ReMix: Final Fantasy VII 'Scenes from a Memory'

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Merry Turkey! Or, to our friends outside the USA: Happy Nothing! Whether we celebrate the giving of thanks through the traditional North American ritual of conspicuous turkey consumption (and, more importantly, horseradish ingestion) and family gathering or through other means, the idea of a day of giving thanks for that which we should be thankful for is pretty cool. Back in the day, it was trivial matters like not starving to death or being killed by Native Americans or for practicing one's faith, but nowadays we've moved on to loftier subjects like just how good Super Mario Galaxy turned out to be; all hail progress. Whether anyone ever actually stops and pensively enumerates said items of personal importance and worth amongst all the gorging and imbibing is a question of much speculation, but here at OCR, we believe in credit where credit is due... and there is MUCH to be thankful for. Item one on our list tonight is Voices of the Lifestream. After all the dust settled and some of the knee-jerk anti-FF7 sentiment cooled down (heathens!), I think many have come to appreciate how consistent this album is, all the more impressive given its size. Much like the fruitcake that gets regifted from family to family until someone willing to eat it stops the recursive madness, VotL is the gift that keeps on giving. Unlike fruitcake, however, it doesn't suck. Also, you can't eat it, though with the creamy mint aesthetic on most of the artwork, I wouldn't blame anyone for trying. I haven't quoted Larry in a writeup for awhile, usually because he brings out the John Madden playbook of music criticism and gets all granular, refusing to supply me with catchy soundbites that can oversimplify his byzantine judgments... so I'll end that trend. Mr. Oji says:

"The original's pretty simple instrumentally, and thus ripe for expansion and interpretation. In this case, it's done more with the supporting instrumentation rather than the melody on strings (which repeats too much), and that's ok as the approach. The interpretation is there though... Solo at 2:43 was of course Sixto-sick and a good, brief break from the source material before moving into a nice arrangement of "The Prelude" at 3:05 for the close. Ending at 3:30 way too abrupt, the strings decaying too quickly IMO. Too bad about the ending being so short; 3:22 could have been the gateway to prog rock heaven, but it was not meant to be. Remind me to kick you all for that. :'-( Personalization, interpretation, new writing, altered genre. Solid stuff. I'd say pretty much everything we should want in a mix from a creative standpoint."

Suz, the mix's primary creator, writes:

"This mix has been a long (LONG) time coming. I started it back in January 2006, when I first got on the FF7 project. I poked and prodded it for many months, much to the chagrin of zircon. Most of the hangup came from problems recording guitars-- my main guitar died in a gigging mishap before I had finished all the recordings, leaving me just an old beat up Epi with busted pickups to record with. However, Sixto was gracious enough to provide me with a balls busting solo, so in the end it worked out well (and probably for the better cuz that dude is amazing and I have slow fatty sausage fingers). Additionally, zircon was kind enough to help finish with the mixing side of things (and he added some fun synthy crud in there as well). So basically what we have here is a collab, with arrangement, sequencing and guitars by Suzumebachi, incrediballs guitar solo by Sixto, and pads and synth leads by Mr. Aversa. Enjoy!"

Incrediballs! The melodies here are subdued, and so there's not really a driving melodic force or anything that feels overly narrative, but there's a more general sense of energy amassing; the feel is somewhere between cinematic BGM and rock song, and teeters either way at times. Judges were a little iffy on the first minute, which does take some time to get going, but once it's up out of its musical recliner and moving across the living room floor, it does so with style and force. Good stuff from Ty, Juan, and Andy, and an important part of a larger work that, for me at least, is one of the major things I'm thankful for in 2007.

― djpretzel