Xenoblade Chronicles X "Forest in the Night" 4:06

minusworld goes maximalist with an intense, progressive journey through "Noctilum" from Xenoblade Chronicles X! The full forest squad:

• minusworld - arrangement, production, guitars, VSTs
• Xander Plute - flute
• Roland N. Laracuente Martínez - bass guitar
• Cyril the Wolf - lead vocals
• Nalani "Unfocused in IA" Proctor - vocals, choir

minusworld discovered the source tune trying to fit DoD's Forest vs. Jungle contest format, and we're eternally glad he did:

"My Dwelling of Duels entry from Forest vs. Jungle Month, where it placed 4th (behind Hemo's arrangement debut at DoD!). While searching for sources to cover for Forest vs. Jungle Month, I actually found that I wasn't connecting with very many. "Macalania Woods" from FFX is one of my favorite VGM tunes, but it's a little chill for my style. Many forest themes were on the slower side, and many jungle themes were outside of my wheelhouse for the DoD deadline.

I found this tune for "Noctilum" and was like "whoa". Now, I am actually one of maybe 10 people on the planet who played Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U, but for some reason the music wasn't something that wedged itself in my memory. But, the tune was awesome and I had actually played the game, so I decided to go for it.

The daytime version of this song is already so good, so I decided my approach would be to just extend it into a listening experience you might hear on a Two Steps from Hell album. The source has a rock band, an orchestra, cool hand percussion, tons of electronic ear candy, and, of course, vocals. Given the DoD timeline, I wasn't confident I would be able to do everything justice at the mix stage, so I made the decision to cut a lot of the electronic components and focus on the band, orchestra, and vocals. I ain't no Emunator. :)

I knew I wanted to introduce the vocals at the end of the arrangement to elevate their impact, and I knew I wanted to add a funky flute solo because why not? With these ingredients, my initial outline was to treat the source's prominent flute melody like a "chorus" and do two build-ups to both, with the flute solo between them. If you drew the dynamics as a line from left to right, it would look like two right-leaning mountain peaks.

The source has daytime and nighttime variants, so I borrowed some elements from the nighttime tracks to make the final arrangement. I cut the electronic, Terraria-like intro from the daytime version altogether and ended up with this.

These two tracks are together on the soundtrack as "N木ig木ht木L", which is also where this arrangement title comes from. The three "木" in the track's name are a reference to the character "森" (mori), meaning "forest", which is composed of three "木" characters. [...]"

minusworld also readily admits that the inclusion of collaborators Xander, Roland, Cyril, and Unfocused in IA helped him navigate his way through the forest:

"I asked Xander to improv the flute solo, and he extended it into the C section, which I thought sounded awesome. I felt that section was lacking before I got his solo, so it was awesome to hear he had already solved the problem for me!

I was planning to track bass myself but ended up traveling for 10 days of the month... Roland can handle anything and his playing style has a really nice attack that I knew would be excellent for what I wanted on this track. He totally killed it.

Fun fact, the vocals in the source are actually samples. But real vocals are better, so I asked anonymously in the DoD Discord for a singer and, when Cyril responded, I knew he would bring the lead singer energy needed here since I am familiar with his covers. And bring it he did, sending me not one, not two, not three, but seven stacked stems to give the part the energy it deserves. ONE BY OOONEE!

Unfocused in IA also responded to my request, which ended up being a welcome surprise because I didn't initially plan on having female vocals. I sent her the choir VST renders and she shot me back some stems which I loved so much, I mixed it as the feature for the D section!

It was a complete joy to work with everyone on this track. I'm grateful to you all!

I hope listeners find something to enjoy in this take on "Noctilum", and check out the source if you haven't!"

Well, gawddang, I love the sources and I love this. Super-happy this theme was brought onto my radar, and so were the other judges. The panel extensively reviewed this in real-time during last June's NO Show, so dig into that for some deeper analysis. Panelist Chimpazilla was understandably impressed with how ambitious this was in order to tackle "Noctilum" in the first place:

"I have found it impossible to remix anything from any Xenoblade source as the music is too detailed and perfect, and the arrangements are complex and usually long. This one is no exception. One day I'll try one! Maybe!

This arrangement starts out super strong and stays balls to the walls all the way through. The first 30 seconds are VERY conservative to the source song, so I was initially concerned, but after that point the remix arrangement took off in some amazingly creative directions. All of the performances are excellent. [...] This arrangement rocks so hard. [...]

I love the pad at 1:31 so much, the cool jazzy vibe in that section up to 2:00 is a highlight for me personally! The vox in the next section are really nice too. The guitars and drums and flute are all awesome. This is a truly excellent take on this complex and beautiful source song."

Fellow judge paradiddlesjosh was full of kudos for the live performances of the squad, that extra dimension of quality that took their take on "Noctilum" to the next level:

"It's pretty clear this one's well above the bar. [...] Performances are superb -- Xander's flute solo at 1:31 is a real treat, Roland has a showcase of textural approaches to the bass part throughout, minus's guitar work is on point as usual, and Cyril and Unfocused in IA brought some lovely vocal takes to bear -- and the mix is tight. [...] Nice work, y'all."

As much as the scene of today has many mighty collabs, presenting tour-de-force arrangements is still a rare commodity 'round these parts, so this one's extra special. It feels like something one of the composer bands like Zuntata or Alph Lyla could have envisioned, albeit with more speed and punch! Don't miss the forest for the trees -- even if you don't know the theme or haven't played Xenoblade Chronicles X, this is a must-have! :-)