ReMix: Chrono Trigger 'Rhodes to the Past'

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Newcomer Fatty Acid aka Joseph Liao (from that "smartypants" MIT college you might have heard of [/jealous]) gives us this slicked back Rhodes-driven (very punny) CT ReMix with a downbeat/jazzy groove, lovely compressed drums, and a tremolo/panned electric rhodes patch that ties everything together and, while not reworking the primary melody, DOES introduce some original progressions and interludes into the fray that give the composition some character. The panel was very split on whether there was enough arrangement involved, but I definitely concur with the (slight) majority, who felt that one can leave the main melody alone, i.e. verbatim, and still do enough additive and instrumentation work to constitute sufficient interpretation. I'm going to quote at length from Mr. Baranowsky, who shares my take:

"No, No, No, No...I will not have mindless simplicity-bashing. Not on my watch. There are ways to make music interesting without utilizing a 12-tone scale based on the ratio of cornflakes to coco puffs in your neighborhood general store. As I have stated before with certain hiphop arrangements, simplicity must be used effectively to maintain any kind of musical interest. There is not always a need to modify the melody into a mutated beast of its former self. This track builds well, sustains a groove worthy of the highest paid jiggity-jivers in the whole damn town, and does enough breakdowns and mix-ups to keep it all jivin' without too much looping. There are subtle melodic mix-ups in the sine-wave lead that absolutely fit the new form of the tune in the best way. The way the rhodes and synth-a-plucks complement the chord changes runs chills down my spine. VERY well done. This is a textbook example of instrumentation and style adding enough to a track to look past the less-than-revolutionary arrangement."

He also added a comment about his personal willingness to defecate on the lawns of those judges who did not agree with his approval of the mix, though it didn't sway any existing votes to the contrary (apparently this is not as undesirable as one would assume). Like his eloquent and emphatic statement says, I think this is a mix that keeps it simple but has enough additions, where they count, to distance the piece from sounding like a cover and bring it into more interpretive territory. This is hard to do with minimalism, especially when the main melody is so core to the original and is kept perfectly intact, but it can be done, and this is a good example of how. I'd love to see slightly riskier pieces from Liao in the future, but this is an excellent first sub that shows production polish, an ear for the mellow, and subtle attention to detail. Good stuff.

― djpretzel