ReMix: Jade Empire 'Global Empire'

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This ReMix celebrates VGL's Louisville, KY show where Jimmy Hinson (Big Giant Circles) recently organized a group of OCR faithful to attend, including Audix, Tweek and soon-to-be-posted newcomer Nekofrog. BGC originally met Tommy & Jack during the Washington, DC double header of Video Games Live last year. He had such a great time, he wanted to celebrate the Louisville show with a tribute mix to both VGL creators with a hybrid of two themes: one from Global Gladiators and one from Jade Empire, composed by Tallarico and Wall, respectively.

Tommy was the original composer for several OC ReMixes including another by BGC, 'OverClocked Spot.' Meanwhile, Jack was one of the original composers for DarkMessenger's Myst series ReMix 'Unraveling the Mystery', but wasn't listed as the primary composer, so Jimmy aimed to remedy that with this ReMix. The mix is split fairly evenly between a tune apiece from both games, hence Jimmy's title 'Global Empire.' It also could describe Video Games Live at this point: having performed over 60 shows and counting throughout the world, including many locations like Louisville that have never before hosted a game music concert, VGL has certainly been bringing VGM to the masses in a major way. Jimmy encouraged attendees of yesterday's Louisville concert to come by and check out this tribute to VGL's founders, so if this is your first time here in a while (or ever), welcome! Everything at OCR is freely available and tributes fellow game composers. Check out our torrents page if you want to obtain most of the music available from OCR in a few clicks.

On to the mix... while it's definitely cool to see Tommy's work on Global Gladiators get some attention, I'm even more pumped to see some Jade Empire love; this is Jack Wall at his finest, one of the very best Xbox scores out there, and a good example of modern, cinematic game scoring done right. I love Jack's work on the Myst games, but I could never get into that universe too much as a gamer, whereas Jade Empire is right up my alley. The sequel certainly has a lot to live up to, on multiple levels. Things intro with a series of pure, crystalline tones, as an undulating bass synth pattern emerges with forceful ethnic drums, leading up to the appearance of an ensemble string motif over brass chords, with faster, filtered beatwork. Love the low brass action a bit later on - very dramatic, and juxtaposes well over the beat, which widens out a bit. This mix has some great transitions - from minute to minute it can sound VERY different, but it's so well integrated and merges/breaks are so well handled that it still feels like one big piece. The emphasis on guitar and acoustic drums towards the end, as the initial string motif restates itself and helps bring things full circle, is icing on the cake. As is the wah-ish synth soloing. As are quite a few other things - neither BGC, Audix, or Tweek are what I'd call minimalist ReMixers, and by the time they finished with this one, it seems like everything AND the kitchen sink was thrown in. While there's tons of ideas and content here, and while they had a somewhat abbreviated schedule to get it done in time for VGL, it nevertheless feels both cohesive and polished. This is a great arrangement that very creatively mixes two sources and makes them sound as if they were originally written for the same game, which is pretty awesome in and of itself, but also throws in tons of variety, technique, attention to detail, and groove. A great homage to two game composers who continue to change the face of VGM as we know it while having a blast at the same time, and a wonderful collaboration between three mixers who, from the sound of it, also had a pretty damn good time themselves with this stylistic romp.

― djpretzel