ReMix: Dragon Warrior III 'Flight of Destiny'

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Our first venturing within the Dragon Warrior universe outside of the initial first installment comes courtesy of The Talented Mr. Cox, offering up another instrumental / orchestral arrangement of bliss, this time with a bit of a twist. It seems Russell's done some mixing of actual 'real' recordings of some of the instruments in this arrangement with the previous (excellent) electronic emulations we're use to. At the very least, he's layered some room ambience and sounds of a rustling-but-attentive audience to the mix, which lends an imminent, 'live performance' feel that's something new and different. If you've become accustomed to the pristine, digital quality of his previous works, this ReMix does have a bit of hiss associated with the room ambience, but the effect is important to the more exposed portions of the track and works well. The initial ensemble brass here isn't quite as schnazzy as the bombastic french horns in his most recent Guardian Legend mix. The piano solo that follows is very nice though, and the stereo imaging is very dramatic, with clear, conscious decisions on the ReMixer's part as to where to place each specific element. The push at 2'54" is definitely a highlight, and the brass is more open here as well. The piece concludes solemnly on the recognizable motif from the original Dragon Warrior soundtrack, with room ambience fading out after the oboe's last note. Discrepancies in recording levels for the acoustic portions are sometimes noticeable, like at 3'25" when the harp comes back in softly after a swell. Whether or not this annoys you will depend on your perspective - from my point of view, it's an interesting effect to try but I wouldn't want to hear it regularly applied to all of Russell's pieces as I've previously enjoyed the pristine nature of the sound quality. Hopefully Mr. Cox will read this and talk more about his decisions in making this track, which portions are recorded, etc. in a review / response. In the meantime, though I've spent most of the time focusing on this particular aspect, rest assured the ReMix is up to Russell's high spec and no exception to his continuing legacy of arrangements in this genre. Sugiyama's work is more reserved and less flamboyant than Uematsu or Mitsuda, I feel, but has subtleties that arrangements like these can capitalize on and really highlight. Recommended.

― djpretzel