Final Fantasy V: The Fabled Warriors ~II. WATER~ Comments from album director Shariq Ansari (DarkeSword), visual artist Maya Petersen (rnn), and ReMixers Album freely available at http://ff5.ocremix.org Well, here it is, at long last. Kind of unbelievable that this is finally coming out. So why'd this thing take so long? What happened? Well, a lot happened, actually. I bought a house and moved out of my parents' place. I started taking on more stuff at work. OCR got involved with the fighting game community and I started directing albums for tournaments. I started running my own remixing tournaments on OCR for series like Mega Man, and, speaking of Mega Man, I even worked with Capcom to direct OCR's first commercial album. But with all this stuff going on, I also hit roadblocks creatively as a musician. I was still putting out tracks for the FGC albums, but I wanted my Mystic Knight track on this album to be something really great and bigger than what I'd done before. So I put things off until I could find time, and when I found time I couldn't make it work creatively, and then I'd get busy again. Finally, it just got to be too much, and I said "I need to be able to tell people at MAGFest that it's done." So I sat down and, for a few nights in the week leading up to MAGFest, I pushed through all the creative roadblocks and finally got the track out. But of course, this album series is way more than my dumb track that took way too long to write. It's filled with awesome music from a really talented bunch of guys. I'm grateful that they've been so patient with me, and I'm happy that you're all going to finally hear their awesome arrangements. Now that WATER is finally out, we're going to move on to putting together Volume III: FIRE. I've got big plans, and while it would be irresponsible of me to promise a release date, I will say that after everything I've learned about running all these albums over the years, things are going to move along at a better pace. Keep an eye out, and in the meantime, enjoy The Fabled Warriors: Volume II: WATER. - Shariq Ansari (DarkeSword) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Album Artwork The album art for WATER represents a total rebranding of The Fabled Warriors as an album series. It's been over five years since WIND was released, and in that time I've met and become great friends with Maya (rnn), who at this point holds the record for most album art for OC ReMix albums and has actually joined the staff as our art coordinator. WIND's cover art wasn't bad, but there were a lot of things going on that, looking back, made the whole thing too busy. The giant crystal, the character portraits, the too-official-looking Final Fantasy logo. I wanted to switch gears and go for something more striking. Maya and I talked about doing a single character portrait on each volume, featuring the playable characters of the game. I wanted the character art to have a sketchier, rougher quality, because I had seen a lot of Maya's in-progress work and found the un-inked sketch work really appealing as an aesthetic. We also settled on the idea of placing each character portrait on an original circular mandala setting inspired by the element. Maya also designed these by hand, and once all of the drawing was done, we were able to use some textures to give the backgrounds more life. The album art for WIND is going to be updated in the future to match what we did for WATER, and FIRE, EARTH, and DAWN are going to follow a similar formula. I'm very excited at how good these albums are going to look. In the meantime, please enjoy the beautiful cover art for WATER. - Shariq Ansari (DarkeSword) Having heard Shariq's tracks, a few words came to mind -- gentle, dreamlike, and a little exotic. While doing some research on the character, I saw Yoshitaka Amano's original drawings of Lenna and thought they embodied these qualities, as well as her element, with their flowing, elegant forms. I knew I had to incorporate his version into my own Lenna while still referencing her in-game appearance. On another note, it is curious to me that, despite her association with water, Lenna's color palette consists mostly of warm, sunny hues. I hope the end result gives off a feeling akin to the warm sun reflected on the water's shining surface. Thank you, friends at OverClocked ReMix, for inviting me to collaborate with you again on another fine album! - Maya Petersen (rnn) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Sixto Sounds - "La Princesa de Taikun ~Theme of Lenna~" Source: "Lenna's Theme" DarkeSword: What an unexpected treat! For a remixer known for hard-hitting rock, Sixto certainly switched things up with this gorgeous chip-infused mariachi number. I love the blend of the trumpet and acoustic guitar with white-noise percussion and square waves. Absolutely amazing. Sixto Sounds: it's lenna's theme and i decided to try my hand at a mariachi-styled mix. though i have been in mariachi bands before for years, i had never tried writing or recording in the style myself. it was pretty fun and i think i will try it more often. 