ReMix:The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask "House of Healing" 6:53

Newcomer Arth4da (Christian Michael Poynter) brings us a straightforward but enjoyable & well-crafted house arrangement from Majora's Mask, a game soon to see new life on the 3DS in a matter of days. He writes:

"Hey, OC ReMix! Long-time listener, first-time mixer here. The piece I decided to remix was "Song of Healing" from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. When I heard my friend playing a piano version of the piece I lit up, inspiration struck me and I stole his printed sheet music. I remembered playing the game as a kid, but I had forgotten how beautiful the song was. Cycling between playing this song on piano and listening to way too much deep house music, the synthesis was inevitable. In the project, I strived to create a dreamlike track that you could almost fall asleep to, were it not for the heavy house percussion firmly grounding you in the ambiance. Because of a terrible affliction for puns, I called my submission "House of Healing" (bahaha, get it?).

The buildup to the source material is long, with everything except the chord progression being original until about 2:00, when the melody shows itself for the first time and remains a prominent part of the song in various ways through the rest of the track. I tried to keep a deep house feel in mind, so at times the melody is almost obscured, and made into a part of the mix's essential structure; punctuated by melodic lines fading into the front and then back into obscurity.

My motto to myself while working was something like: "'Song of Healing' is way cool, but what would it sound like if Kaito wrote it?"

Is a love of puns a terrible affliction, or... is it a wondrous blessing? Mmmm-hmmm, methinks the latter. The source DOES take awhile to make itself known, but the superstructure is all in support of its eventualy emergence. Chimpazilla writes:

"The arrangement is straightforward, source is easily identifiable, although the majority of source use seems to be chord progressions rather than melody, but that fits this deep house style. Often the melody line is played by what I would consider backing instruments and for the most part there is no lead. Again, fits the genre.

I like the breakdown beginning at 4:00, soft yet spooky. Some harmonic dissonance begins creeping in around 4:30 and by 4:45 it is quite pronounced. I like this and find it interesting, not sure if everyone will though. Breakdown lasts about a minute and a half, a good amount of time for this track."

Beatdrop adds:

"This takes quite a while to really get going, and at the same time, it never really gets going, but at the same time same time, it's constantly going. That probably doesn't make sense, but that's the style. The source is pretty innocuous itself, so I guess it couldn't be avoided. There's no question about the representation of the original; it's all here. Picking up on some major Steve Porter vibes. Production quality is stand-out. Well-mixed. I have no gripes about any of your sound choices; they all fit perfectly."

Nothing much to add that Kris & Dain didn't cover; this isn't a genre we see too much of, and like trance, it does spend a lot of time on the connective tissue, but it's also pretty easily identifiable as an arrangement of the source. Good productivity music since it's not soporific but it also isn't wildly distracting nor does it revel in unpredictability. Nice debut from Christian, well-timed since the game will be reaching new audiences in portable form shortly, and a solid, extended jam that's easy to get into; looking forward to hearing more!