ReMix:Golden Sun "Village Beautification in 5/4" 4:29

Not every project makes it to the end; this fluidly 5/4 folksy/retro woodwind & pizzicato-driven Golden Sun ReMix from Patrick Burns was originally intended for an album:

"I made this for a Golden Sun project that dissipated a while back. I appreciate those on the project who gave feedback and encouragement - the final feedback I received was that the lead instruments could use some more humanization. (Ahh, humanization; so small a word for so boundless a meaning.) I agree that they're a bit stale, but I haven't struck upon an easy way to enliven them in the current project/workflow. If it's a dealbreaker, I'll be more than happy to revisit them. In any case, maybe their synthetic feel harkens back to the source and lends to a nice JRPG feel..."

Production & pieces of the instrumentation definitely have a 16-bit vibe; higher fidelity in most cases than what the SNES was actually capable of, but in keeping with the general aesthetic and explicitly not striving for realism. S'good; almost feels like Golden Sun got ported to the SNES and the OST got updated a bit :) Patrick actually resubbed this based on panel feedback; of the revisions, he notes:

"There isn't a single big change here - lots of little articulations, massaging, editing, syncopating, harmonizing, mixing, enoxification, etc. Hopefully, the first part sounds more personalized this time around - overall, it feels more interesting faster. The 40 seconds at 1:30 are still the most cover-ish, but they've gotten a little help."

I had to look up Enoxification, which Urban Dictionary informs me should be capitalized, as it refers to "The strange and mysterious effect/style used by Brian Eno when he produces music." Nice. The judges talked about humanization a bit, but I think the style here is intentionally going for a JRPG vibe that tends towards the precise, if not the quantized. It's certainly a far cry from several of the artist's previous mixes, which are VERY organic/humanized/"other words with boundless meaning", like one of my all-time favorites, "Rare Respite" - but that's cool, at least to me. Artists should always feel free to mix it up. Pun intended. There were some delays on our side in posting this mix - our apologies to the artist - but it hasn't aged a day, and anything from Patrick tends to have a certain timelessness to it. Palpable sums things up well:

"The nuance with which you sequence is incredible, and you really bring life to instruments that could sound flat otherwise. Even though the arrangement is mostly an augmentation, the level of detail brings a lot to the table. The instrument dropouts and fadeouts sound very natural. A very playful song that brought a big smile to my face."

Ditto; from the myriad grace notes & ornamentation to the cross-panned call & answer wind duet to the lovely harmonies, this village has been thoroughly beautified. In 5/4. So, you know.... truth in advertising!