ReMix:Final Fantasy IX "Freya's Curse" 5:05

Happy May Day and solidarity forever as we spotlight another collaborative mashup from DarkeSword's inaugural Game Set Mash!! team compo. We conclude our six-mix spotlight with ZackParrish and newcomer Yami connecting themes from Final Fantasy IX & V. As much of potential curveball as it was, Zack of Team SNES appreciated the source theme picked by his Team PSX compponents:

"Did this mashup/mix for the Game Set Mash compo, second round. Was to mashup "Freya's Theme" and "Cursed Earth" and... originally was supposed to be a collab with Yami, but he had to work out of town that week. So, while the track was mostly done when he was finally home and able to add anything, he still sprinkled some seasoning here and there. It was fun and stressful at the same time because I knew my likely competitors were Seph and Josh, because if I were them... I would've picked this same pairing as well. Hope you enjoy it. :)"

Judge prophetik music LOVES Freya's theme (and I get it, it's an amazing progression), so he made a beeline for this one, curse or no curse:

"intro features the three against two pattern that makes freya's theme so neat, along with some lush strings. 0:48 brings in more electronic elements with the cursed earth drum pattern and some backing synths that are roughly similar to cursed earth's melodic material, and 1:07 brings back freya's melodic material represented in an augmented form, roughly twice time. the subsequent chippy lead for this theme is great.

there's a big build into 1:54, and we get more of the cursed earth backing parts with freya over the top. the augmented version of freya's melodic material is so perfect for this mashup. 2:48 gives us a break from the big drums, and there's more of the musicbox and strings. this goes on for a while - over a minute! - and then we finally get the payoff loud section complete with the guitar ripping over the top of it. it's NOWHERE NEAR ENOUGH of course (excellent pacing), and then we're in the outro with more musicbox.

[...] i really enjoyed the variety of textures used and especially the way you interweaved the two themes. this is excellent. can't wait to listen to it again."

We had a subtle yet effective combination of the themes, with "Freya's Theme" taking the lead, though I'm warning y'all: don't sleep on how much FF5 is there just because it's often quiet. It may seem like "Cursed Earth" was downplayed too much; it takes skill and restraint to use the FF5 theme in so many low-key yet complementary ways (and it does get its moments to shine in the forefront). It's no shock to say this about Zack's arrangements: there was loads of well-done dynamic contrast through the instrumentation and textural changes. Strong stuff for the compo where ZackParrish blended the electronic & the orchestral, aided in part by Yami's secret mix of herbs & spices!

Throughout our GSM1 flood, everyone involved did their best with some fascinating Uematsu source tune combinations, and besides GSM's Final Fantasy features, you're going to continue hearing more high-quality VGM mashups once we post GSM2 arrangements that glue together Metroid themes with Castlevania tunes. :-) (It's downright scary what even more artists from around OCR have come up with there.) We got plenty more doozies in the hopper, so cheers to DarkeSword for another wonderful, accessible compo concept. MUSICIANS -- keep an eye out for GSM3 launching this summer in tribute to Yuzo Koshiro as the 16-bit Streets of Rage trilogy's music is paired off with another Koshiro-scored series, Etrian Odyssey!