ReMix:Chrono Trigger "12,000 B.C." 3:34

We just had a fun CT mix by Rebecca Tripp & Gamer of the Winds yesterday, and today's date (12/12) dovetails perfectly with this arrangement's title, so now it's time to chillax with Outset Initiative & Jeremy Lim's mellow mix of Chrono Trigger's legendary Zeal music! Outset explained how a different collaborative concept eventually gave way to a more traditional remix by modifying and reassembling Jeremy's recordings:

"This is a remix I created with Jeremy Lim back in 2019 for the Materia Community album, EPOCH: A Tribute to Chrono Trigger. The creative constraints on the project caused this track to be one of the most interesting remixes I've worked on to date.

A bit of backstory: One of the main requirements for participation on the album was that every track must have a "featured artist," to encourage collaboration and inspire folks to push their creative boundaries. I was lucky enough to pair up with Jeremy Lim, a good friend from the community and an even more fantastic composer, to take on "Corridors of Time".

Starting out, we worked very closely together to lay the foundations and feeling of the track, with a loose goal of "chill electronic" that focused on the underlying repeating pattern from the original while leaving ample room for a solid bass groove. Due to some scheduling differences, Jeremy had to step away from the project after this initial phase, which created a very unique creative situation for how I approached the rest of the composition. I decided to treat all of Jeremy's contributions and stems as "performances" and worked with them as if they were final recordings from a live performer, despite the instruments being fully digital. Because of this, I ended up finding myself snipping, pitch shifting, and remixing Jeremy's contributions within the track itself to piece together new variations on his early riffs - a remix within a remix, so to speak.

It was an extremely fulfilling process and there's no way the remix would have come out anything like this if we hadn't have been forced to creatively push those boundaries. To me, the internal remixing caused the feeling of the track to spiral around within itself and ended up creating a very tight and cohesive whole that I'm very proud of.

Anyway, all that to say - I hope y'all enjoy the remix as much as we did creating it!"

So smoove, and yet another unique take on a "done-to-death" original tune in the VGM community that proves that there's ALWAYS room for fresh interpretations when there's have a vast community out there. prophetik music was drawn in by the way Zeke and Jeremy's collab evolved:

"such an iconic original. initial groove is really solid. tons of space added intentionally, and the really wide slow-attack lead instrument is a great choice. the continuing variance in the backing parts do a great job keeping it moving - for example, transitioning from strings to the guitar arpeggio (with synth arp in there too) at 1:05 is a great touch, and doesn't ever lose touch with the original. the drop into the middle of the melodic content at 1:25 is excellent, and the subsequent looping of the guitar and synth parts also sounds great.

there's some additional percussion around 2:02, and that kind of flows forward as the melodic synth gradually gets some more edge. the arrangement continues to introduce new instruments and ideas (like the nice detuned EP at 2:35) while still sticking with what got the track there, and the additive nature of the progression is enjoyable."

Meanwhile, Chimpazilla was digging the sound design, definitely a huge highlight (and something that's gonna sound awesome on your car stereo):

"Oh. My. GOD. That sub bass. Turning my entire studio into a subwoofer in the best possible way. Mastered so loud but it sounds just amazing. It isn't always easy to get deep bass like this working well, where it is both audible and felt, without artifacts or mud; very well done here. I love the slow, easy, ethereal vibe of this and all the little timbres coming in and out, the spacey pad going on in the background, the varied percussion (snappy snaps, sharp shaker, rad djembe licks), luscious strings, the filtering on the saw lead fading in and out (waaaaay out, to outer space even) of this soundscape, trippy bells/vibes, intimate guitar, the vocal that fades in at the very end. Awesome mix of drier and wetter sounds and use of white space. The arrangement is full of variation in writing and sounds while maintaining such a consistent and cohesive soundscape. Easy yes. Yes please. New favorite for me."

Bizarre in a good way, or as fellow judge MindWanderer noted: "It's a novel take on one of the most remixed tracks of all time, so kudos for that." Rather than just going in a linear fashion, I really enjoyed how different segments of the source tune would drop in and out with different instrumentation styles. A very special approach on this scene favorite by Outset Initiative & Jeremy Lim, who we'd certainly love to hear more from together! :-)