RPGamers Network > Reviews > Game Music Reviews > Project Majestic Mix: A Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu (Gold Edition)
Reviewed by: Kie
Who likes Squaresoft remixes? Of course you do. Well, here's a bunch for ya. Project Majestic Mix is basically a two disc album full of Final Fantasy remixes created by the awesome people at Overclocked Remix, VGMix and other mixing sites. To tell you the truth I don't actually own this album unlike my other ones, but I have managed to get the music via another source. Now, the remixes are not just from Final Fantasy games as a quick glance of the playlist would probably say, buuut the majority are. There's a Chrono Trigger one in there for reasons beyond my knowledge, because Nobuo Uematsu did not do the Chrono Trigger soundtrack. But with that noted, we'll take a look at a few of the better tracks (although most of the album is brilliant and choosing the tracks to review was very hard)
Track 2 is a remix of the Final Fantasy I Main Theme as the name clearly points out. It is remixed by JAXX (who did remixes such as 'All in One Day' and 'Not Alone in the World') and Ailsean (known for his 'Terra in Black' and 'Dancing Mad Once Again' remixes). Clearly, it's the shortest song and starts off with a fast paced guitar and drum piece followed by the theme in a fairly high pitched distorted guitar. It's then followed by a rock piece which flows into the theme...a little slower, but awesome all the same. It catches the peaceful type of music preferred by JAXX while still including that rock element and all the while making the song sound a damn lot better than the original. Good stuff.
Battle with Gilgamesh is a stunning piece of remixing which definitely makes it one of the best on the album easily. Remixed by Chris Tilton, it's a very upbeat version of the original, but it catches all the cool parts just right. At 1:18, the instruments change completely into some weird distorted notes followed by an awesome church organ around 1:48. It goes a tad quiet with some voices as the notes before coming in with some awesome drum-like beating and a slow piano version of the tune. The next part is a real highlight of the song, doing a sort of Metal Gear-like part before trumpets emerge. Awesome part. It's basically just active all the way through and keeps the people listening.
Track 9 is a pretty damn good version of FFVII's Anxious Heart done by Jan Van Valburg and Stephen Kennedy. It starts softly with little voices doing the tune then follows with a surprisingly upbeat main part from 0:59. The main instruments in the theme are just synths and percussion, but it still sounds pretty good. At 2:07, the first part of the tune comes in with a cool little electric guitar piece as an add-on. It goes on with the synths and then lets the guitar do some of the actual tune. I must say the best part is after 4:32 when the awesome electric guitar does a solo while the tune plays. Great stuff there. After that it's simply soft vocals of ahhs that finish the song off. Nice.
I almost reviewed Seymour's Theme, but when I remembered that Man with the Machine Gun (remixed by Jan Van Valburg) was straight afterwards, I chose this instead, because the tune and remix is far superior. The song builds up with the first part of the song until 0:52 when it comes into cool synths and a fast percussion. I like the instrument used at 1:32, though I have no idea what it is...sounds kind of like a deep organ. Anyway, it's cool and the song goes on with the remixed theme until basically the end, using the same instruments. Granted, it gets a little repetitive, but it's got a cool beat.
Recognize the time? Yes, this version of You're Not Alone is the same length as the original. Arranged by Dale North and Sean Stone, it is by far the coolest track on the album. I lost count of how many different guitar they use in it, but it seriously just sounds awesome. Even if you don't like Final Fantasy music, you'll like this. It starts off with the main tune with an acoustic guitar which is soon joined by an acoustic/electric guitar. The tune goes again and it's a bass guitar with a pure electric guitar. At 0:57 it starts to get awesome, with a bass, acoustic and two electrics playing at once with a piano solo in the background. The most awesome part in the track and album is definitely when the two electric guitars take over around and after 1:33-1:50. The song then slows down into a high pitched rock guitar and then the piano comes back with the two rock guitars finishing the song off. One could argue it's not the best 'arrangement' in the album, but they sure as hell made it sound good.
