ReMix:Final Fantasy VII "Mother" 3:58

OKAY!!!

We've JUST announced that we're adding copies of FINAL FANTASY 7: VOICES OF THE LIFESTREAM to existing rewards $50 & up on our FF6 KICKSTARTER, making for a total of NINE DISCS of VGM hotness!! So let's celebrate with an FF7 ReMix, right? Newcomer Moomba (Joe Griffith) hooks us up with this really unique, cinematic medley that blends somber orchestral elements with harp, acoustic guitar & a peculiar, love-it-or-hate-it breaking glass percussive element. He writes:

"The origins of this remix are pretty straightforward. Ever since listening to Nekofrog's arrangement of Listen to the Cries of the Planet, 'The Planet Is Dead', the ostinati from the original have been continuously rotating in my mind. Though for some reason chunks of J-E-N-O-V-A kept creeping into it. In fact, large portions of Aerith's Theme also kept injecting themselves into the mental picture I had of the track, but when it came to writing, they didn't really gel too well with the rest of the track, at least not without altering the melody to points at which it no longer even resembled the source material.

When I first got into writing music, it was with a very minimalistic style and I've never quite shed those roots (nor do I want to). Several of the tracks from the FFVII OST are also quite minimalistic in nature, with lots of awesome ostinati and very simple melodies, so I took it upon myself to go about combining a few. I'd actually already written a large portion of the minimalism heard throughout the track for an original piece... in 4/4. It didn't take much modifying to get them to work in 6/8 though.

I owe a fair bit of the final sound of the ReMix to Jeff Ball (some1namedjeff) for giving me the push to actually go back and make the track sound a bit more unique and interesting."

There's a definite film-score vibe going on, not only with the instrumentation but the overall arrangement itself. You can imagine an opening credits sequence, as names slowly appear & disappear, quite easily. While the aesthetic is minimalist, there's still more than a few components, and the deliberate, subtle introduction (or subtraction) of each keeps things interesting. There's a lot to talk about and a lot to admire, but I think for many the salient element is going to be the percussive glassbreak. Because it's a single sample, it does not vary, and thus sounds pretty clearly artificial, in contrast to the overall emphasis on real-world instrumentation. I don't know how many glass-breaking sample libraries out there offer variation in the form of extensive round-robin alternation, but that's certainly what it would take to avoid that particular character & quality. However, to me it CAN come off as more intentional - as in, yes, I'm going to knowingly juxtapose a clearly-sampled percussive element into this soundscape, because I like the contrast... Was that the ReMixer's intent? I don't know. The sample quality on some of the other components suggest that the answer is, "possibly not...," but it's almost a moot point, since I think it CAN work either way. It's going to depend on whether the listener notices, cares, and/or agrees. OA writes:

"I agree that the samples aren't blowing me away, but the arrangement is excellent. I love detailed percussion, and if this was ever performed live, i'd hate to be the guy cleaning up all the broken glass after the show! The blending of melodies is excellent, and the arrangement outshines the somewhat generic sequencing and samples. I wish the ending had been a little more delicate than just ending, but it works for me."

halc echoes this assessment:

"took a while for the arrangement to spread its wings, but once you layered in the Jenova melody, I was all over this. I gotta agree that the samples here aren't gonna blow anyone away (not particularly any more interesting than some of the original samples, just a little higher in quality) but I thought they were tastefully mixed and well sequenced for the most part."

So the judges definitely favored arrangement over production as well. I suppose, if the actual intention on the glass was to strive for a realistic percussive component, I personally would have axed it since it's the one element that's flagrantly sampled, but what this piece shows is a strong, stylized arrangement & a bravery regarding instrumentation. Hopefully both will be better served by improved samples in the future, as I can definitely say that Moomba has my attention as an artist with a distinct approach!