Final Fantasy IX "Where the Fire Burns Brightest" 3:56

BIG thanks to judge prophetik music tonight for conceptualizing and then hosting our first-ever episode of The NO Show at our Discord! We had a great turnout for the event where 6 judges (proph, pixelseph, paradiddlesjosh, Rexy, Chimpazilla & Hemophiliac - plus chatting from me & DarkeSword) evaluated five submissions (by Slowly Crushed, absent&undone, Pipko Fanfare, H36T, and minusworld), in real-time with a live audience! It'll sound like I'm being sarcastic -- I'm glad I was sick with a cold and couldn't be on; it was good to just listen to the Js work and offer their thoughts to the community. :-) Can't wait to hear more with proph's idea now that The NO Show is a for real, for real thing!

On the ReMixing side, prophetik most recently served folks an excellent Final Fantasy Legend title theme ReMix that opened up in a reserved way and later amped up while staying in a relatively low-key energy. He's back once again with roughly the same kind of slow burn approach, albeit totally different instrumentation, as prophetik music takes Final Fantasy IX's title theme with a unique blend of sounds! According to proph, this source has been a to-do from moment one:

"i've had this track on my bucket list to remix ever since i first heard it come from my tv speakers. ix's commitment to return to the roots of final fantasy was obvious right from the get-go with this nostalgic, renaissance-adjacent opening theme. the entire soundtrack has incredible music, but this is the track that's always stood out to me.

despite knowing the track's melody cold and needing a reference only for part of the harmonic material, it took me a while to get going on this - my project info says that it was started at the end of august - and i didn't really have a clear direction about where i wanted to go with it for a while. i had the kalimba and interesting string chunks thing going on in the background, and a harpsichord sound that eventually became the opening, but it wasn't until i rediscovered the bamblong percussion instrument that i was able to find the feel i was looking for. from there, it flowed pretty naturally. right now, the file's at just about 8.5hrs, so longer than usual for me, but it reflects how it took a while to get some of the sound design elements where i wanted them."

We'll never say no to instrumentation being exotic or hypnotic, so kudos to Brad's bamblong working all night long. :-D Seriously though, our newest judge, jnWake, had the chance to kibosh a prophetik submission and... didn't take it? Wait, wuh? (P.S. I'm clearly never serious. :-P)

"This will be my first prophetik vote, time to get my revenge for uh... good feedback and nice comments? Damn it.

Anyway, this begins on D with some guitar-ish instrument playing a simple D minor motif. On the back, we can hear the (I assume) kalimba playing the main melody from the source. [...] At 0:20 a bass joins in and the track slowly starts becoming more synthetic. The synth and percussion work actually remind me of Scorch 'N' Torch from Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. At 0:54 we continue on the same melody but there's more intensity and some percussion. At 1:34 there's a small break as we move to the second melody from the source. A new section then hits at 1:54, focusing on a whistle-ish synth and a distorted electric piano kind of thing. Drums enter at 2:14, awesome change of pace! The Donkey Kong Country vibes here are off the charts. [...] In any case, at 2:40 we move to an "epic" take of the second melody, I like how you changed the melody to fit the chords. Percussion is more intense here and there's even a distortion guitar! At 3:00 it arguably turns into metal even. [...] There's sort of a fake ending before we return to the initial instrumentation for the actual ending.

On the arrangement side this is pretty interesting. It begins with an acoustic feel (despite everything being synthetic) that's very fitting of FFIX's mood, but it slowly becomes more synthetic and finally climaxes into almost metal. Super fun! [...] I like how you slightly modified most melodies in either timing or the actual notes to fit your intentions. Great arrangement!

On production, the mix is generally very well done. [...] Samples are generally pretty good, I love the distorted one that plays at 1:54 in particular. [...]

Overall, a really cool arrangement that explores many different styles and is nicely produced. Gave me big DKC:TF vibes and that's an immediate approval in my eyes"

As soon as Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was invoked, the instrumentation approach clicked for fellow judge Emunator, who also heaped big praise on proph's crescendo:

"Ohhh yeah, jnWake hit the nail on the head with the Tropical Freeze vibes. The kalimba and bamblong bring so much character to the table. What a cool spin on this source material from a textural and melodic perspective. The heavy rock transition later in the arrangement is cathartic and unexpected - I was surprised on the first listen, but by the second, I couldn't imagine the song without it. [...] what you have here is undeniably transformative in more ways than one"

This has more energy and dynamics as it goes along, particularly for the 2:39 section, yet this is also a fairly reserved presentation most of the way. The folksiness of the intro hooked a brother right away, the time sig change and deliberate pacing were very effective, and I loved the instrumentation throughout with these amazing textures. There's brightness with some of the instrumentation, e.g. the kalimba, and there's a triumphant energy with the hard rock section, yet there's also a omnious air with the textures in the section right before that at 1:55. Such a smart treatment of the source, this is excellent, Brad! Fire it up and let it burn bright. :-)