The last track on disc one is a Prelude remix, arranged by Sean Stone, from the previous track. It starts off tame enough, sounding like the original, with a little beat added in. At 0:41 the electric guitar arrives as typical of Ailsean, though it is just soft for a bit. It does the main tune until 1:22 when a stronger guitar takes over. It's got a back up rock guitar playing just for that bit extra. I like the way it's put together, really decent work here. Also as typical of Ailsean, there's a solo in the song. Starting at 2:52, what sounds like a flute but isn't (e-mail me if ya know) goes for about 30 seconds in a pretty alright piece, then it goes back to many more guitars and that's the awesome part in the song. It finishes with the tune playing but too sound effects of static with a soft guitar playing. All round good.
On to disc two now and the first decent track is Forever Rachel, remixed by Chris Tilton. The start sound fairly bland and just average to me, but it does go into a nice quick solo at 0:24 - 0:33 which becomes the background bass you could say. I like the use of orchestrated instruments for the main tune here. It's all good. The tune is played better than the original. At 2:18, the song basically changes a bit, the military drums arrive and it gets serious for a sec but then back to the orchestration. The drawback to this song is the drawback to most orchestrations, it's too quiet in places. An instrument should play at all times, not just group them all together at one loud finale like this song did. But it's still alright.
Balamb GARDEN is another pretty decent remix but lacks depth to be the best (no offense to Stephen Kennedy, who mixed this, or any other artists on disc two, but the first disc of Majestic Mix is much better than the second in all ways). The song, basically all the way through, uses an acoustic guitar as the bass, but the surprise comes from the male voice that does the main theme. There's whistling solos in it too. The male voices make the song a little depressing which is quite the opposite of what Balamb Garden is in the game, so it's just a big change for me, but I do like the way it's mixed. The variety of instruments does make it good if you didn't like the original.
Moving on to the One Winged Angel remix by Randy Brown. You can't really not like the original, but if you don't, you'll still like this. I love the use of violin in this. The violin always symbolizes evil and eerie times, so it works well. The song itself doesn't start until 1:30 but before then is a cool female voice with background voices, which make it all the more strange. Then it gets into the stronger drums and trumpets for the tune itself. As in all OWA remixes, there's high strings as well. Basically, the tune goes over and over, just alternating the instruments with quiet instrument canons, which sort of brings it down a tad. Solos always work, just not that type. Good all up.
Probably Stephen Kennedy's best solo work here, Compression of Time is my favourite disc two track. It keeps very serious throughout the track, and sounds ten times better than the original. It starts with male voices chanting, then goes straight into the cool part of the normal tune, skipping the boring parts of the original to catch attention. A clean violin is used for the tune with the voices as back-up sound, it sounds almost sad. It sounds brilliant if you listen carefully. At 1:31, it quietens off a little and focuses on some voices a little, before going into the original's bridge, which sounds awesome at 2:27 with added strings to help louden it all up. Probably the best part in the song, as it quietens down again around 3 minutes and finishes soft. Nice.
The last track is Forever Rachel (Remix) and is a trance remix of the Forever Rachel theme. I'd say it's the only trance on the album but it's the second longest track so that's alright. It starts off with heavy drums leading into trance instruments and then a full blast off the tune with the instruments at around 1 minute. It then stops doing trance for a little while just doing the theme as remixes do, before doing as expected in trance and mixing the non-trance theme with the trance background, *sighs* predictable, but it's ok. As with all trances, it tends to drag on a bit, one part going for about 30 seconds before hitting the theme again. The song stops for a few seconds near 4:40, then right back to the same tune. A mix of trance and something else with a solo in it would have made this great.
Summing it up, if you get a chance to buy it, and you get 10 bucks off by getting just the first disc, do it. I mean, disc two is okay, but everything in it sounds rushed barring tracks 2 and 9. The album itself though, is a definite must-buy. If you're like me, and can't find it anywhere, get it another way, it really is great work by the remixers.
