ReMix:Puella Magi Madoka Magica Portable "Meus Caligo Hora" 3:20

Three down... twelve to go!! Next up is urdailywater with our FIRST arrangement of Puella Magi Madoka Magica Portable for the PSP. Some of you may be familiar with the anime/manga; haven't watched it myself, but I certainly like the source tune that Aaron chose for this mix, and it's always nice to see more arrangements from the criminally-underrepresented PSP. Jeanne d'Arc? ANYONE??? I can dream... the artist writes:

"The music from this game sounds a lot like the music from the anime in some cases, but the compositions are completely different. The soundtrack from the anime has to be, without a doubt, one of my favorite soundtracks/albums /anything to be heard within the last few years. It is literally impossible not to love the music. So I sort of tried to borrow from the anime soundtrack when arranging this in terms of soundscapes.

Bringing in an acoustic drumset this time... this sounds a bit different than my other stuff. Much more natural you could say... but it still has that freaking bell and chiptune synths that I love using so much, so, yeah. It gets pretty busy towards the end. I tried separating the parts so they're not jarring frequency-wise... but it's kind of supposed to be cluttered as a climax sort of thing, if that makes any sense. I like that stuff at least. And also this has a lot more noise. I'm going to try and get harsher with sound design and noises in the future, because it's really fun to do. Hopefully, y'all will enjoy that. :D"

Chimpazilla's description/thoughts resonated with me:

"I'm loving the sound choices here! The flute, the mallets/bells, the delayed piano, the synths! (I love the synth writing, wish there had been more) A bit heavy on the reverb overall, but I happen to be a huge fan of reverb. I think the instruments are separated quite well, considering you've got lots of elements in the same range, kudos on this. I like how you've used noise and sfx so it almost feels to me like it's raining at times... The arrangement is quite straightforward, but you've created a terrific mood here."

Ditto that; judges did note some overall simplicity & potential balance issues with a scarcity of bass, but WillRock summarizes the presiding sentiment:

"Nice work here, gives off cool mysterious vibes not heard in the original."

He ain't wrong; the source tune is more squarely in the sugary-sweet arena, whereas Aaron's version has a little more mystique to it. I'd still like to see the artist break mold a bit with some more elaborate/complex components, as I think at times things are a little too bare-bones, but there's enough here to establish a mood & develop it. Strong stuff & refreshing source choice as always from urdailywater!