ReMix: Final Fantasy X-2 'Under a New Moon'

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Sephfire and Fatty Acid collab in this revision of the latter's arrangement by the former. Dan was apparently digging one of Joseph's mixes and decided to rework it into something new:

"...I stumbled across his remix of the opening credits sequence for Final Fantasy X-2, "Under a Full Moon" (which I really enjoyed). The more I listened to it, the more ideas it inspired, so I contacted Mr. Liao about it and he was cool enough to allow me to re-remix his work for OCR submission."

Sustained sub bass tones, crystal-clear tine electric piano, acoustic piano, a mellow hip-hop beat, and warm strings which are at times continuous and others gated/chopped rhythmically make up the core elements. It's a pretty sparse, simple arrangement, sure, but the drums have fills where they're needed, there's structural variety enough to keep things interesting, and the afforementioned ingredients are used and reused creatively - they don't just stick in the same place, doing the same thing. The effect of dual pianos, acoustic and electric, is very smooth, relaxed, melodic, and pure. I like how zyko suggested its use as potential commute-related stress alleviation (even though I have only a ten-minute commute to work myself):

"the beat is quite simplistic and the mood is by far the greatest benefactor of the track's overall simplicity. the stutter is not overdone and gives it that new-age electronica feel to it that eludes me when i'm digging through the CD bin. i enjoy this sort of music, a lot - it is calming in an otherwise intensely fast paced world. putting this on during your rush hour commute makes all those shitty drivers disappear and nothing but the colorful trails off the paintjobs of their cars are left."

The dissenting opinion on the panel centered around the simplicity of the arrangement, suggesting that just one more element, one more section, instrument - one more "thing", in layman's terms - could have given the piece more substance. It's certainly a tricky balance when you're shooting for mellow and minimal to also make sure you work in enough "stuff" (technical term) to ensure the mix is memorable and still has a degree of weight. I'm sure there's *something* that could have helped, along these lines, but I'm also not coming up with specifics, and if done wrong such an addition could have hindered rather than helped. Hypothesizing aside, what's here is some accessible, uber-calm mood music filtered through the imaginations of two talented guys, and I think most who are into more laid-back grooves will appreciate their concoction as is.

― djpretzel