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| Album Information | Reviewer Rank |
|---|---|
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Project Majestic Mix: A Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu (Gold Edition) Published by: KFSS Studios Release Date: June 22nd 2002 Composed by: Nobuo Uematsu Arranged by: Mustin, JAXX, Ailsean, Dale North, Chris Tilton, Stephen Kennedy, Jonathan Geer, Chris Strom, Nathan McLeod, David Embree, Jan van Valburg, McVaffe, Randy Brown, Matt Stofferahn, Mister G, FFMusicDJ 2 Discs, 28 Tracks Catalog: KFSS-701 |
90 |
Reviewed by: Kie
Who likes Squaresoft remixes? Of course you do. Well, here's a bunch for ya. Project Majestic Mix is basically a two disc album full of Final Fantasy remixes created by the awesome people at Overclocked Remix, VGMix and other mixing sites. To tell you the truth I don't actually own this album unlike my other ones, but I have managed to get the music via another source. Now, the remixes are not just from Final Fantasy games as a quick glance of the playlist would probably say, buuut the majority are. There's a Chrono Trigger one in there for reasons beyond my knowledge, because Nobuo Uematsu did not do the Chrono Trigger soundtrack. But with that noted, we'll take a look at a few of the better tracks (although most of the album is brilliant and choosing the tracks to review was very hard)
Track 2 is a remix of the Final Fantasy I Main Theme as the name clearly points out. It is remixed by JAXX (who did remixes such as 'All in One Day' and 'Not Alone in the World') and Ailsean (known for his 'Terra in Black' and 'Dancing Mad Once Again' remixes). Clearly, it's the shortest song and starts off with a fast paced guitar and drum piece followed by the theme in a fairly high pitched distorted guitar. It's then followed by a rock piece which flows into the theme...a little slower, but awesome all the same. It catches the peaceful type of music preferred by JAXX while still including that rock element and all the while making the song sound a damn lot better than the original. Good stuff.
Battle with Gilgamesh is a stunning piece of remixing which definitely makes it one of the best on the album easily. Remixed by Chris Tilton, it's a very upbeat version of the original, but it catches all the cool parts just right. At 1:18, the instruments change completely into some weird distorted notes followed by an awesome church organ around 1:48. It goes a tad quiet with some voices as the notes before coming in with some awesome drum-like beating and a slow piano version of the tune. The next part is a real highlight of the song, doing a sort of Metal Gear-like part before trumpets emerge. Awesome part. It's basically just active all the way through and keeps the people listening.
Track 9 is a pretty damn good version of FFVII's Anxious Heart done by Jan Van Valburg and Stephen Kennedy. It starts softly with little voices doing the tune then follows with a surprisingly upbeat main part from 0:59. The main instruments in the theme are just synths and percussion, but it still sounds pretty good. At 2:07, the first part of the tune comes in with a cool little electric guitar piece as an add-on. It goes on with the synths and then lets the guitar do some of the actual tune. I must say the best part is after 4:32 when the awesome electric guitar does a solo while the tune plays. Great stuff there. After that it's simply soft vocals of ahhs that finish the song off. Nice.
I almost reviewed Seymour's Theme, but when I remembered that Man with the Machine Gun (remixed by Jan Van Valburg) was straight afterwards, I chose this instead, because the tune and remix is far superior. The song builds up with the first part of the song until 0:52 when it comes into cool synths and a fast percussion. I like the instrument used at 1:32, though I have no idea what it is...sounds kind of like a deep organ. Anyway, it's cool and the song goes on with the remixed theme until basically the end, using the same instruments. Granted, it gets a little repetitive, but it's got a cool beat.
Recognize the time? Yes, this version of You're Not Alone is the same length as the original. Arranged by Dale North and Sean Stone, it is by far the coolest track on the album. I lost count of how many different guitar they use in it, but it seriously just sounds awesome. Even if you don't like Final Fantasy music, you'll like this. It starts off with the main tune with an acoustic guitar which is soon joined by an acoustic/electric guitar. The tune goes again and it's a bass guitar with a pure electric guitar. At 0:57 it starts to get awesome, with a bass, acoustic and two electrics playing at once with a piano solo in the background. The most awesome part in the track and album is definitely when the two electric guitars take over around and after 1:33-1:50. The song then slows down into a high pitched rock guitar and then the piano comes back with the two rock guitars finishing the song off. One could argue it's not the best 'arrangement' in the album, but they sure as hell made it sound good.