2. Mazedude - "Micker Cripper Mime ~Theme of Mime~" Source: "Moogles' Theme" DarkeSword: Love the weird textures running throughout this entire piece. There's a great pulse to the track with the really squared-off swing and filtered percussion that seems to be dancing all over the place. Really odd and beautiful sound. The Mime may be a mimic, but this one's totally unique. Mazedude: I rather enjoy doing obscure stylistic homages to the trackers that inspired me as a teen. This track is one such homage, to legendary tracker Mick Rippon. The sounds, the dark silliness, the general flavor... it's Mazedude, plus Mick Rippon, plus Final Fantasy. It's pretty out there, but I trust you'll enjoy it. 3. halc - "The Observer ~Theme of Time Mage~" Source: "Cursed Lands" DarkeSword: When I talked to halc about this track, I wanted the Time Mage's theme to play with time effects and meter. What halc did was take a more straightforward approach to the track, and give us something that ostensibly feels very fast and driving, but at the same time, there's a wonderful half-time pulse to the song that keeps things methodical. Beautiful bells and chippy textures over wubby basslines and drums keep us on our toes and guessing whether we're moving things along quickly or taking our time. Fantastic. halc: This was my first dubstep from way back around 2011 and was written to personify the Time Mage job class. Time Mages are described to have the ability to bend time to their will, so I tried to sorta visualize this by changing the time signatures as the song progresses. Props to DarkeSword and all the artists involved for finally getting this thing out the door and for inviting me to be a part of it. I'm proud of this tune and I'm excited for people to finally have an opportunity to hear it. ^____^ 4. DarkeSword - "A Silver Light Shines ~Theme of Mystic Knight~" Source: "Dungeon" DarkeSword: The "Dungeon" theme (better known as "Fate in Haze") is, in my opinion, one of Final Fantasy V's most iconic themes. When you first go into that cave and that harp arpeggio starts up, it feels really mysterious, like there's way more going on in this cave than meets the eye, and then those classic SNES strings start swelling, building the tension and leading us into this wonderful descending flute melody. This is the one. This is the track I've been working on for so long, and part of the reason that WATER has taken such a long time to come out. I've always had such a specific vision of how I wanted to capture the theme of the Mystic Knight job, and the mysterious feeling of "Fate in Haze" was perfect for that. For this remix, I used a lot of Middle Eastern, Indian, and African instruments; duduk, santoor, tabla, djembe, and a special string section. The entire piece was originally meant to use a lot more in the way of Middle Eastern-sounding modes and harmonies, which I think was what was tripping me up for such a long time. The darker sound is still prevalent in the opening section, but after having so much trouble adapting the B-section of the source, I decided to dig in and try something a little brighter. Once I stopped trying to force the music into my own vision and just let it take me where it was going to go, I found it a lot easier to bring everything together. I'm very proud of this remix. It might be one of my favorites, right up there with "A Deus ex Harpa (Second Seal Mix)" and "Thicket." It's the culmination of many years of effort, and I'm glad people are finally able to hear it. 5. prophetik music - "Remembrance ~Theme of Cid~" Source: "Sorrows of Parting" DarkeSword: I love how this piece evolves and changes as it progresses. The drums are going rapid fire sometimes, but still in a very muted way, providing a complex bed over which we get a great electronic take on the source material. Great syncopation in the percussion with lots of flowy, moving melodic stuff. prophetik music: i have never actually played ffv, although bardicknowledge keeps telling me to. i got in on this one because i liked the sound of the track and wanted to remix something on the project. i was just starting to experiment with using loops for drums instead of doing everything by hand, and this was a handy project to learn with. i think the most challenging thing with this was trying to fit this other style that i've never really worked with into a track that pretty different. i hope everyone enjoys it! 6. Sixto Sounds feat. Jeff Ball - "BZKR ~Theme of Berserker~" Source: "Battle 