ReMix: Dark Cloud 'Moon Dust'

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Very peculiar, this mix is. Quoth Damon Campbell, alias Blue Magic:

"This is a little something I've been working on for the past week or so. It is a relaxing remix of the "Moon Sea" theme from Dark Cloud... The original song didn't really have much of a melody so I did my best to make up for it."

Chromaticism is the name of the game here, as an otherwise relatively normal downbeat groove is laced with some unorthodox chromatic interjections and motifs. There's actually a snippet of the core melody that sounds just like the chromatic descension from the Zelda 64 intro, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's important to note that such chromaticism was an integral part of the source material as well, and doesn't represent an addition on Magic's part, but a conscious decision to keep those elements in. Gray and analoq both felt that while the original style lended itself to such dissonance, the adaptation into a mellow groove made it stick out. Others disagreed; Mr. Shariq writes:

"I'm in agreement with Jesse and Israfel; the chromatic stuff is a bit odd, but I think that it isn't a major detractor to the overall piece. Some will like it, some will not; it's definitely weird, but I think that it adds some uniqueness to the mix."

My take is that it works fairly well, but it changes the nature of the work - it's hard to listen to as background music, which is usually the context for downbeat, laid-back grooves like this, because the juxtaposition is going to be a bit jarring, especially at lower volumes, where the details might be obscured. That being said, given a degree of focus, it's a pretty serene, atmospheric track, and Damon's specifically done a great job at bringing out a strong melodic presence. It's somewhat challenging source material, but he didn't dumb it down and created a grabbing piece. I particularly like the highpass filtering on the intro and the deep, resonating bass and complimentary kick drum; the overall production is rich and fills up the right spaces in the EQ spectrum. I'll echo Larry's sentiment that some of the short-release strings are problematic, both in terms of the samples used and their volume, but everything else blends in sublimely. Quirky but ultimately enjoyable, and definitely not your run-of-the-mill downbeat, "purdy" groove.

― djpretzel