ReMix: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 'Prelude'

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Quite a bit of news to catch up on: due to time obligations involving new priorities and in Wingless' case a swanky new job at Midway , John, Harmony, and analoq as well have all left the judges panel. This represents the single biggest staffing change the panel has seen; in the past, I've used this space to talk about one or two judges leaving, but talking about three hardly even seems possible in a sufficiently thorough manner. Nevertheless: Brandon, John, and Aaron are all multitalented guys who I have all confidence will be successful in their new endeavours. They all had very unique styles of evaluating mixes, ranging from succinct lowercaseness to specific technical analysis to... whatever adjectives one might use to describe what Wingless did. Musically, they're collectively responsible for some of the most memorable, creative mixes on the site, from Dragon Song to Eutopia Pegasi to demonik elektronik. But outside of their judiciary and musical capacities, and just as importantly, they're all great, smart, laid-back guys who I'm just plain happy to know. I definitely hope they can intermittently find time to still drop by or put together a mix or two, but even if that's not the case, their contributions to date have been monumental.

There's actually more to cover, but I'll save it for later, as Michael Zasadzinski (frugally pseudonymed to 'Zas' for the pronunciation-impaired) has been waiting awhile for his approved mix to reach the front page. The ReMixer writes:

"...This is the first movement of a personal project of mine, which aims to cover the storyline of Ocarina of Time by following the Game's OST around. This installment deals with Ganon and the Deku Tree, as well as the beginning of Link's journey."

Shariq found the perfect adjective to describe the end result:

"Ponderous. I like it. It's hard to do something like this, which is such a slowly evolving piece, effectively, but you've managed to pull it off. I love how this piece moves from one idea to the next seamlessly. The crescendo to the Deku Tree theme at 4:51 is perfect; a powerful statement with lots of emotion behind it."

For some reason, parts of this reminded me of the soundtrack to the Fatal Fury anime film - very expansive and grandiose. It's very cinematic, and does a particularly strong job of slowing down some of your favorite Zelda melodies and making them sound both interesting and natural at a much more deliberate pace than their original context. For the most part, the arrangement is percussionless, and is largely led by various winds. Oboe and flute figure largely, but I specifically like the way the harp fills in the gaps between passages and guides the whole thing along. Jesse used five adjectives - and nothing else - in his decision:

"organic, unique, reflective, complex, simple."

The complex simplicity and simple complexity might seem paradoxical, but it's appropriate; no one portion is overly elaborate, but the whole of the composition is rather tightly woven and nested. Besides a weak, premature cutoff on the final note, this is an excellent approach to an ambitious vision, and as Michael's first posted mix, a strong and memorabe introduction; hopefully, it's a prelude in more ways than one.

― djpretzel