ReMix: Chrono Trigger 'Zeal Love'

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Unipulator, aka Eric Weg, sent us one of the most impressive, original initial submissions in the history of OCR with his Last Blade 2 ReMix, still a great piece of music and something I go back to often. Now, that was both a great ReMix and a submission that covered material near-and-dear to my heart, which also happened to be untread territory. For his second submission, Unipulator does a 180 degree turnaround and covers one of the most explored themes in game music arrangement, Zeal from CT, but with what I think is a similarly interesting and well-produced style. No doubt the altered chord progression and counter-melody might give a couple purists an aneurysm, but especially for such a familiar theme I think such changes are not only appropriate, but called for. Introing with the original simple motif Eric's added in that sort of sets up the new progression and gives you an idea of the feel, delayed, cross-panned synth arpeggios, a deep bass, minimal but effective and quality drums enter at 0'21". It's the distorted piano - an instrument you rarely hear distortion being applied to (the end result is unpredictable in a mix and not a timbre that often "works") - that some will either react negatively towards, or (like myself) appreciate for its riskiness, isolated simplicity, and aversion towards a more cookie-cutter clean synth or piano or wind solo at this point. I like it infinitely more than had distortion not been applied, but some of my favorite bands (The Strokes, for example) use distortion in abundance, so it's a subjective thing. The piece progresses from there, largely capitalizing on the altered progression, original harmonies on the pads and melody in the piano segments in between, and concludes on a nice if uninspired fadeout. I would have liked a more conspicuous ending, but this is a different take on Zeal, the progression of which I feel makes it a more melancholy, introspective piece. It's not as singularly breathtaking as his Last Blade 2 mix, but it's definitely worth checking out. Good stuff.

― djpretzel