Posted 2019-09-20, evaluated by Liontamer


Our 71st FREE community VGM arrangement album, Songs of the Sirens: Link's Awakening ReMixed is now available!

2019 has been a quiet year for OCR album releases... but it's time to wake up :) Album directors WillRock (William Harby) and DaMonz (Emery Monzerol) have teamed up again, with a worthy successor to Mirror Image: A Link to the Past ReMixed & a well-timed tribute to one of the best Zelda games & soundtracks, remade for the Switch and launching today! They write:

"Right after we finished Mirror Image, we already half-jokingly talked about making another Zelda album at some point. As soon as the Link's Awakening remaster for the Nintendo Switch was announced, we realised now was the perfect time to do the album.

Link's Awakening is very special to us, and we wanted to show the depth of our appreciation of the game and its music by releasing an arrangement album simultaneously with the remaster. This album was very much a labour of love, and we hope that translates to the finished product!

We'd like to thank djpretzel, Liontamer, and OverClocked ReMix for releasing this album, Roxanne Chartrand for creating incredible artwork, José the Bronx Rican for doing the awesome trailer, and all the amazing remixers on the project who helped make this dream a reality."

Mirror Image was a "surprise album" that hit hard & was very well-received, and I daresay Will & Emery have done it again - amazing, diverse, creative work from all involved. Of course, timing the album release with the remake release was challenging, but also a really cool way to pay homage to both old & new incarnations and reach old & new fans. This is also a rare (but completely cool) instance of OCR releasing a second album/interpretation of the same exact game, with 2010's Threshold of a Dream also arranging Link's Awakening and also being well worth your time :)

This mix features the voice-acting talents of none other than Joe "Claude" Zieja, who's been enjoying superstar status on social media thanks to his (pretty damn fantastic) work on Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Will uses this prog rock piece to tell a story, and in the process incorporates several different themes & styles into a cohesive, game-spanning whole:

"So, this is a remix I've wanted to do for a few years. I remember basically "telling" DaMonz we were going to direct this album and honestly, this track was one of my main reasons for wanting to do it. I always had this idea of making a dark, atmospheric, and super-progressive dungeon medley. It was also important to put the Southern Shrine tablet prophecy as a narration, and Joe Zieja did a better job than I ever dared hope for.

So, from the beginning, I'd claimed all the dungeon sources, but for a long time, I didn't do anything. Then DaMonz started his own medley, which ended up being "The Waker's Tale" on the album, and he asked me if he could use the "Tail Cave" theme to start off his mix. My idea was obviously very similar to this and while contemplating how to combat this issue, I had an idea of an organ sound fashioned after "Child in Time" by Deep Purple, which laid the foundation for this becoming a very progressive 70s-inspired romp, not unlike Genesis or Yes."

Great influences, great results - the amount of tension & suspense the voiceover creates is amazing, and the overall arrangement covers a vast sonic territory. While it's the 9th track, it's a great introduction to the album as a whole, and it's cool to see WR put the 80's on hold for a hot minute & dial in some 70's organ licks & swagger. Congrats to Will & Emery for another amazing Zelda arrange album, to Will for a 8+ minute narrative prog opus, and to all involved for making a compelling, exciting tribute to a newly-refreshed classic!

Check out the trailer, grab the album, and please help spread the news!

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 4 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
avatar
WillRock
on 2019-10-07 15:36:08
13 hours ago, Crono3of3time said:

It actually sounds like there are Three different remixes all pasted together here, that had been forgotten to be separated.

This song definitely gets a full kick in, and a hard one at that, but the song lasts too long for the extremely forceful content, It kind of lingers, and lingers, then fades the impact. The music changes to a higher tempo, and from there it forgets its own intro theme. It then goes another direction, quiets down, and goes another direction again.

If it had a few more musical distortions to it, not garbles, but like ghost portions of the other island songs, with the abyssal theme mixed in it may have held the attention more, as this is the Herald of Collapse. (What I've always called that stone)
The moving audio segments (Left to Right) are barely noticeable. (If you didn't hear it listen to the voice line with headphones on and wiggle your ears heartily... well maybe not that heartily don't want to injure yourself)

But you did notice them.png

avatar
Crono3of3time
on 2019-10-07 01:39:55

It actually sounds like there are Three different remixes all pasted together here, that had been forgotten to be separated.

This song definitely gets a full kick in, and a hard one at that, but the song lasts too long for the extremely forceful content, It kind of lingers, and lingers, then fades the impact. The music changes to a higher tempo, and from there it forgets its own intro theme. It then goes another direction, quiets down, and goes another direction again.

If it had a few more musical distortions to it, not garbles, but like ghost portions of the other island songs, with the abyssal theme mixed in it may have held the attention more, as this is the Herald of Collapse. (What I've always called that stone)
The moving audio segments (Left to Right) are barely noticeable. (If you didn't hear it listen to the voice line with headphones on and wiggle your ears heartily... well maybe not that heartily don't want to injure yourself)

avatar
lemnlime
on 2019-09-23 23:37:10

I like parts of this, but most of it is kinda boring for my tastes. The first 2 minutes are unnecessary IMO since I've never been a fan of long song intros. I'd just prefer a shortened "radio edit" version of this mix

avatar
Liontamer
on 2019-09-20 07:10:03

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Sources Arranged (7 Songs)


Primary Game:
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Nintendo , 1993, GB)
Music by Kozue Ishikawa,Minako Hamano
Songs:
"Level 1 - Tail Cave"
"Level 2 - Bottle Grotto"
"Level 3 - Key Cavern"
"Level 4 - Angler's Tunnel"
"Level 5 - Catfish's Maw"
"Level 6 - Face Shrine"
"Tal Tal Heights"

Tags (7)


Genre:
Progressive Rock
Mood:
Suspenseful
Instrumentation:
Organ,Vocals: Male,Vocals: Voice Acting
Additional:
Arrangement > Medley
Lyrics > Lyrics: Existing

File Information


Name:
Legend_of_Zelda_Link's_Awakening_To_the_Finder_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
13,540,665 bytes
MD5:
e4dc3338cba98cbad7be2eefebeb7dba
Bitrate:
219Kbps
Duration:
8:10

TO THE FINDER... THE ISLE OF KOHOLINT, IS BUT AN ILLUSION... HUMAN, MONSTER, SEA, SKY... A SCENE ON THE LID OF A SLEEPER'S EYE... AWAKE THE DREAMER, AND KOHOLINT WILL VANISH MUCH LIKE A BUBBLE ON A NEEDLE... CASTAWAY, YOU SHOULD KNOW THE TRUTH!TO THE FINDER... THE ISLE OF KOHOLINT, IS BUT AN ILLUSION... HUMAN, MONSTER, SEA, SKY... A SCENE ON THE LID OF A SLEEPER'S EYE... AWAKE THE DREAMER, AND KOHOLINT WILL VANISH MUCH LIKE A BUBBLE ON A NEEDLE... CASTAWAY, YOU SHOULD KNOW THE TRUTH!

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