Final Fantasy VIII "Flashback" 4:21

OCR's silver anniversary has meant a couple of returns from ReMixers we've not featured in a while, so we're excited to welcome yet another super-talented contributor back! Anti-Syne returns with his flashback to the title that originally brought him to OCR in 2011, Final Fantasy VIII, dusting off a hidden gem he'd intended to send our way back in the day:

"Oh, it's been a long time, OC ReMix!

I was going through old computer files and found this track I apparently made in 2016, and just never uploaded... sorry about that.

Anyway, here's a track that mostly remixes "The Man with the Machine Gun", which itself is a 1980s-sounding track, and "The Landing". My remix mostly takes that and dials it all up to 11.

Keep doing what you do, OCR team! Sorry it's been so long, life just got in the way, but here's to another 25 years of OCR!"

It's a true treat to see Anti-Syne on the front page after nearly a decade away, with a hell of a throwback palette, no less! His old school tech intro & geetars got mutually talented judge Joe "XPRTNovice" Zieja genuinely fired up:

"I love the Casio printer style intro followed by like, dime-store handheld music samples. This is a fun way to start a song.

verbally yelled "fuck yeah" when the guitars came in [...]

Making me wait for something to print out before the drop at 3:00 was genius [...]

This is a great arrangement, clearly above the bar, fun as hell to listen to, and an instant add to my OCR Workout Playlist that doesn't exist yet but should."

For someone as athletic & accomplished as Joe is, that playlist nod is a heck of an endorsement, so now we need to *make* that list to help him & the people get those gains! Arrangement-wise, it has huge energy and good textural evolution to keep things dynamic. The drop at 1:59 followed by the tension right afterward until 2:29 was tremendous. Wasn't expecting the instrumentation shift around 2:27, but it still works. More old electronics sampling to transition into glitching, intensity, and density for the final minute to finish strong. I suspect y'all will be feeling the same feels fellow judge prophetik music felt:

"this is a really head-bobbing feel, and i really like the variety of sounds used. [...] there's tons of stuff changing and coming in every few bars which is neat, and it doesn't ever lose the core of the feel. [...]

mix on this is great, it's loud and in your face and never feels squeezed. the kick's this huge boomy roomy sound and i think it works perfectly.

what an enjoyable track. love the energy and love the style. excellent work."

Be sure to show some love to Anti-Syne for ensuring this power-packed piece had a place here! It's never too late to send quality VGM interpretations our way, and we hope to wrangle some more back catalog gems from our deep roster of contributors as we go through the year. We definitely appreciate you sending in some old gold, Anti-Syne, and thanks for being a part of the creative, diverse & exemplary arrangements that have made OCR what it is!