FFIX OverClocked ReMix Album, Worlds Apart, Drops Today!

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IT’S OUT!  Five years in the making, Worlds Apart has been released!

Like I did with OCR’s FFVI album, Balance and Ruin, I’m going to do a track-by-track review of this I’m-sure-will-be-amazing album.  This pushes the Gaming Inspirations posts back a bit, but I’m going to continue to do at least 2 posts a week, so it won’t be long ’til I’m babbling about how inspiring and amazing FFIX is!

FFVI Remix Album – Balance and Ruin Review – Disc 4

Track 1 – A Glimmer of Hope (Searching for Friends) by Joshua Morse feat. Jeff Ball, Laura Intravia

This is a beautiful song.  Not one of my favorites, but there’s definitely nothing wrong with it.  Beautiful piano at the beginning reminds me of Mushi-Shi, which is one of my favorite anime.  Some strings and wind instruments pick up a nice, peaceful beat to make this song more than solid.

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Track 2 – Go-Go Gadget Gonkulator (Gogo) by XPRTNovice

After the first minute, this song really picks up.  XPRTNovice does a great job capturing the heart of Gogo in the song, I think – Always shifting and moving, never knowing quite what’s going on.  Very interesting.  Lots of movements – in the middle, it turns into a plodding, thunderous beat, very reminiscent of Steiner’s theme.  It takes a bit of a break, then goes right back to it at around 3:25.  Lots of fun.

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Track 3 – Katabasis (Epitaph) by Forrest Powell feat. Laura Intravia

Around two minutes, this song takes a turn for the epic with some great, gospel-y vocals and elegant strings.  It sounds solemn, yet not in a depressing way, and transcendent at the same time, a great balance for a song to strike.

It kind of clashes with the previous song, but I’ll allow it.  They’re both great.

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Track 4 – 13th Floor Demonstration (The Magic House) by Flexstyle

Whew!  Extremely intense song.  It’s a lot of fun, driving beats, but again, I think it clashes with the song before it – I mean, I know they’re doing it in the order to which you listen to them in the game, basically, but I’m sure they can be switched around a bit.

Then again, if their FFIX remix album were out yet, I’d probably say they should do it in the order which you find the music.   Ah well, I guess they can’t win.  Regardless, this song is sweet.

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Track 5 – The Narshemellow (Umaro) by XPRTNovice

XPRTNovice, I’m gonna be real with you right now – you can do no wrong in my book.  Every song that I’ve heard on this album by you, I have thoroughly enjoyed. You took another song, made it your own, but kept it close enough to the original.  You are really good at this.

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Track 6 – The Endless Stair (Fanatics) by Argle

Very creepy, very forboding.  Reminds me of Nine Inch Nails a bit, which makes my high-school self very happy.

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Track 7 – Trauermarsch (Last Dungeon) by Derek Oren, Jeremy Robson

I feel like this song tried too hard – again, the music itself was great, but it wasn’t very listenable to me.  I found it to get a bit boring;  I feel like it was rather similar throughout, which I couldn’t pay attention to for the full twelve minutes.  If it were shorter, it could definitely get a higher grade.

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Track 8 – Demon, Fiend & Goddess (Dancing Mad) by zircon, Sixto Sounds

… UUUUUGH.  Sweet LORD, was this good.  God, I swear, any song that has to do with Kefka has been remixed SO well throughout this album.

This was everything I could have hoped for in a remix.  Sixto Sounds and zircon treated this song perfectly.  Didn’t change the pace, didn’t try to do too much, but gave the song the perfect sound to fit in this album and make an amazing, amazing remix.

I’m extremely impressed.  It was gonna be hard to live up to my expectations for such a renowned song, but…  Six. Terras.

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Track 9 – Ending Suite (Ending Theme) by Shnabubula, Gabe Terracciano

I love strings, man.  I really do.  The violin in this suite was beautiful, graceful, and all-around awesome.  A great interpretation of the ending theme.  Reminds me of when I beat FFVI for the first time, and nostalgia is always a plus.

The piano picks it up very well and keeps it interesting and light.  Around the 8 minute mark, things start getting quite intense, and the mixture of the strings and piano is rather glorious, if I do say so myself.

… Which I do.

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Track 10 – Humble Beginnings, Great Expectations (The Prelude) by Disco Dan

I’m so happy that this one was done incredibly well.  One of the most popular tracks of the franchise, and it was done beautifully on this album.  Wraps up everything (except the bonus disc, of course) with a beautiful song.  Disco Dan, you haven’t done any tracks up ’til now, but very, very well done.

Overall:

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s the best disc on the album so far.  Great consistency mix with some pretty mindblowing works to make this the favorite.

I may not be able to finish up with disc 5 tomorrow – one of my buddies is getting married, and his bachelor party is tomorrow 🙂  rest assured that, if not tomorrow, the final installment of this review will be out on Sunday!

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FFVI Remix Album – Balance and Ruin Review – Disc 3

Disc 3?  Already?  Wow.  Word.  Awesome.  Let’s do this!

This Disc will be rated on a scale of 1-5 Mogs.  One of my favorite characters in both FFVI  and FFIX.

Track 1 – Flava de Chocobo (Techno de Chocobo) by Joshua Morse

A very groovy interpretation of Techno de Chocobo by Joshua Morse, who is now infamous in my mind for making the all-too-awesome “softcore-esque” “Awakening” on Disc 1.  Without a doubt, if you brought this song to a 70’s disco, people would be dancin’ the night away.  I can see their afros, fu manchus, and chest hair now…

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Track 2 – Johnny’s Got That Funk (Johnny C Bad) by Anti-Syne

Daaaaaamn, Anti-Syne.  You stepped up your game on this track.  Johnny does indeed have that funk on this eclectic mixture of of old and new.  Anti-Syne wasn’t afraid to go out on a limb, and it paid off.  He successfully branded this remix as his own while keeping enough of the original to create a beautiful homage to its predecessor.  The breakdown with about 45 seconds to go brings it home.

