ReMix: Secret of Mana 'On The Day The World Changed...'

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A 21-gun salute goes out to Christian Pacaud, whose birthday of the same quantity was today. And what better way to celebrate than with mix postage, conveniently timed since he had a panel-approved collaboration with newcomers ktriton and MAG (Kunal Majmudar and Marc-Andre Gingras, on synths and guitars, respectively) queued up and simply begging to be posted. It's good times for Seiken Densetsu fans, with OverCoat's SD3 mix last night and now this epic prog-rock Mana medley. The ReMixer writes:

"After two months of intense work, sweat and tears, we humbly bring you this (freaking long) Secret of Mana medley, symphonic prog-rock style. Limbs were lost, blisters had (on the remaining limbs/fingers), strings broken, minds shattered, what have you... Anyway, seriously, this mix is comprised of five separate parts, each with their own different ambience, based on different songs / combination of songs from the soundtrack, with quite a lot of original material interspersed throughout the piece. Every instrument has an opportunity to shine through at some point. You get the solos, you get the synths, you get the length, even the name is "prog" ! OMG !!!11!! (The original title for the song was to be Journey Into Gaia's Navel On The Day The World Changed - Part I, but that seemed kinda long.)"

I want to personally thank Mr. Pacaud for his truncated, much more manageable title - it made our database much happier. Whether limbs were lost metaphorically or in actuality, it'd have been at least partially worth it, as what you've got here is seven minutes of jam, with shimmering piano, rockin' guitar, a variety of synth elements, and more sequencing than you can shake a stick at. Believe me, I tried, and it just wouldn't shake. Fans of Dream Theater, Rush, that sort of gig will be right at home - hard music to make, with lots of moving parts, intricacies, mucho technique but none of it superfluous, a dozen different tempos/tones/feels, jazz voicings, rock riffs, heavier metal riffs - one of the staples of prog rock is that very little is off-limits, and that nothing remains static for usually more than a couple bars. If you're looking for something you can tap your feet to, without having to changeup every fifteen seconds or so and look like you're having a spasm, etc., look elsewhere, as - true to form - this'll challenge your inner metronome. Larry gratuitously works in the word "pimp" with his closing statements:

"The conception here was lofty, but the execution was up for the challenge. Do your videogame music-hating friends a favor and pimp this their way."

The only possible beefs I could see myself pondering would be a slightly sub-pristine recording and some questionable transitions. Not being an audiophile myself and preferring emotive recordings to disinfected studio perfection, I was fine with the recording (though at seven minutes the encoding becomes an issue for some portions), but I could see some of the transitions, esp. from piece to piece, having been meshed together a little more tightly. We have a term for extreme examples of medleys that exhibit hasty transitions, etc. - "medleyitis" - but I don't really think it applies here, plus (lucky!) jarring, sudden changes are second-nature to prog-rock and a definite part of that ballgame (see already mentioned acts or Emerson, Lake and Palmer for plentiful examples). Great, epic, challenging work from these three fellas, which really shows the compositional maturity that can be applied to game arrangements. You do have to have a certain appreciation for prog-rock to get deep into it, but don't fear if you don't, or have never been exposed, and check it out regardless. I'm doubtful you'll regret it.

― djpretzel