ReMix:Chrono Cross "Passing Through History" 8:01

We've got a DOUBLE MIXPOST featuring Chrono's Cross AND Trigger for you today, with some truly amazing & creative arrangements. Up first is newcomer Sibling (Trent Thomas) with a dark, conspiring, 8-minute downbeat/tribal exploration of "Deathfire Mountain" from Chrono Cross:

"A magical tribal remix of Yasunori Mitsuda's original song "Death Volcano" from Chrono Cross on PlayStation 1, long overdue for a Sibling remix! An incredible song and one of my favorites from the Chrono Cross OST, I had to put it through an original remix and bring it up to times. Yasunori Mitsuda has always been an inspiration to me since day one of me playing Chrono Cross and hearing the amazing music.

This remix was made using Ableton Live 9 with various plugins and sound design. Voice samples from [Larry's note: conspiracy theorist/overall nutter] David Icke. I hope you enjoy it!"

Creative & unorthodox use of exposed bass frequencies for the ending; the sound design work here is excellent, dynamic panning has elements moving across the soundscape in compelling ways, and it almost feels like you're walking through one of those tubes in aquariums where the marine life is diving & darting all around you. Each individual element has its own internal movement & modulation, and the net effect presents a teeming menagerie of electronic/organic textures. At a hair over eight minutes, some judges were rightly concerned with repetition and source usage, but zykO's vote not only represented the consensus approval, but says pretty much everything I have to say, too... sans capitalization:

"first things first, i not only hear the source, i hear plenty of it. that shouldn't be the knock on this arrangement at all. in my opinion, the issue with source usage here is really just tied to the length of the track and the fact that direct source quotations will seem sparse in relation to that. but the source is absolutely there, is the very center of the creative interpretation and it is done wonderfully.

as far as the piece itself, most everybody is already on board as far as its quality goes. excellent use of the whole soundfield. bass is powerful and demanding. the sound design is fantastic on the main synths as well as the auxillary atmospheric stuff. experienced usage of sound bytes, too; kudos for knowing how to PACE and PLACE them.

i get that it drones on a bit but i feel that is purely stylistic; sibling clearly has been doin this for a while and i don't take his "long windedness" as a lack of critical editing or a case of overwriting. quite the contrary, actually. i feel this track with its pace and its development (especially with the sequence of sound bytes) needed the full 8 minutes and could have even gone longer, honestly but the 8 is just right. and the long fade on the ending note is nice. very artsy stuff. this is a good piece of music."

Indeed; certainly something different, a lesser-mixed source from a classic OST, and a good example of a longform ambient/downbeat ReMix that uses its time wisely and builds an impressively complete environment. Enveloping & substantial debut from Sibling - hope to hear more!