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Track 3 – Gestahlian Sonata (The Empire ‘Gestahl’) by Rexy

I’ll say that I don’t know much about Classical sonatas.  I’ll also say, again, that I don’t have much experience in the classical music world.  However, one thing I do know is that this song sounds damn good.  It changes the tone, but is still dark, depressing, and foreboding as ever while bringing down the tempo.  Awesome work by Rexy, and a strong start to the third disc.

Oooooh, and right at the end, there’s a little piano riff of the Final Fantasy Prelude!  Wow.  I had this at 4.5…  But I’m kicking it up to full marks for that.

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Track 4 – The Megiddo Brigade (Devil’s Lab) by djpretzel

Another intense, solid track.  It keeps the listener interested with slight variation throughout while keeping both the theme and tone of the song similar to the original.

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Track 5 – There’s Nothing Like Flying (Blackjack) by DDRKirby(ISQ)

Anything that can capture the feeling of flying in music is pretty darn great in my book, and DDRKirby(ISQ) does a great job of it in this track.  The lilting, bouncy tones along with the driving beat combine for a sense of wonder and exhilaration that are required when creating a song like this.  I can picture myself up in the great blue sky, wind whipping my hair as I pilot my airship to lands unknown…

…  Then, I realize I’m in Vermont, and I haven’t seen the sun in months.  Ah well, it was a nice daydream.

FIVE MOGS.  SO GOOD.

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Track 6 – Mogstradamus (Mog) by Brandon Strader

Y’know, I never really was that down with Mog’s theme, as much as I loved the character himself…  I dunno.  I think it sounded just a little bit too…  I dunno, silly, maybe?

Regardless, this remix is awesome.  A few dubby-wubbies, mixing in the original theme well.  It turned out wonderfully.

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Track 7 – Aggressive Blue Magic (Strago) by halc

I LOVE 8-BIT SOUNDS IN ANY REMIX EVER.  THEY SOUND SO GOOD.  WHEN YOU HAVE THEM THROUGHOUT THE SONG/AS A MAIN PART OF THE SONG, IT PROBABLY MAKES ME THE MOST HAPPY.  THIS SONG DOES THAT, AND IT MAKES ME THE MOST HAPPY.

AM I GOING TO USE CAPS LOCK THIS ENTIRE TIME?!

Nope.  Well done, halc.

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Track 8 – Pure Essence (Relm) by José the Bronx Rican

Chill.  A soothing melody, light, bright, and listenable.  José did a nice job making the song his own.  Nothing too flashy or mind-boggling, but solid.

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Track 9 – Illusionary (Another World of Beasts) by Sole Signal

An appropriate name for this track, “Illusionary” is ethereal and a little creepy.  It starts getting a little dub-funky about two minutes in, and I’m not complaining.  Nice use of strings to create more ambient creepiness.  Again, not my favorite track, but still solid.

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Track 10 – Black Genesis (New Continent) by Rexy, Brandon Strader

I was excited to sink my teeth into Rexy’s next track after her previous 5-Mog performance, and while it was very different from “Gestahlian Sonata”, I wasn’t disappointed.  In fact, it’s interesting – the ReMixer behind “Gestahlian Sonata” and the one behind “Mogstradamus” come together to create one of the more brutal, intense tracks on the album thus far.  Not really my style, but I can dig it.

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Track 11 – Meditations on an Apocalypse (Catastrophe) by zircon

Lovin’ the quick, staccatoed tones in the background.  Heavy beat with much lighter instrumental overtones.  Great mix of the two.  Solid.  No complaints.

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Track 12 – Evisceration (The Fierce Battle) by Flexstyle

This is certainly Fierce.  My brain felt like it was indeed being eviscerated by listening to this.  Gotta give it some props for being honest.

Nice use of dubs.  Better use of wubs.

I feel like if I listened to this too much, I might go a little crazy.  For now, though, I’m lovin’ it.

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Track 13 – A Tranquil Rest (Rest in Peace) by Forrest Powell

Aw.  This track made me sad.  Both because it sounds very depressing, the title is depressing, and because I don’t think it’s as tranquil as it should be, given the title.  There’s too much going on.  When I think “tranquil”, I think minimalist.

It’s just a difference of opinion, I guess, but I think it’s pretty average.

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Track 14 – Elegy for a Ruined World (Dark World) by Derek Oren, Jeremy Robson

Whoo.  Epic 10-minute song.  There’s never much of a pickup, and to be honest, I got a bit bored after the first five minutes or so.  I’m going to give it a bit of a better listen later.

Track 15 – Event Horizon (The Day After) by Palpable, OA

Great mixture of guitar and fun, Nightmare-Before-Christmasy tones make this tune quite awesome.  A fun, driving interpretation of the original.  Palpable for the win.

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Track 16 – Blackjack’s breakup Bossa (Blackjack) by Calum Bowen feat. Xarnax42

Hahahaha.  I LOVE the vocals in the beginning of this song.  Normally, I’m not down with them (as you can see from my previous reviews), but this song doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is exactly what you need for this sort of hotel-lobby remix.  Gah, I think it’s great.  Not for everyone, but a lot of fun.

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Overall

I’ll be honest – I think that the second disc blew me out of the water more than this one did.  However, the second disc fell flat on its face with the Opera, and this one was much more consistent.

Because it didn’t blow me out of the water, I’m going to give it a 4.5 Mogs, just because its consistency was great – it was just missing the X-Factor that would bring it up to a 5.  Very, very well done.

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