ReMix: Star Ocean: The Second Story 'Ocean of Tears'

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I tell you what - it's a pretty good indicator that a ReMix is strongsauce when it sounds good even at 3AM, with a major headache, after listening to various music for four or five hours repeatedly. EgM alias Eric Hache gives us a brief but enjoyably solemn respite from the stresses of daily toil with this orchestral Star Ocean 2 mix of Rena's theme featuring a prominent, emotive oboe solo. Behind that there's beautiful strings, choir, flute, harp, and dramatic percussion. This reminds me of Dale's sweeping, Joe Hisaishi-esque arrangement of . . . the same theme. Boy, that sounded dumb. Oh well, write it off to sleep deprivation - they are fairly similar arrangements - Dale opens with clarinet whilst Eric opts for the oboe, but the intros are alike in development. However, the mixes do diverge more when you get into them. I'd say Eric's take is a little less grandiose, a little more melancholy. He also brings in some rock-ish drums whereas Dale keeps it strictly in the orchestral realm. You could get nitty-gritty and say that Dale's got some better piano samples, but that'd be missing the point - both of these ReMixers know their stuff, both have produced outstanding interpretations of this song, and passing either version up would be a big mistake. Dale exits on a very introspective piano solo, ending on a sustained chord that diminishes into the darkness, whereas Eric exits with a lovely oboe-flute duet and a final, punctuating bit of percussion. It's fun just listening to these back to back and hearing the points of convergence and divergence. And if you play them both at the same time, and watch 'The Wizard of OZ', the music fits with the film! No way!11!!1!!! Really, this does compliment our existing Rena ReMix nicely, offers something new, if not dramatically new, and provides a rare glimpse into the subtle but telling differences between how two accomplished arrangers take on the same tune in the same genre. Recommended.

― djpretzel