The last track on disc one is a Prelude remix, arranged by Sean Stone, from the previous track. It starts off tame enough, sounding like the original, with a little beat added in. At 0:41 the electric guitar arrives as typical of Ailsean, though it is just soft for a bit. It does the main tune until 1:22 when a stronger guitar takes over. It's got a back up rock guitar playing just for that bit extra. I like the way it's put together, really decent work here. Also as typical of Ailsean, there's a solo in the song. Starting at 2:52, what sounds like a flute but isn't (e-mail me if ya know) goes for about 30 seconds in a pretty alright piece, then it goes back to many more guitars and that's the awesome part in the song. It finishes with the tune playing but too sound effects of static with a soft guitar playing. All round good.
On to disc two now and the first decent track is Forever Rachel, remixed by Chris Tilton. The start sound fairly bland and just average to me, but it does go into a nice quick solo at 0:24 - 0:33 which becomes the background bass you could say. I like the use of orchestrated instruments for the main tune here. It's all good. The tune is played better than the original. At 2:18, the song basically changes a bit, the military drums arrive and it gets serious for a sec but then back to the orchestration. The drawback to this song is the drawback to most orchestrations, it's too quiet in places. An instrument should play at all times, not just group them all together at one loud finale like this song did. But it's still alright.
Balamb GARDEN is another pretty decent remix but lacks depth to be the best (no offense to Stephen Kennedy, who mixed this, or any other artists on disc two, but the first disc of Majestic Mix is much better than the second in all ways). The song, basically all the way through, uses an acoustic guitar as the bass, but the surprise comes from the male voice that does the main theme. There's whistling solos in it too. The male voices make the song a little depressing which is quite the opposite of what Balamb Garden is in the game, so it's just a big change for me, but I do like the way it's mixed. The variety of instruments does make it good if you didn't like the original.
Moving on to the One Winged Angel remix by Randy Brown. You can't really not like the original, but if you don't, you'll still like this. I love the use of violin in this. The violin always symbolizes evil and eerie times, so it works well. The song itself doesn't start until 1:30 but before then is a cool female voice with background voices, which make it all the more strange. Then it gets into the stronger drums and trumpets for the tune itself. As in all OWA remixes, there's high strings as well. Basically, the tune goes over and over, just alternating the instruments with quiet instrument canons, which sort of brings it down a tad. Solos always work, just not that type. Good all up.
Probably Stephen Kennedy's best solo work here, Compression of Time is my favourite disc two track. It keeps very serious throughout the track, and sounds ten times better than the original. It starts with male voices chanting, then goes straight into the cool part of the normal tune, skipping the boring parts of the original to catch attention. A clean violin is used for the tune with the voices as back-up sound, it sounds almost sad. It sounds brilliant if you listen carefully. At 1:31, it quietens off a little and focuses on some voices a little, before going into the original's bridge, which sounds awesome at 2:27 with added strings to help louden it all up. Probably the best part in the song, as it quietens down again around 3 minutes and finishes soft. Nice.
The last track is Forever Rachel (Remix) and is a trance remix of the Forever Rachel theme. I'd say it's the only trance on the album but it's the second longest track so that's alright. It starts off with heavy drums leading into trance instruments and then a full blast off the tune with the instruments at around 1 minute. It then stops doing trance for a little while just doing the theme as remixes do, before doing as expected in trance and mixing the non-trance theme with the trance background, *sighs* predictable, but it's ok. As with all trances, it tends to drag on a bit, one part going for about 30 seconds before hitting the theme again. The song stops for a few seconds near 4:40, then right back to the same tune. A mix of trance and something else with a solo in it would have made this great.
Summing it up, if you get a chance to buy it, and you get 10 bucks off by getting just the first disc, do it. I mean, disc two is okay, but everything in it sounds rushed barring tracks 2 and 9. The album itself though, is a definite must-buy. If you're like me, and can't find it anywhere, get it another way, it really is great work by the remixers.
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