Final Fantasy VIII "Hyōryū Kioku" 3:12

It's wonderful to feature him for the first time in over a decade, because Dj Mokram's come through in a HUGE way with an extremely engaging Eastern-style take on a lesser-known theme from Final Fantasy VIII! Mokram detailed how this started with our community's recent FF8 album in mind:

"When SeeDs of Pandora was in its final hours, I drive-by claimed "Drifting" as the guidelines strongly encouraged use of world/ethnic instruments, aka "my jam". Ellone's bodyguards have always looked like Shinobi straight outta Wutai to me, thus this re-imagining through an Asian folklore lens. While the directors were pleased with my initial concept, the timeframe to deliver a finished mix up to OCR standards was very short, and, with my hearing limitations, I had to withdraw. Thankfully, the spot was filled by Mel Decision and ZackParrish, who did an amazing job with their ambient take. After that, I've kept working diligently on my remix for several centuries, and will now attempt to tickle your fancy with its final iteration.

Contrary to my previous work in this genre, the arrangement doesn't contain hybrid film score elements or breakbeats/drumbeats. This is a traditional folklore interpretation, made primarily of instruments native to Asia. Since the melodic content in the source was so transient, it could easily be made unrecognizable. To avoid that scenario, I elected to keep every note from the original, then expand thematically. The biggest change comes in the form of the peculiar choice of instruments and the different mode/timbre they naturally imbue this piece with. The arrange is built upon and interspersed with many variations and flourishes that aim to break the source's monotonous flow. For example, the short Final Fantasy "Prelude" excerpt at 0:36 played in a Hirajoshi scale, making it sound slightly strange, especially in contrast to major and minor pentatonic.

The arranged source melody is accompanied throughout by a steady and evolving percussion bed, comprised of custom 7sun taikos (odaiko, nagado daiko, katsugi, and okedo taiko), plus 4sun high and low tablas to spice things up. The aim was not only to complement and punctuate the main assortment of instruments playing the source material, but also to add low-mid and low frequency presence/boost to the mix, both being almost nonexistent in Uematsu's original composition.

There was also a conscious focus on my part on dynamics, to instill life into the piece, once again in contrast to the droning nature of the source. To that effect, I've layered each chord from the original melody into 4 separate instruments: shamisen, shakuhachi, koto, and guqin. The first two being played in a more modern way to allow smoother transitioning from melody to phrasing. That way, they can take turn phasing in and out alongside percussion buildups, in order to dial the intensity of the piece up or down, keeping things lively while the main melody remains at the forefront, even if momentarily subdued by an original phrase.

The intricate ballet between personal interpretation and source representation was a delicate balancing act that I tried my best to enact with respect, to both the composer and his longtime fans. The title "Hyōryū Kioku" means "Drifting Memory", which encapsulates the intangible grasp of time and space, tied to Ellone and Squall's relationship, both drifting through memories while striving never to be forgotten. "Drifting" isn't the most riveting piece in the soundtrack, nor is it the most beloved and remembered song from the game. It is a simple, understated, and contemplative piece of music, which happens to be my favorite track from Final Fantasy VIII. Hopefully, I've managed to do it some justice, however unconventional. In before the unanimous "NO, please never resub". xD"

The "centuries" have been kind here, as Mokram's absolutely done this theme justice. For what it's worth, I'm sure SeeDs co-directors Darkflamewolf and Jorito would co-sign on this adhereing to the musical concept they had in mind (and then some). This one's drop-dead gorgeous, and the panel were over the moon about it, including judge Emunator:

"Want to commend you on the really high-quality instrumental programming and mixing too. There's a great deal of this that genuinely sounds like a live recording, and the sense of space created is extremely immersive. I found myself lost in this piece and almost forgot I was supposed to be listening with a critical ear a few times. I say this in a positive light - this felt a lot longer than 3 minutes. Choosing to limit your sound palette was a good choice here in this case - sometimes the best creative results can come out of applying limitations to yourself.

Can't find a hole to poke in this one, your concept, arrangement, and execution are all among the best I've heard from you!"

Mokram wasn't wrong that "Drifting" is a tricky theme to work with, so his instinct of holding fast to the theme's notes while adapting it to this style was spot-on, according to fellow judge Hemophiliac:

"This did take a few repeated listens before I was able to pick out the source within. That's simply because the nature of the source is less melodic and more chordal. The combination of different kinds of percussion worked so incredibly well. It really feels like this was constructed and really well thought-out in terms of instrumentation and structure.

The approach of keeping the notes was a good one because it would be difficult to pick out heavy interpretation. Allowing accents and dynamics was a good way to signal the listener to follow the source more easily.

Production is clean and I could find myself listening to this one on repeat in a meditative state. Very nice work."

Not enough meditation VGM around these parts, but this fills that role nicely indeed, just as "Drifting" did for the original FF8 soundtrack. I'm very happy Mokram didn't drop this concept just because he couldn't complete it in time for SeeDs of Pandora. As it's said, dough needs time to rise, so kudos for not rushing the process. The shamisen and taikos at the heart of the arrangement sound so vibrant and spaciously mixed, just breathtaking textures all around courtesy of Dj Mokram. :-) A must-listen, and a must-share, and that's not stated lightly!