ReMix:Final Fantasy V "Dawn of the Chosen" 4:04

The new year's here and we're ahead on our way! :-) ZackParrish kicks us off and he's here to RIGHT SOME WRONGS, as Zack teams up with pixelseph on rhythm guitars for Final Fantasy V's main theme to make up for a rejection by those callous judges a decade ago. Armed with four guitars, Zack attacks (OK, Zack "states"):

"I have one rejection on this site, and it is for another arrangement of this same theme. The sole reason for the rejection... track felt too short. I had considered picking back up where I left off with that one, but, any time I crack open the project for it, I just stare blankly at the screen for a while and then move onto something else.

Well, enough is enough. I decided to just start over from scratch one night and do an arrangement for 4 guitars. I hadn't intended on roping anyone else in on this one, but, after writing all the parts, I found myself uninspired to learn all 4 of them, and coincidentally perform/record them.

Thankfully, after a spontaneous conversation on OCR Discord, pixelseph excitedly forced his way into the project as a second guitarist and well... I'm glad he did, because the small nuances of his style made for a great accompaniment to my own parts. If you need a guitarist, make sure you keep him in mind. Stellar guitarist and super-friendly.

Hopefully, completing this will appease my mind for the other failure: https://soundcloud.com/zack-parrish/our-tale-begins-main-theme."

I was just putting over the OC ReMix Discord a long long time ago last year (read: yesterday :-P) as a great place, so this is further evidence of that! Having collaborated with Zack in the past, judge Emunator has a professional level of appreciation for Parrish's vision & execution:

"First thing that jumps out to me is the pristine recording and engineering quality on this track. There's a tremendous sense of stereo placement and depth, even though everything feels very close and intimate. The performances are exactly as on-point as I'd expect from the artists involved, and the arrangement is dynamic and really gets as much juice out of the source as one could hope to get for an acoustic arrangement. This is becoming one of the hallmarks of Zack's arranging that I've noticed after working with him personally on more projects - the arrangements are written with a composer's mindset. There's a lot of interpretation and original parts added to the source material, but it's all born from an understanding of what made the original work in the first place, so the original never feels like it is being sidelined or left behind. Really a beautiful, evocative piece all around, great work gents!"

We certainly can't undersell pixelseph's involvement, which clearly paid off in an amazing feel for this piece. Rancho Relaxo over here! Zack & Seph's guitar performances sounded extra classy. Are y'all trying to melt up the ladies? :-D Judge Chimpazilla thinks so:

"Wow! This is super nice. The guitar playing is lovely and so well done. Emu is right that the recording and production of this is pristine; it sounds so full and spacious while still being quite intimate. It is mastered just right, too. It is perfect. I'm a lady; consider me melted."

Ya see??? Got 'em! And Chimpa was one of the judges who kiboshed the extreme brevity of Zack's prior concept for this theme, so the voting turnaround for this more developed take is all the more validating. Further J-validation incoming from prophetik music:

"overall i love this concept. FFV's usage of the theme is different from earlier FFs where the main theme isn't just the overworld theme but also is used in various ways throughout so much of the OST, and so the constant movement of the arrangement is a great callback to the ways the game uses the audio originally. there's a lot of character in the performance as well. [...] taken as a whole it's a great arrangement of a great original. i particularly liked the middle section, starting at around 2:09, and how you shifted styles so significantly without losing the feel. nice work."

I don't know if Zack was stewin' or if trouble was brewin' over that rejection so, so long ago, but being armed with 10 years more experience & know-how clearly doesn't hurt. Unlike the slow tempo of his 2-minute orchestration last time, this is a much more mature and comprehensive approach with twice the runtime and exponentially more arrangement ideas. A super-engaging piece that, dare I say, you can share with any music or gaming fan as a gateway to the creativity on tap in the VGM arrangement scene. :-) Stylish acoustic action, well chosen to celebrate the dawn of a new year!