ReMix:Chrono Trigger "But You're Still Hungry" 5:44

CHRONO TRIGGER!! It's especially popular with VGM fans for a *reason*!!

We've got an awesome post-rock + chiptune arrangement of "A Desolate World" from Marshall Art for you, off of Chronicles of Time, but before we get to that... we also JUST RELEASED the trailer for our upcoming all-jazz tribute to Chrono Trigger, Chronology, coming soon! I'm really psyched about OCR's first all-jazz album, from the appropriately-named OC Jazz Collective, so keep your eyes out! In the meantime, though, this is an amazing, atmospheric, & textural arrangement from an entire album of great mixes.. credits breakdown:

• Mikhail Ivanov - Guitar
• Jeffrey Roberts - NES chiptunes
• Arranged by Marshall Art
• Mixed by Jeffrey Roberts

jmr (Jeffrey Roberts) writes:

"Here's Marshall Art's take on yet another melody-less source, this time from Chrono Trigger. It's one of three songs we made for Chronicles of Time. (For anyone reading this who lives under a rock, it's a massive 5-disc fully-licenced Chrono Trigger tribute project. It was on the front page of iTunes next to Taylor Swift, so you know it's cool.)

As per our usual, everything you hear in this song is a single NES (2A03 with VRC6 expansion) and umpteen layers of guitar. I'm particularly proud of the drum sound I was able to pull from the NES (which under normal circumstances is only able to pull of a single, lo-fi sample at a time), and I've gotta hand it to Mikhail for crafting the dreamy, shimmery guitar chords which carry the song.

Couple things which I want to point out in the interest of full disclosure:

• The melody played by the triangle wave channel at 1:38 is loosely based on the bass line from "Lab 16's Ruin," which we also covered for Chronicles of Time.
• The dissonant bell sample heard at the end is recreated from the original Korg M1 sample and not ripped from the SNES game. I know how picky a certain company is about sampling from their games. If you're not convinced, listen carefully to the original SNES song and you'll hear the quick echo effect that I didn't recreate because I failed to notice it until long after our version was done. Part of me still wants to go back and fix that...
• The guitar at the end is "inspired by" the intro of Deftones' "Pink Maggit." I feel like it's fair to call 14 notes in a nearly 6-minute song an "extremely limited" reference, but I'll leave that for you all to judge."

Gotta love the full disclosure tidbits; always nice to know. I've been playing No Man's Sky lately - and yes, I'd proudly lump myself in with the folks who think it's bloody amazing - and this mix goes REALLY well with that game's atmosphere. The variation and textural depth Mikhail & Jeffrey conjure from just guitar & NES + FX are really stellar... bitcrushed, distorted fields of sound with crystalline synths protruding outward... reminds me of a planet I just discovered :) Sir_NutS writes:

"hmm interesting use of bitcrushing. I'm usually not a fan of what seems a blanket usage of the effect (on the intro) but it definitely adds character here. The bitcrushed triangle wave lead harmonics may be too much for some; I think they're cute. The guitar lead is surprisingly fitting though, and a highlight for me. The climax screams awesomeness and power. I think you did a great job with the arrangement here. Deftones is one of my favorite bands of all time (white pony is one of the best metal albums ever made, imo) and I loved the reference there. Overall amazing work putting this together, these different elements could end in disaster on less experienced hands but you managed to craft this with expertise."

Indeed; these guys almost make it sound easy, but getting these textures to play nice, form something coherent, and resonate with an arrangement of the source is a tall order, and the end result is mesmerizing & starkly beautiful. Check it out, check out the full Chronicles of Time album, and be on the lookout for MOAR Chrono Trigger with our upcoming Chronology release!