who recorded the guitars and made the solos. Without your help, this wouldn’t have been possible! Fun fact: Neither I nor Claudio have EVER played FF1."

OA writes:

"Sequencing at the beginning was a bit stiff in the melody, but it worked well enough as an intro. The song itself is pretty solid, and features a ton of different source songs without feeling like a medley. The drums were a bit upfront, but reminded me more of the snappleman/norg track from the ff7 project in terms of production more than anything else."

Deia adds:

"I will say that while this is distinctly a medley, the transitions and overall style keep things organized and together, and the themes mesh very well from one to the next."

And finally, Larry:

"Absolutely excellent, personalized handling of this multitude of themes with some sweet transitions. The guitars could have wailed a bit more and been more expressive, but what was here was still strong enough. Pretty solid performances and just a strong as strong can be collab."

Judges said it well - epic, well-integrated medley that covers a LOT of territory but never loses steam. Looking forward to what Fernando & Claudio have in store for the future, but this was definitely a solid 6+ chunk of Random Encounter that rocked the hell out. Stay tuned for more flood mixes to come, and in the meantime enjoy the album & share it with others!