ReMix:Final Fantasy VII "Golden Feathers" 3:59

By Mattias Häggström Gerdt

Arranging the music of one song...

"Racing Chocobos - Place Your Bets!"

Primary Game: Final Fantasy VII (Sony , 1997, PS1), music by Nobuo Uematsu

Posted 2007-11-11, evaluated by the judges panel


Mattias' Jade Cocoon was posted rather recently, but he played a huge role on Voices of the Lifestream, and this mix is one of the more peculiar tracks on the project. Another Soundscape writes:

"I started it as a d'n'b "on drugs" kinda song but the day after I felt that I needed something more since I wasn't that good at electronic music to begin with. Thus the ethnic part was born. My pride and joy. And even more "on drugs". Actually that's pretty much what I wanted to say. This is a remix of an annoying theme on drugs. Admit you thought that chocobo jockey with the black hat, Joe was kinda strange. Now you know he's really a dealer! Enjoy!"

Project Director Andrew Aversa chimed in with the following comments:

"This song was the result of an FF7 remix competition I ran back in late '06 to fill in some of the tracks on VotL that hadn't been taking. To be perfectly honest, I had never heard of Another Soundscape when I received his contest entry, and at first I wasn't really fond of his entry. The original version was much less developed, polished, and musically interesting than the version I finally ended up with.

Though he didn't come in first, I thought Anso's track was promising enough that I pulled him on board and decided to give him some pointers on how to improve his remix. I was bowled over at how quickly he took my suggestions and improved the track; a few more rounds of this, and we ended up with a real winner. I'm glad I gave Mattias a chance as he's more than proven himself with this mix and a number of others that followed (both ones for VotL and otherwise) - in my nearly 5 years on OCR, there's almost no other remixer I've seen as hard-working and motivated to improve. Anyway, this remix really does a great job of taking a not-so-memorable source tune and turning it into something fun."

Quite the endorsement, but I can see where it's coming from - Mattias is great at quickly adapting his musical ideas and trying different approaches. The source material here could be described as "annoying," or more positively, but at any rate, I think it's challenging material to work with and develop, and that in just under four minutes AnSo does a great job of doing so. There's soaring, high-pitched synth melodies that get layered with powerful harmonies, some solid stuttering and percussive effects, and the ethnic section adds both textural and compositional variety. He says "a remix of an annoying theme on drugs" - I say: A solid, playful mix that takes tricky material and works with it very effectively. Fun.

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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Emunator
on 2010-12-09 12:29:36
I felt that I needed something more since I wasn't that good at electronic music to begin with.

Goddamn, this is hilarious considering how good Mattias is with electronic music nowadays. He's come a damn long way since his noob days but this still feels like a very polished and enjoyable listen all the same. Just goes to show what a prolific and creative mixer he is and always has been :-)

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evktalo
on 2010-12-08 03:07:25

This pretty great, it's really standing out from my "play all mp3s at random" playlist. It's energizing, happy, upbeat... very nice flutes, drums, everything at the end! I love it! Much more enjoyable than most of the chocobo-related tracks I've heard, including the originals. :D

--Eino

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Nutritious
on 2009-07-04 15:17:42

Ahh, early AnSo (which wasn't really that long ago I guess). His style is all over this - lots of various, interesting synths. Very upbeat, happy style in this case - which isn't surprising, considering the original. Speaking of the original, excellent job taking an annoying song and making it something interesting to listen to (without losing the source connections).

Arrangement is very well executed, bringing new instrument types in the mid/later sections to vary it up from the synth-dominated portions. An enjoyable listen and good addition to the project as a whole.

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sefirosu
on 2009-03-17 09:53:25

I loved this song!

It was great with all the cutting and the stuttering like, "Hmmm.... let's see what else we can do to throw off the listeners..."

When I listen to this my mind goes instantly back to the countless hours spent on that chocobo race track, in frustration, trying to find a way to beat Teioh... GRR!

Then, the far-eastern-sounding stuff starts (I'm thinking sitar?) and its like, "Okay, let's chill for a second while our giant chickens recover... Hey Joe! Play us something cool on that sitar!" Definately a good point in the music. (then again, what wasn't a good point in this piece?)

Again, I loved it, and it gets 5/5 stars from me!

