ReMix:Parasite Eve "Beauty's Abomination" 4:17

By Reuben Kee

Arranging the music of one song...

"Main Theme [Piano Solo Version]"

Primary Game: Parasite Eve (Square , 1998, PS1), music by Yoko Shimomura

Posted 2007-02-12, evaluated by djpretzel


Parasite Eve's been getting the love lately, with ktriton and now Mr. Kee paying homage to the title, whilst Symbiont Dawn is sadly neglected. Or not; biology humor ftw. This is some very cinematic solo piano work, with Reuben ditching the taikos and other accompaniment for a return to his ivory roots. It's not necessarily a more complex arrangement style compared to his initial pieces, but in the performance you can hear an approach and depth that reflects the passage of time. I love the very minimalist, almost Eyes Wide Shut intro, which segues into natural, arpeggio-anchored motion at 0'20". Oscillations of dynamic and tempo are synchronized to effect a deliberate, swaying motion that can best be likened to natural phenomena: trees in wind, waves, or the uncertain, fluctuating surfaces of estuaries. The preceding sentence clearly illustrates how a lack of judge quotes affects these write-ups. But I digress; it's over four-minutes long, but feels more like a journey than a destination, even though things develop and waves crest several times, more notably circa 2'21". I'd like to see more solo piano arrangers try alternating time signatures and implementing more unorthodox rhythmic progressions, but I can't argue that the regularity present for those criteria in this mix have a hypnotic, lulling influence. This wouldn't be out of place in a stoic, subdued British film about unrequited love between a single mother and a repressed, bearded, seafaring wharfmaster, who figure out only too late that they're soulmates, because one of them has terminal cancer of the mustache, and dies... in a good way. Seriously, for some reason this piece keeps making me think of ocean imagery and water; your nautical mileage may vary. Great work from Reuben, who manages to switch between Eastern and Western styles on his compositions very fluidly, and with seemingly equal talent.

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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WesternZypher
on 2017-10-18 12:37:54

Reuben's mixes are absolutely dense with thick emotion - the stuff you hear in your head when you're close to tears in the rain. But his songs also dispel the grey clouds and let beams of warm, bright light in by their end.

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urdailywater
on 2013-04-30 00:02:32

This is a very inspiring mix. It's haunting in a sense, yet still has a beauty to it that's just hard to make in any type of mix.

Amazing playing here, I'm so happy to have had a chance to listen to this. It'll go down as one of my top piano mixes on this site :)

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Subz1987
on 2009-02-15 15:41:33

It always tears me up listening to Reuben's reMixes, because they are all fantastic and his piano reMixes are very mellow and full of emotion. The thing that gets to me the most is that we'll never hear any more new works from him. The world lost a great person on that day.

Love the piece. Very emotional and a great reMix from the great Reuben.

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Rexy
on 2007-11-29 06:55:54

I find it ironic that this would be Reuben's last submission. I didn't check it out properly until today though, and from what has been proven, he showered the original source tune with such grace and beauty that Yoko Shimomura could be proud of. It's times like this that I envy his skills to carry such skill into solo piano and still love him for it. Definitely a highlight as far as Parasite Eve coverage is concerned. :)

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Hyperion5182
on 2007-02-17 20:11:34

This is one hell of a piece. An incredible achievement. One of the most overlooked games in history imo gets one of the better remixes i have heard off this site. Parasite eve might of been short but it's storyline just owned and overall the game rocked. To this day i hold out hope a third parasite eve could be made. The original game's music only complimented a storyline that truly gave me nightmares. A well deserved remix for an exceptional game.

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HoboKa
on 2007-02-16 01:34:28

To tell the truth I'm not a piano solo fan, I like to have a few support sounds to go along with it, but nevertheless you definately have tremendous skill with the piano. Hell, I can't even immitate the Maridia song for Super Metroid on the piano. So if I were a judge I'd give youn 10/10 easilly :D

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Thin Crust
on 2007-02-15 08:24:19

I am a huge fan of Kee's work. Really. I love his music. But for some reason I can't agree with the previous posters. Maybe it's because it sounds like all the songs my brother plays over and over again and I stop listening to them. I actually couldn't hear the song while it was playing because it wasn't captivating enough. So, sorry Mr. Kee, the music just seems dead to me right now.

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bladiator
on 2007-02-14 16:47:03
I don't like the balance in this track. The left hand seems like it's flooding out the right without contributing much to the arrangement. I've been listening to this a few times to be sure, but I feel that more subtle compositional choices would have improved the mix substantially. See 1:45, 2:20-3:00. The later part should be the climax. It feels instead like a wall of sound most of the time.

I felt the same way. Even on headphones and turning the bass down it was like "BASSBASSBASSBASS" in my ears.

Other than that, it was pretty (can you say that and stay manly?).

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OA
on 2007-02-14 14:02:30

I don't remember the original very well so any comparisons I may have made are moot, but as a piece of music, it stands alone very well.

I love the sublties of piano remixes, and this one definitely delivers, Buildup before the end has a lot of drama and everything throughout is well played.

Nice work, i dig it. :D

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Mustin
on 2007-02-14 02:22:40

Great stuff. Sick track. Love it. Added it to my sleep list, and to the CD I take with me when I get massages. My therapist plays the VGM mix CDs I give her for other people too and they're always complimenting.

Keep 'em comin' - this is great.

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DJ Skratch 'n' Sniff
on 2007-02-13 19:43:53

I thought the title sounded familiar. I got this off VGMix about a year ago. It hasn't changed at all since then. Hmmm... "date modified 3/30/06" Well, almost a year.

Anywho, really great mix. Love the overall flow; takes you all over the freaking place.

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badhabit
on 2007-02-13 14:19:57

I liked djp's writeup as much as the song.

Wharfmaster with terminal cancer of the mustache...lol

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ILLiterate
on 2007-02-12 21:40:26

I liked it, I'm really just waiting for Reuben to get hired to do some soundtrack for a huge anime or film. He has all the talents there to pull of something amazing. Almost everything he does is highly emotional and just sounds great

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PassivePretentiousness
on 2007-02-12 21:11:55

I don't like the balance in this track. The left hand seems like it's flooding out the right without contributing much to the arrangement. I've been listening to this a few times to be sure, but I feel that more subtle compositional choices would have improved the mix substantially. See 1:45, 2:20-3:00. The later part should be the climax. It feels instead like a wall of sound most of the time.

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avaris
on 2007-02-12 20:49:00

This went directly onto my HD. :)

This reminds me alot of Reu's Schenmue mix. Which is also friggin amazing. Highly emotive piano that sounds like it's from a real serious anime.

Good things:

Attention to dynamics, wonderful build-ups and breakouts. Just when you think it can't get more emotive it does.

Melody and harmony are awesome. I just wanna sit back and listen.

Left hand technique. This is really the bread winner for this mix.

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Parasite Eve (Square , 1998, PS1)
Music by Yoko Shimomura
Songs:
"Main Theme [Piano Solo Version]"

Tags (2)


Genre:
Mood:
Instrumentation:
Piano
Additional:
Arrangement > Solo

File Information


Name:
Parasite_Eve_Beauty's_Abomination_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
6,246,731 bytes
MD5:
001e8f8e5e373cc6358243871749601a
Bitrate:
192Kbps
Duration:
4:17

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