ReMix:Final Fantasy VI "Battle on a New Continent" 5:15

By Christian Pacaud, MAG

Arranging the music of 4 songs...

"Catastrophe", "Dancing Mad", "New Continent", "The Fierce Battle"

Primary Game: Final Fantasy VI (Square , 1994, SNES), music by Nobuo Uematsu

Posted 2005-01-22, evaluated by the judges panel


Wicked. Newcomer Christian Pacaud gets your interest right from the very beginning, with some shrieking, malicious, evil guitar that introduces and remains the centerpiece of this FF6 New Continent / The Fierce Battle / Catastrophe / Dancing Mad arrangement. This is some pretty insane stuff in terms of guitar playing - otherwordly, doubled sounds, harmonics, and soaring, maniacal, dissonant melodies coupled with faster riffing. This truly evokes some fierce conflict and unchained, pure evil mojo. Processing is, forgive the expression, off the hook, and the mix relies primarily on the very imaginative arrangement, the fantastic playing by Marc-André Gingras, and production that brings out the best in both and lends the track an ethereal, Cthulhian energy. Quoth Pacaud:

"I can't remember exactly how I came about starting to work on this. I just remember liking very much the themes from the flying continent part of FF6 and somehow I heard them recently and thought "New Continent" was screaming for a metal remix, and here it is."

Good stuff. Larry Oji Ojasms:

"Props to Christian for a very well-done arrangement, featuring some nice brief references to other FF6 tracks, as well as Marc-André for some good solo work that the rock ethusiasts will be feeling. Not to say Christian's own guitar skills are shabby, because they're certainly not; they were definitely a highlight on their own here. The constant tradeoffs between conservative and liberal arrangement, along with the quick usage of additional themes was a perfect formula..."

I particularly like the oscillation on the amount of interpretation being applied, which might throw some for a loop who are very intimately familiar with each source tune, but comes together in a very cohesive whole. zyko pointed out relatively sparse instrumentation as one drawback, and zircon had some legitimate issues with the tone/timbre being relatively static, but overall the panel dug Pacaud's mix. I love how the reverb's dialed down on the very last note, bringing the distant guitar right into the immediate listening space and then cutting with a delay. Specifically, I think this is a mix where effects are paramount - vital - and signal processing is doing more than just putting a pretty face on everything: it's integral to the entire arrangement working. And work it does - while development might not be the strongest aspect, the overall dark energy produced by the angles Gingras cuts and the swirling abyss of metal that lurks beneath his lead is powerful enough to boil in place without having to do all that much else. I'll end as I began: wicked.

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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OA
on 2010-05-05 14:12:29

A little too unfocused for my tastes, I'd have preferred a tighter arrangement and some stronger hooks. The track itself is pretty solid, but ends up not really exciting me much. Sorry guys. :-(

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co298
on 2010-03-21 23:46:23

Not really my kind of music but that didn't stop me from enjoying this remix. The melody really puts you on edge with the two guitars in harmony but I liked that too.

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Kenogu Labz
on 2009-06-25 14:15:20

This is quite the piece. The strong dissonance really matches the mood of the source perfectly, without overwhelming it. Great job!

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Malaki-LEGEND.sys
on 2009-01-26 15:33:30

This piece is definitely creative and I enjoy it a lot. I don't know what's the best word to describe the feeling it evokes, so I'll just go with "dystopian" if that makes any sense. I think the real hook is the intro with its guitar riffs that kind of spell out how the song is going to flow.

Very nice job.

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evktalo
on 2008-02-18 01:22:07

This piece kicks ass.

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evktalo
on 2007-12-11 06:53:16

..pass me some more of that octotonic shit..

Ahh, what a fine, thick piece of madness. I definitely like. The main lead sound is thankfully not omnipresent, it's a bit tiring to listen to constantly, but there are breaks from it and anyway, what is played is some wicked stuff indeed. And I don't mean that it's bad in itself. Maybe a bit more guitar tone variation could have been there, but not a major complaint.

I can see what the drum complaints are about.. I like most of it, but especially the first part below that big guitar solo it's both too simple and too loud. Some quick but fairly quiet hihat runs for instance would have been better than frequency-hogging constant cymbal bashing, in my opinion. The second part is actually a bit like what I'm talking about, but less subtle. I do kinda love that bashing cymbal sound, but at the same time it's one of the sounds that gives it a bit mechanical feel - it sounds the same all the time. Some (volume, ...) variation there could have been good.

But hey, that's a lot of nitpicking since overall I thoroughly enjoy this arrangement, and also the sound! It's evil and thick and yet not overbearing.

--Eino

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k u n g f u c h i c k e n
on 2006-05-13 18:10:11

steve vai killed it with this song! Wait..... cp and marc killed it???? instant classic.

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CPacaud
on 2006-01-05 00:02:57

Marc-André has created a MySpace webpage with three complete songs from his album avaailable to be streamed, so for those who liked his guitar playing, check it out!

http://www.myspace.com/magproject

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Bummer
on 2005-10-07 16:10:18
Thanks for the open-minded comments :P

That´s our job, but thanks anyway.

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CPacaud
on 2005-10-05 15:49:26

Thanks for the open-minded comments :P

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Bummer
on 2005-10-05 07:46:57

Dude, this is totally not my style, but good that you did it anyway, there are sure to be some metal-fans somewhere around here. But I found it hard to hear any melodies, I recognized the theme to the floating island, but many else. But it may be hard also to do a descent melody when all you got is a full-thottle guitar and some drums that goes crazy.

However, great mix, this site really needs some variation, although this isn´t my choice of music.

Metal :twisted:

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Nobbynob Littlun
on 2005-02-03 03:21:38

Weird original, with somewhat jarring rythmns - this song capitalizes on that pretty well. If you wanted to do another version that has a bit more kick and a sharper climax, you could very smoothly transition into the Atma Weapon battle music I bet :)

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sivvus
on 2005-01-30 11:56:52

Great guitar solos throughout :) I could never really imagine this as a guitar piece, but it works really well :)

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Musikbox_01
on 2005-01-30 06:46:34

Overall, this is a nice piece of work. I really like the twist of tune at around tha lte 0:40, the wicked guitar and all. The background guitar was really good too, great job on that as well.

the part at 4:00+ was a bit...funny. Didn't really like that part, because I was hoping for something really really 'wicked, but apparently that wasn't enough.

Liked the softening end tho.

7/10, good job.

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Dragonblade
on 2005-01-28 14:40:57

This reminds me of the ending theme for Dragonball GT...

Good song though.

Just a little too weird for my tastes

Sources Arranged (4 Songs)


Primary Game:
Final Fantasy VI (Square , 1994, SNES)
Music by Nobuo Uematsu
Songs:
"Catastrophe"
"Dancing Mad"
"New Continent"
"The Fierce Battle"

Tags (3)


Genre:
Rock
Mood:
Instrumentation:
Electric Guitar,Synth
Additional:

File Information


Name:
Final_Fantasy_6_Battle_on_a_New_Continent_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
7,646,852 bytes
MD5:
da56f53690efa9bfb08f0119c3c3d194
Bitrate:
192Kbps
Duration:
5:15

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