BTW: sorry for the sucky review, people, just go listen to the song.

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42
on 2009-03-06 16:14:03

I haven't really thought about this mix in terms of "on drugs" before, but, well...

hindsight is 20/20. :

Oh, wow...

That really puts this whole mix into perspective and makes it that much more enjoyable. :)!!

This is an absolute must download. One just can't listen to this mix and not be smiling.

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Rozovian
on 2009-02-20 08:34:36

Weird. Silly. Funny. Amusing. Interesting. Appealing. Enjoyable. Cool.

This one is a little bit of everything you can ask from a remix that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's not a joke at the expense of the listener, it's more a joke it shares with the listener. Great bass writing, great contrast between the high-energy parts and the 2:14 interlude - which has a simply awesome sound to it. Great stuff. :D

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Evil_Cronos
on 2009-01-05 15:23:40

I dislike the cutting in and out of the song and around the minute and a half mark but simply love the change that occurs around 2:20, brilliant. You transformed a happy-go-lucky sounding track into a really melodic and Celtic feeling song. One of the best tracks from VotL.

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DragonAvenger
on 2008-11-23 15:30:56

On drugs indeed. Whew, that was a trip. There is definately a musical journey in this one. Whether or not it's entirely in a dream, or something drug induced, I'm not quite sure, but there's a lot of cool stuff going on. The ethnic section in general is quite well done, and probably my favorite part of the mix.

The mix doesn't feel as long as it is, which is a good thing. I can't believe you got nearly 4 minutes out of the source, kudos on that.

Overall, trippy, and a good job.

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OA
on 2007-12-04 12:00:29

Cool interpretation with all the slicing and dicing and beats and such, and then later the ethnic instruments; The way it is structured seems like 2 mixes of the same song, you should have mixed the 2 styles up a bit more; alternate them and such.

Still awesome work, the lead synth sounded great, and I liked the beats as well.

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Flare4War
on 2007-11-20 04:41:39

Cool take on this track. Plenty of jingles and tingles to go around.

I thought the transition at 2:15 was great.

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Dr. Rod
on 2007-11-13 18:05:22

This is definitely one of the more unique tracks on the project, and fairly unique for ocr as a whole. I havent head a whole lotta happy-go-lucky synth stuff on here. I felt like the drum processing paled in comparison to the synth work, which was especially bright and well constructed/processed. This is a great track though, it definitely puts a bounce in my step and a smile on my face : )

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anosou
on 2007-11-12 10:46:19
I actually really liked the source for this... Yeah, its kind of annoying at times, but its all cheery and happy and sets the mood for the happy-go-lucky Chocobo racing. Anyway, I'd have to say that I really like this version even more than the original. The synth-work is top-notch and the different moods going along with the instrumentation changes really is fun. Good work Anso, you sexy Swede!

Hy Bound thinks I'm sexy! OMG! LOVE!

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Hy Bound
on 2007-11-12 10:30:47

I actually really liked the source for this... Yeah, its kind of annoying at times, but its all cheery and happy and sets the mood for the happy-go-lucky Chocobo racing. Anyway, I'd have to say that I really like this version even more than the original. The synth-work is top-notch and the different moods going along with the instrumentation changes really is fun. Good work Anso, you sexy Swede!

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Knives
on 2007-11-12 10:06:11

This song so gay that it reminds me of Tiny Tim's "living in the sunlight, loving in the moonlight." And of course I mean gay as in cheery and happy sounding. I like it though, and I really dig the ethnic half of the song.

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anosou
on 2007-11-12 06:47:51

ohshit, stalker!

also, I feel it should've been said in the write-up that this was my first finished work in Reason ever. I had never worked with synths or computers before. But I still feel it's quite a funny song, I'm not as proud as with other remixes but as my first I like it.

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Final Fantasy VII (Sony , 1997, PS1)
Music by Nobuo Uematsu
Songs:
"Racing Chocobos - Place Your Bets!"

Tags (4)


Genre:
Mood:
Happy
Instrumentation:
Electronic,Synth
Additional:
Regional > World

File Information


Name:
Final_Fantasy_7_Golden_Feathers_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
6,575,339 bytes
MD5:
419c50597dbeab0525cce294886e7eca
Bitrate:
217Kbps
Duration:
3:59

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