1" DarkeSword: Well, this is what we expect from Sixto, isn't it? A pretty straightforward rock take on a classic Final Fantasy V track, but no less awesome. Sixto's guitars are crunchy and driving, providing an excellent background for featured violinist Jeff Ball's great performance of the melody. Sometimes simple and straightforward works best, and this is no exception. Sixto Sounds: A simple rock arrangement of FFV's "Battle Theme" with some really awesome violins by Jeff Ball. 7. Brandon Strader - "Eternal ~Theme of Red Mage~" Source: "Unknown Lands" DarkeSword: Can't have a Final Fantasy album without Brandon Strader, right? Brandon was kind enough to participate in an open call I'd made for remixes years ago to fill out the Red Mage theme. I was looking for something that mixed electronic and acoustic elements (representing the Black and White magic that the Red Mage uses), and Brandon delivered wonderfully. A great driving acoustic rhythm over which electronic elements can play. Keep an eye out for that swing section. Love it. Brandon Strader: Final Fantasy V is the one FF game I finished on the SNES. It had all the great things: story, characters, music, graphics. To actually be able to remix "Unknown Lands" for a/the FFV album (one of them!?) for OCR is pretty awesome, and I consider myself pretty lucky to be involved, and it's such a happy time to see this album emerge from the swampy underbelly of album limbo after all these years. Mixing acoustic stuff with chip sounds is really difficult because of the opposing levels of presence, so it's a constant fight between what sound is upfront and what sound is organic, and making them all sit together. I guess the mix was good enough, so enjoy! :) 8. RiverSound - "The Wander ~Theme of Summoner~" Source: "A New World" DarkeSword: Markus came out of nowhere for me; the guy PMed me begging to be on the next volume of The Fabled Warriors after WIND came out. Usually, I'm wary of relative unknowns cold-calling me about album participation, but once he sent me a sample of his work, the tables were turned and I was begging the guy to be on the album. The idea behind the Summoner's theme was to do something big and sweeping, suggesting another place where the summoned originate. Markus KILLED it on this track. I love Celtic music but I never imagined we'd get something so organic and beautiful on the album. The main part of the arrangement is lyrically gorgeous, but then he closes it out with a wonderful rhythmic section. Fantastic work. RiverSound: Be it coincidence, be it fate -- when I first contacted Shariq about a song I had made with the third part of the Fabled Warriors, FIRE, in mind, he mentioned he also needed someone to cover the Summoner-theme for WATER. I immediately saw potential in arranging it in Celtic style, something I've always wanted to try. With that in mind, I chose the Merged World theme as the source; its eerie and otherworldly atmosphere seemed to match the theme of Summoner like a glove. So what set out as a plain and simple Celtic arrangement eventually grew into progressive, orchestrated Celtic-folk complete with live accordion, guitars, melodica, tin whistle, mandolin and violin -- the most instruments I have ever used in a single song. I think they all contribute nicely to the mystical and magical elements of the Summoner. To close the song out, I wanted something epic: A bombastic Polska section. It's a traditional Scandinavian family of music and I'm a huge fan of it. I was fortunate enough to get a violin virtuoso friend of mine to play the part and the awesomeness that ensued was overwhelming -- you just gotta love live violin mastery. Many thanks to him and my other friends who helped me along the way. To me, creating awesome music is not a 1-man project, but a collaboration of many talented people. The name of the song refers not only to the summoned creatures who must undertake a journey through worlds to aid the Summoner in battle, but also the musical variety and development from warm and subtle acoustic beginnings to orchestrated and bombastic climax. Hope you enjoy my most ambitious piece of music to date. 9. DarkeSword - "See You Next Time ~WATER~" Source: "The Prelude" DarkeSword: This version of "The Prelude" is inspired in part by some of the Indian film music by famed composer A. R. Rahman. He's used water splashes as percussion before as well as that kind of simple tabla line that everything weaves around. Separate from video game music, I have a big appreciation for Indian film music, having grown up in an Indian household. I hunted down some free water samples and built the track up around the sounds of splashing and flowing water. Some sitar, harp, and choir helps create a flowing, pulsating texture. Hope you enjoy. See you next time.