ReMix: Final Fantasy V 'Harvest Hoedown'
When I think hoedown I think Aaron Copeland, who had unique and arguably unfortunate status as an American composer forced to witness his piece of the same name become more commonly referred to a "the beef song". However, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer did their own very kickin' arrangement of said beef song, for which a more cogent case could be made as potential inspiration for the title of DJ Orange's latest submission from FF5. This mix definitely has some sub-par samples - some of this is intentional, so as to invoke a sound reminiscent of the early prog rock synth bands, but in other cases (drums, for example, which are well sequenced and very visible) a little more fidelity would have helped. The ReMixer writes:
"Some of the arrangement choices may need explaining, because this remix is kind of unorthodox (and cheesy). I've been studying up ELP, Triumvirat, King Crimson, Jeth Tull, and others for the past while and developing a taste for off-the-wall, gelatinous, lo-fi analogue synth that others unfortunately might not share. The bizarreness from 1:12 through 2:15 (a good chunk of this remix) is admittedly derivative of ELP's work, namely Tocatta on Brain Salad Surgery, but it's all of my own creation. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it despite the mediocre samples and stuff. Still waiting for the megasample fairy..."
I hope the megasample fairy does collect a tooth or two and leave some multisamples, but by the same token, pieces of this ReMix sorta rely on sounds being unpolished, as throwbacks to the genre being emulated. The only sidenote to that is that Emerson's infamous towering modular moog is difficult to approximate with samples or virtualization and had a warm, organic character unto itself. However, what Mr. Orange did get down pretty cold was the style of arrangement prevalent amongst the artists he enumerates above. I'd love to hear the real ELP perform this track, because I think it'd be fairly believable that they put it together themselves. Perhaps tellingly, none of the judges had any issues whatsoever with the samples - I think that might be a bit optimistic, but by the same token, it shows that the arrangement was working well enough to keep attention off cosmetics. The source melody is left largely intact, which drew some concern from Larry, but the accompaniment is what's been reenvisioned as a festival of prog rock flavors. Synth solo at 1'53" which intros with some repeated patterns and is chock full' o pitch bends is particularly evocative of the era. I think the whole thing would have been aided greatly by a drum kit that was more stereo, as this one might as well be monophonic for the depth it achieves - the drum programming is elaborate and a kit that extended cymbals in particular to either side of the stereo spectrum would have had more impact and enveloped the piece instead of sitting so tightly inside of it. This is a type of music that demands individual instruments with a good deal of vitality and fidelity to them, because it's asking them to go places less "progressive" music would not, hence the name. While the end result here isn't as sonically polished as our other recent prog-rock submission from Mr. Pacaud and company, it still succeeds at working with a difficult genre and coming up with enjoyable results. It's also different from djo's other ReMixes and shows some excellent variety and a willingness to branch out. Good stuff.
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