ReMix:Elden Ring "Goldscourge" 2:26

A new album has emerged from the darkness! After collaborating on an Undertale lo-fi album together, OCR judge Emunator teams once more with OCR newcomer Hotline Sehwani to bring a lo-fi approach to Elden Ring with Hotline's new album Elden Ring: Tarnished Shadows! This ReMix is just one of 22 Hotline Sehwani tracks with several collaborators, with the album dropped right on the heels of Elden Ring's latest DLC. Sehwani first conceptualized the album's closer, their take on the boss fight theme against Radagon of the Golden Order:

"Our goal for "The Final Battle" cover was to transform the triumphant battle theme into a more mellow and somber vibe. The song begins with subtle wind chimes, capturing the calm before the storm, and ends in a similar fashion. To listen to the album now on your favorite platform: https://music.hotlinesehwani.com/erts."

Bookending the track with an a relaxing opening and close was a nice move, but let me not get ahead of myself, as Emu explained how he ran with Sehwani's initial ideas and fashioned a piece you can chillax to:

"This track is one of four collaborations that Hotline Sehwani and I did for Elden Ring: Tarnished Shadows, an album of lo-fi/chill arrangements from the Elden Ring soundtrack to celebrate the launch of the Shadows of Erdtree DLC. After a successful collaboration on our Undertale lo-fi release, we immediately jumped back in and got to work on some more. He sent me four initial demos with melodic ideas and rough instrumentation, which I then fleshed out into full songs, and passed back to Hotline for mastering. It was an extremely smooth collab process that yielded results that I'm super proud of! I hope you check out our three other collabs and the rest of the project too!

With this project, I wanted to explore the more acoustic side of lo-fi music, fusing traditional chill-hop beats with a more melancholy, gothic sound palette. With "Final Battle" particularly, it was a challenge to transform such bombastic source material into something that respected the spirit of the original while still being something you could throw on as study music. I had to approach mixing differently than I would normally for an orchestral track, where you can confidently slam your peaks to the max. I had to be a lot more delicate with the approach here, relying more on rhythmic variation to bring energy rather than massive sweeping orchestral statements.

Arrangement-wise, we kept it short and sweet, with a rug-pull ending that is meant to mirror the experience of fighting in Elden Ring, where, no matter how confident you are, you are always only one hit away from sudden death. Time to hit replay and try the battle again. ;)"

Boy, those FromSoftware games, they really challenge whether the joy comes from the journey (you die a LOT) or the destination ("FINALLY got that summamabitch!"). :-D Thankfully, you don't need to navigate Elden Ring itself to be able to access this final battle arrangement, so judge prophetik music undoubtedly got to enjoy the journey:

"opens with detuned piano and some neat sweeping effects. that's a really neat effect at 0:27 on the filter, like gravitational lensing. there's some really delicate and pretty string work when they come in before 0:30 there. i also really like the snare when it comes in, there's a layered richness there that i really am into. 1:07's an escalation [...]

there's some fun sfx after the 1:30 mark, and some neat rhythmic elements to keep it driving forward. [...] there's a staggered cutoff into 2:02's outro, and then it's done with some pingpong filter effects.

this is a surprisingly broad adaptation of a completely different genre. there's a lot of little bits and bobs here and there that really add color to it. nice job."

Quite the cool lo-fi adaptation of this Tsukasa Saitoh theme, it sounds delicate and ornate to start. Like proph, my ears also piqued at :27's textural escalation. I dug the lil' rhythmic plucked string-style accents introduced at :40; those were a subtle element, but a sophisticated touch to add some swing and depth to the texture. :40's vox is the main event in terms of providing that somber & melancholy vibe the artists chased after, yet everything surrounding it, particularly the keys and strings, adds heft and anxiety while threading the needle and remaining pretty mellow. Loved the gentle outro, including the clanging metal SFX and the effects on the lead; the sound design's excellent throughout. Judge Chimpazilla was captured by the mood as well, saying "It's a lovely emotive song, short but sweet, full of feels, and people will love it."

There's 21 MORE pieces where that came from, helmed by Hotline Sehwani on the new Elden Ring: Tarnished Shadows album. Call somebody! Tell somebody! We're always game for ReMixes of recent games, not just the old stuff, and Hotline & Emu have delivered on honoring FromSoft's fresh megahit with a golden, gorgeous, rock solid arrangement! :-)